Community Calendar

The community is invited to The Collection’s Día de los Muertos Altar, presented in partnership with the Oxnard Performing Arts Center Nonprofit (OPAC). Join the opening reception on Oct. 2 at 6 p.m. for live dance performances and special guest speakers as this year's multi-tiered altar adorned with candles, marigolds and ofrendas (offerings) is unveiled. The altar will be on display through Nov. 2, located between The Cheesecake Factory and Larsen's Grill.

The Collection would love to honor your loved one at the altar. Submit a photo of a deceased loved one by Friday, Sept. 25 at 6 p.m. and they will be included in the digital frame at the community altar. Photos can be submitted to https://form.jotform.com/252556264111148

Under the oaks, for four days in October, the Ojai Storytelling Festival brings some of the country’s most gifted storytellers to Ojai for a weekend of unforgettable live performances that are funny, moving, surprising, and wonderfully human.

If you've never been to a storytelling festival before, imagine a stand up comic, a TED talk, and campfire stories all rolled into one perfect weekend.vvThe weekend includes family-friendly events, adults only Naughty Tales, a free Thursday night concert at Sam’s Place, Saturday’s Story Shop Boutique, and special opportunities for kids, including free admission for children on Saturday from 10am-6pm.

Whether you’re a lifelong story lover or have never been to a storytelling festival before, this is one of those Ojai experiences you’ll be talking about long after the last story ends.

Hours:
Oct. 22: 1-10 pm
Oct. 23: 9:30 am-10 pm
Oct. 24: 8:30 am-10:30 pm
Oct. 25: 9-1 pm

The community is invited to The Collection’s Día de los Muertos Altar, presented in partnership with the Oxnard Performing Arts Center Nonprofit (OPAC). Join the opening reception on Oct. 2 at 6 p.m. for live dance performances and special guest speakers as this year's multi-tiered altar adorned with candles, marigolds and ofrendas (offerings) is unveiled. The altar will be on display through Nov. 2, located between The Cheesecake Factory and Larsen's Grill.

The Collection would love to honor your loved one at the altar. Submit a photo of a deceased loved one by Friday, Sept. 25 at 6 p.m. and they will be included in the digital frame at the community altar. Photos can be submitted to https://form.jotform.com/252556264111148

Vista: Selections from SLOMA’s Permanent Collection is an exhibition that looks back with gratitude and forward with hope. Taking up both the Nybak Gallery and the Gray Wing, SLOMA presents a selection of works from its Permanent Collection — works that have been entrusted to this institution’s care by local collectors, artists and their families who believed in the vital importance of the arts on the Central Coast. It is an important moment: the last exhibition of its kind in our current home at 1010 Broad Street before SLOMA expands into its new home on Higuera Street, opening in summer 2027. 1010 Broad will continue to be an important part of SLOMA’s identity, as it will take on new life centered on education and community collaboration. Vista is an opportunity to pause here, in these rooms, and celebrate the artists and individuals whose work and dedication have shaped this place across decades.

SLOMA traces its origins to the San Luis Obispo Art Association, founded in the 1950s. The Permanent Collection was conceived by longtime volunteer curator Arne Nybak — a staunch supporter of the visual arts and of this region’s artists since the early days of the Art Center in the 1960s and 1970s. The Board of Directors established the collection in 1998 as a testament to the artistic richness of the Central Coast and to honor Nybak’s decades of service. The artists represented here were dedicated to their practices, to the landscape around them, and to enduring traditions of plein air painting, figure drawing, and working from life. This exhibition is an homage to them and their creative vision.

Under the oaks, for four days in October, the Ojai Storytelling Festival brings some of the country’s most gifted storytellers to Ojai for a weekend of unforgettable live performances that are funny, moving, surprising, and wonderfully human.

If you've never been to a storytelling festival before, imagine a stand up comic, a TED talk, and campfire stories all rolled into one perfect weekend.vvThe weekend includes family-friendly events, adults only Naughty Tales, a free Thursday night concert at Sam’s Place, Saturday’s Story Shop Boutique, and special opportunities for kids, including free admission for children on Saturday from 10am-6pm.

