We’re excited to present you the culmination of five years of collective labor – published in the fall – we’re now celebrating and excited to share our publication with events in Mexico City, Los Angeles, Oaxaca City, Santa Maria, and Santa Barbara!
Join us on Saturday, February 28, 2026 from 7-10 pm at The Culver Hotel, Culver City for a conversation with the curators, artists, and contributors that made this publication possible!
MCASB is committed to transforming what a contemporary art museum can be, a place where community knowledge, embodied experience, and creative practice are not only welcomed but centered. As a part of our ongoing accountability work, we are opening the museum as a space for practices that nurture well-being, presence, and collective care.
Campaign match:
Gifts up to $250 will be matched by two anonymous donors until 12/31 to support the Roots & Branches Arts Fellowship – empowering emerging artists whose work is rooted in their cultural communities, nurturing the next generation of creative leaders in Santa Barbara
View this email in your browser Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara Supper Club Presents Dia De Los Muertos x Diwali Wednesday, October 22, 2025 A one night only collaboration celebrating 500 years of culinary exchange between Mexico and India…
Hello Community!
We had a blast spending time with you all this past Sunday at the opening reception of San Milano Drive! We want to thank you all for bringing the good vibes!
Big shoutout to our vendors who kept us fed, hydrated, and kept the jams flowing. Also a HUGE thanks to the amazing volunteers that made this event possible.
Special thanks to our media partners Santa Barbara Magazine, KCLU, and LUM Art Magazine.
If you haven’t seen Santa Barbara Independent’s Fall Arts Preview, read more about the exhibition.
We trust you have enjoyed the Surf Bayan Summer brought to us by the Santa Barbara Magazine’s collaboration with DJ Javier with this collectible artist special issue. We’re grateful to the Santa Barbara Magazine team and congratulate them on their 50th anniversary summer issue.
If you haven’t read DJ Javier’s story it’s not too late! Click the button below for the digital version of the magazine and keep those freewheeling beachy summer art vibes on deck just a little bit longer.
We’ve just started installation for DJ Javier: San Milano Drive and look forward to welcoming you back to the museum this fall!
With DJ Javier’s upcoming exhibition approaching dive into this amazing article about the artist behind the “cartoonish figures, bright colors, and catchy phrases.”
Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB) is thrilled to welcome our inaugural community artist in residence, Jodi De Marcos, for a four month studio residency offering her a shared creative workspace within the museum offices for her creative practice. De Marcos will co-produce with the museum two, six week courses of fashion focused classes this summer with proceeds to benefit future MCASB programs. Her residency will culminate with a dynamic multimedia art, fashion, and music experience, the details of which will be announced shortly.
There are still a few spots left to join us on Saturday May 3, departing Santa Barbara at 9:00 am.
Our LA adventure begins with a Pace gallery director guided tour of legendary Light and Space artist Robert Irwin In Los Angeles, an exhibition of work produced between 1960 and 1971, marking the first exhibition of Irwin’s work mounted by Pace since the artist’s death in 2023 and his first posthumous presentation in California. We’ll enjoy our boxed lunches in the gallery garden then head to Marciano Foundation for Lightscape: Doug Aitken, and a special screening of Aitken’s FRONTIER followed by a conversation between Ed Ruscha and Aitken. A very full and rewarding day of art and ideas – register here!
Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara Presents
The 2025 Art Awards
Mary Heebner
Dr. JoAnn Kuchera-Morin
Gabriela Ruiz
Manjari Sharma
Diana Thater
Join us for an evening of Cochineal Dye Demonstrations, Mezcal Tasting, and Delicious Oaxacan Cuisine at Sangre De Nopal artist Porfirio Gutierrez’s Studio in Ventura.
Funds raised will provide critical support for museum exhibitions and programs like Sangre de Nopal currently on view.
For further questions email hello@mcasantabarbara.org
You’re all welcome to join us on April 3rd for a FREE painting workshop with artist Champagne Smoke!
Champagne Smoke is an artist, author and educator bringing creativity to life through storytelling and immersive art experiences. As the visionary behind Lotus Dynasty, she merges African American and Asian influences, unveiling untold stories from the past and present. Through her work, she invites audiences to explore a world where culture, history, and imagination collide. Follow Champagne Smoke on Instagram @vivrantbloom to see more of her work!
Peppermint Parlor is across from Sephora!
Description:
Artists born during the era of the Free Trade Agreement, amidst financial crises, and under the rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party. Each of the creators featured here inhabit the rugged landscapes characteristic of the sacrifice zones in the global south. We will move away from the tropical paradise and the fantasy of ancestrally, focusing instead on a critique of hyper-consumption and the fetishization of the concept of nature.
