Cultural, Education, Entertainment, Local, News

Museum of Ventura County — Virgencitas Now Open, Call for Volunteers, Free First Sunday, and more!

by Community Contributor • December 20, 2019 • Comments Off

Call for Volunteers!

January 24—26, 2020

We are excited for the recently announced Albinger Archaeological Museum’s 40th Anniversaryevent scheduled for Friday, January 24th — Sunday, January 26, 2020. Come celebrate our county’s history and become a part of our museum family and volunteer! We need volunteers to make this an incredible event and there are plenty of opportunities to do so.

If you are interested please contact our Volunteer Coordinator Liisa Pynnonen at LPynnonen@venturamuseum.org or call (805) 653-0323 x 310.

We are always looking to make connections in our community and one of the ways that happens is through the people that volunteer. We are so appreciative of our volunteers; we couldn’t exist without them.

Virgencitas On Display

at the Agriculture Museum

December 14, 2019—February 15, 2020

During the Las Posadas celebration at the Agriculture Museum this past Saturday, the Museum unveiled the Virgencitas exhibit. This exhibit showcases a select group of artistic interpretations of Mary in a variety of mediums from artists in and around Ventura County. Those artists include Xavier Montes, Ray Cirerol, Syliva Raz, Gayel Childress, Heriberto Luna and Graciela Gandara, J. Michael Walker, and Ricardo Flores.

Mary, the virgin mother of Jesus is venerated in several different roles. She is known by many names including Our Lady, Blessed Mother, La Virgen Morena, Empress of the Americas, Tonantizin. No matter how we refer to her, the Virgen Mary has been a symbol of hope, protection and comfort to those who follow her. She has served as daughter, cousin, wife, mother, and bereaved parent. Her life story has been a link between heaven and earth. She is very much a part of the lives of those who revere her. She can take the form of an iconographic symbol in the home, a cry for help in times of trouble or illness, or a blessing given by a grandmother as protection against harm. Virgencitas is on display at the Agriculture Museum in Santa Paula now through February 15, 2020.

Are you a member of the Museum of Ventura County? Explore, discover and celebrate at the Museum everyday for free!

Become a member today and enjoy benefits that include free or discounted admission to events, lectures, and classes, advanced notice of all events and exhibits, invitation to annual Member events, and more!

The Journal of

Ventura County

Roll Over The Ranchos

The Museum of Ventura County is pleased to announce that copies of the Journal of Ventura County’s newest edition, Volume 61 containing “Roll Over the Ranchos” and “The Wet Winter of 1884”, are now available for sale in the Museum’s store!

Originally published in 1955, these stories have been updated with additional photographs and both “A Roll Over the Ranchos” and “The Wet Winter of 1884” have been enhanced with updated footnotes, including biographical information and additional footnotes to help the reader place the geographic references and the people in that long ago time. The Journal is made possible by the generosity of Jim Holden, Linda Hadlen, Grace Brandt, and Mary Stewart.

The journal is available for purchase for $10 in the museum store and the e-book version is available for purchase exclusively through Amazon.

Free First Sunday at the Ag: Scientific Art Crafts

January 5, 2020 @ 12—2PM Participate in family-friendly, interactive science and art activities at the Agriculture Museum in Santa Paula! Hands-on programming will be led by museum educators. Admission to the museum and activity is FREE!

Read more
venturamuseum.org

Camerata Pacifica: Beethoven, Nielsen & Dvorak

January 12, 2020 @ 3—5PM Tickets are on-sale now! Join Camerata Pacifica at the Museum for an afternoon of Beethoven, Nielsen & Dvorak.

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venturamuseum.org

California Cool Lecture Series & Documentary Screening

January 25, 2020 @ 2—4PM Join us for an insightful panel discussion and documentary screening about modernist design, fine arts and crafts, and the creative individuals who made a lasting impact in design history.

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venturamuseum.org

California Cool: Mid-century Modernism on the Central Coast

Step back in time to a cooler and more sophisticated era of design. This new exhibit explores the popular design movement in interior & graphic design, architecture, and urban development from 1945 to 1965.

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venturamuseum.org

Unbridled with the Compton Cowboys at the Ag

The latest exhibit to ride into the Agriculture Museum in Santa Paula is Compton Cowboys, a photo series documenting the work and mentorship of modern-day urban cowboys counseling at-risk youth in South Central Los Angeles.

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venturamuseum.org

Woven Earth

Woven Earth is now open! Displaying a wide range of hand-woven baskets from the Museum’s extensive collection, this new exhibit focuses on California’s native communities and the traditions involved in making these baskets.

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venturamuseum.org

Good Earth: Tilling the Soil at the Ag

The exhibit displays tilling equipment hand-picked from the Museum of Ventura County’s farm implements collection, on display in the Ag Museum’s beautiful native gardens. Good Earth: Tilling the Soil has been extended to April 5, 2020!

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venturamuseum.org

Throwing Shade at the Ag

Throwing Shade provides a simple, focused examination of the coast live oak tree and its woodland community of plants and animals. Discover how the oak survives wildfire, drought (hot and dry periods), and how it reproduces.

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venturamuseum.org

Alfredo Ramos Martínez: On Paper is on display at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art October 27, 2019 through February 9, 2020.

Alfredo Ramos Martínez (1871–1946) was a pivotal figure in the modernist development of Mexican art. He spent his formative years immersed in the artistic life of Paris, returning to Mexico in 1910 on the eve of the country’s Revolution. After becoming director of the famed Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, he established the nation’s first open air schools and encouraged his pupils to create work that captured observations of daily life. In 1929, Ramos Martínez and his family relocated to Los Angeles. For the next two decades, his subject matter focused on the people and culture of Mexico, with the artist receiving many notable mural commissions throughout Southern California. His canvases depict indigenous traditions, local crafts, and religious icons painted in striking hues of umber and sienna accented by bold highlights of color.

While Ramos Martínez was celebrated as a painter, some of his most iconic works of art were created on paper. Said to have always carried a Conté crayon in his pocket, the artist frequently drew on newspaper—the printed columns of text supporting totem-like figures of flower vendors. Working in combinations of gouache, charcoal, Conté crayon, and watercolor, he perfected a signature style in which forms were reduced to essentials to create a structural scaffolding across the paper’s surface. Alfredo Ramos Martínez: On Paper is an intimate exhibition of works from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s permanent collection. Comprising six drawings, as well as two serigraphs created by his wife María Sodi de Ramos Martínez after his death, the exhibition showcases the artist’s extraordinary draftsmanship, revealing the layered sensibility in his chosen themes.

Alfredo Ramos Martínez: On Paper is curated by Rachel Heidenry, Curatorial Assistant, Contemporary Art, and presented in both English and Spanish in the Works on Paper room of SBMA’s Ridley-Tree Gallery.