Edgar Jahir Trujillo is an architect, researcher, and artist based in Oaxaca, Mexico. Three of his mixed-media paintings are featured in our current exhibition Sangre de Nopal/Blood of the Nopal: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Contemporary Art on view through April 27th at MCASB. His principal medium for his paintings and sculptural artworks is cochineal. He considers his practice as coexisting with the ancient red pigment and dyestuff, and intended to excite visual pleasure, disrupt conventional reflections on nature, while celebrating an equitable global ecology.
Exhibitions On View
Sangre de Nopal/Blood of the Nopal: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Contemporary Art is on view at MCASB until April 27, 2025
Sangre de Nopal/Blood of the Nopal: Tanya Aguiñiga & Porfirio Gutiérrez en Conversación/in Conversation at the Fowler at UCLA closes January 12, 2025
H??ng Ngô: Core Memory at MCASB Satellite at the Riviera Beach House has been extended through March, 2025
You are cordially invited!
Opening celebration: Sunday, October 6, 12:00 – 4:00 pm
12:15 pm – Exhibition walkthrough with curatorial team and artists
1:00 pm – Welcome
1:30 pm – Reception
2:00 pm – Live music by Banda de Viento San Jorge Río Frijol
The exhibition is made possible through a lead grant from Getty as part of the PST ART: Art & Science Collide initiative. Additional funding is provided by the David Bermant Foundation, and Randy & Sofia Greif.
Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara
653 Paseo Nuevo, The Arts Terrace, Santa Barbara, California
We hope you have been enjoying your summer thus far. We would like to share some exciting news with you:
MCASB is closed for summer holiday and for installation of our upcoming exhibition Sangre de Nopal/Blood of the Nopal: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Contemporary Art opening on Sunday, October 6, 12:00 – 4:00 pm.
Please note MCASB offices will reopen on September 3, 2024.
FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
Thursday, May 23, 2024
Doors open at 6:30pm
Join us to celebrate!
A theatrical concert composed by Martha Gonzalez and Virginia Grise, featuring Martha along with members of Quetzal. The concert, based on their recently released album, is directed by Kendra Ware, where stories are interwoven with songs about sharp shooters and earthmovers, helicopters in the sky, urban quarantines and women that fly—from Helena María Viramontes’ epic novel, Their Dogs Came with Them. Reception & Record Sale to follow at the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara.
Reception: Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara
Saturday, May 4, 4:00 – 6:00 pm
Join us for the launch party to celebrate the much anticipated issue seven of LUM Art Magazine! All are welcome!
Featured artists, writers, and contributors: Sandy Rodriguez, Sarah Rosalena, Madeleine Eve Ignon, Alex Lukas, Tom Pazderka, Kevin Clancy, Narsiso Martinez, Christina McPhee, Mayela Rodriguez, Evelyn Contreras, Anna May Wong, Ken Bortolazzo, Jane Hanedel, Teddy Nava, Julian Harake, James Glisson, Silvia Perea, Ricky Barajas, Sarah Cunningham, Kit Boise-Cassart, edited by Debra Herrick, and art directed by Arturo Heredia Soto.
We’ll be serving tamales, aguas frescas, pa-LUM-as thanks to Ysidro sake spritz, and other fun treats. No need to rsvp, just show up and bring your friends and family to join us in celebrating contemporary art and culture on California’s Central Coast!
Janna Ireland’s photographic practice is primarily concerned with the themes of family, home, and the expression of Black identity in American culture. In 2016, she began photographing structures designed by legendary Black architect Paul R. Williams. A collection of 250 of these photographs was published in the major 2020 monograph, Regarding Paul R. Williams: A Photographer’s View. These multiple aspects of Ireland’s work will be featured and interwoven across both venues.
Join us to celebrate life with Easter and spring season by painting at Paint at Paseo with Ita-Ink, a Santa Maria-based artist who loves to spread art in his community. By inspiring others to express themselves creatively, Ita-Ink will lead you through a 90-minute acrylic painting session designed for all ages and skill levels. All materials, including canvases, paints, aprons and brushes, are provided. Best of all, this monthly event is free!
View this email in your browser Please save the date for The Art Awards our new annual fall event to raise critical funds to support the important ongoing work of the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara to produce exhibitions and…
In this season of gratitude, from all of us at MCASB, we wish you a restorative and contemplative time with friends and family.
We would like to take this opportunity to emphasize MCASB’s commitment to working towards a more equitable and accessible museum for all of those who call Santa Barbara County and the Central Coast home. The work of systemic change within established institutions is hard, disruptive, and complicated, but we are committed to doing it. And we can’t do it without the help of the community, funders, and other non-profit organizations that support positive changes for the community. We believe strongly that today more than ever institutions of the arts should support collective community healing through art and cultural events.
Our combined programs for Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) seek to provide a more robust illustration of the true diversity of the Latinx experience in Santa Barbara County.
La combinación de nuestros programas para el Día de los Muertos pretende ofrecer una mejor ilustración de la verdadera diversidad de la experiencia Latinx en el condado de Santa Bárbara.
Recovering the knowledge of the past and the future
Lum Art Talk | In Conversation: Sarah Rosalena and Sandy Rodriguez
Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara
Friday, July 28
5–7pm
Exhibition Tour with Sandy Rodriguez:
Sandy Rodriguez — Unfolding Histories: 200 Years of Resistance
Art, Design & Architecture Museum, UC Santa Barbara
Saturday, July 29
12pm–2pm, Tour begins at 12pm
MCASB is honored to present a Poetry Night in partnership with the Santa Barbara County Office of Arts and Culture as part of our First Thursday events. The Laureate Series features local poets Lee Herrick, Madeline Miller, and special guest Solange Aguilar, hosted by Melinda Palacio (@poetpalacio).
MCASB tiene el honor de presentar una Noche de Poesía en colaboración con la Oficina de Arte y Cultura del Condado de Santa Bárbara como parte de nuestros eventos del Primer Jueves. La Laureate Series cuenta con poetas locales: Lee Herrick, Madeline Miller, y la invitada especial Solange Aguilar, presentada por Melinda Palacio (@poetpalacio).
Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara will reopen this month to provide contemporary art and community-focused programming — as it has done since its beginnings as the Contemporary Arts Forum in the 1970s. We invite everyone to take part in MCASB and our collective project of critical thinking, cultural literacy, risk-taking, and discovery.
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El Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Santa Bárbara reabrirá este mes para ofrecer arte contemporáneo y programación centrada en la comunidad, como lo ha hecho desde sus inicios como Foro de Arte Contemporáneo en la década de 1970. Invitamos a todos a participar en MCASB y nuestro proyecto colectivo de pensamiento crítico, conocimiento cultural, toma de riesgos y descubrimiento.
Sunday, March 12, 12pm – 4pm
Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara
653 Paseo Nuevo, Upper Arts Terrace
Santa Barbara
Join us at the museum for the opening of Guatemala based artist Antonio Pichillá Quiacaín’s video installation Tejiendo El Paisaje (Weaving The Landscape). Pichillá Quiacaín (Maya Tz ?utujil) explores Western traditions of abstraction combined with textile traditions from his Mayan family history.
Featured in the MCASB exhibition This Basic Asymmetry
Strongly influenced by growing up in LA’s San Fernando Valley to immigrant parents from Mexico, Ruiz’s practice is a reflection of the DIY work ethic she was raised under, the vibrancy of Mexican cultural and artistic traditions, and her exposure to subculture and fantasy at a young age as a means to escape the realities of daily life.
Immerse yourself in contemporary art at the MCASB Winter Art Sale and Holiday Party, tomorrow, Thursday, December 7th, from 4-7pm. Enjoy drinks and bites while admiring stunning works by talented artists. Rub shoulders with fellow enthusiasts and celebrate the season in style. Don’t miss this unforgettable experience.
Cameron Patricia Downey:
Orchid Blues
September 17 – December 23, 2023
Opening reception: September 17, 12–4pm
Dear valued supporters, members, friends, and community partners,
With heavy hearts, we write to inform you that after 47 years of service to the Santa Barbara community the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB) is no longer able to continue operating in its current form.
Since its inception in 1976 as the Contemporary Art Forum, MCASB has been a vital institution dedicated to the examination of the human condition. A safe space, supporting the voices and views of our community members, MCASB has provided a critical platform for the investigation of our pasts and our potential futures. From grassroots gatherings of artists and activists to educational programs created to support previously underserved communities within our county, MCASB has held at its core a person-first approach to service.
Adam Jahnke: Santa Barbara’s Department for Applied Geography
On view Thursday, July 7 to Sunday, July 17
MCASB, 653 Paseo Nuevo
MCASB is proud to present Santa Barbara’s Department for Applied Geography, an exhibition by Adam Jahnke. Through a reimagining of his bicycle experience in Southern California Jahnke has become interested in creating artworks that reflect and promote the bicycle as an avatar for art and life. This experience and framework are what he refers to as the Department Of Applied Geography (DOAG).