Whether you’re a lifelong story lover or have never been to a storytelling festival before, this is one of those Ojai experiences you’ll be talking about long after the last story ends.

Hours:
Oct. 22: 1-10 pm
Oct. 23: 9:30 am-10 pm
Oct. 24: 8:30 am-10:30 pm
Oct. 25: 9-1 pm

The community is invited to The Collection’s Día de los Muertos Altar, presented in partnership with the Oxnard Performing Arts Center Nonprofit (OPAC). Join the opening reception on Oct. 2 at 6 p.m. for live dance performances and special guest speakers as this year's multi-tiered altar adorned with candles, marigolds and ofrendas (offerings) is unveiled. The altar will be on display through Nov. 2, located between The Cheesecake Factory and Larsen's Grill.

The Collection would love to honor your loved one at the altar. Submit a photo of a deceased loved one by Friday, Sept. 25 at 6 p.m. and they will be included in the digital frame at the community altar. Photos can be submitted to https://form.jotform.com/252556264111148

As part of NambaArts' 2026 Playwright's SPLASH Festival, I SUCK will be presented on October 24 at 7 pm. Tickets are $20 online at NambaArts.com and $25 at the door at 47 So. Oak St. in Historic Downtown Ventura.

Stan has been a vampire for over a thousand years, and he’s terrible at it. While other vampires live in castles and accumulate wealth, Stan is stuck in a dead-end job as a middle manager in Toledo, living paycheck to paycheck, haunted by centuries of catastrophically bad decisions. His latest crisis? He can no longer bring himself to kill people. After realizing he feels a kinship with every human—they’re all his descendants, technically—Stan finds himself unable to feed.

This predicament leads Stan to set out to escape his vampire contract. He embarks on a supernatural journey from heaven to hell, encountering everyone from a chatty St. Peter to a bored demon named Larry to Satan himself. Along the way, he’s forced to relive the choice that started it all—trading his soul and abandoning his family for the promise of power and eternal life.

Featuring Elizabeth Burke and Luke Hickey

A Swing Suite/SOUNDspace/REDUX

Dorrance Dance is an award-winning tap dance company based in New York City. Founded in 2011 by MacArthur “Genius” award winner, choreographer and tap dancer Michelle Dorrance, the company is celebrated for connecting tap's history to contemporary urban culture and infusing the art form with theatricality and humor.

Vista: Selections from SLOMA’s Permanent Collection is an exhibition that looks back with gratitude and forward with hope. Taking up both the Nybak Gallery and the Gray Wing, SLOMA presents a selection of works from its Permanent Collection — works that have been entrusted to this institution’s care by local collectors, artists and their families who believed in the vital importance of the arts on the Central Coast. It is an important moment: the last exhibition of its kind in our current home at 1010 Broad Street before SLOMA expands into its new home on Higuera Street, opening in summer 2027. 1010 Broad will continue to be an important part of SLOMA’s identity, as it will take on new life centered on education and community collaboration. Vista is an opportunity to pause here, in these rooms, and celebrate the artists and individuals whose work and dedication have shaped this place across decades.

SLOMA traces its origins to the San Luis Obispo Art Association, founded in the 1950s. The Permanent Collection was conceived by longtime volunteer curator Arne Nybak — a staunch supporter of the visual arts and of this region’s artists since the early days of the Art Center in the 1960s and 1970s. The Board of Directors established the collection in 1998 as a testament to the artistic richness of the Central Coast and to honor Nybak’s decades of service. The artists represented here were dedicated to their practices, to the landscape around them, and to enduring traditions of plein air painting, figure drawing, and working from life. This exhibition is an homage to them and their creative vision.

Jorge “Chucho” Hernandez, a Chula Vista-born artist and former Santa Maria resident, will open “Perspective,” a solo exhibition at Indah Gallery in Santa Ynez, on Thursday, August 27.

Working in oil on canvas and wood, Hernandez creates elaborate narrative paintings that use unexpected viewpoints and forced perspective to place viewers inside scenes involving cultural memory, spirituality, popular culture and contemporary life. Some of his major pieces take two to three years to complete.

The opening reception will be held Thursday, August 27, from 5–7 p.m. The exhibition continues August 28 through September 20, with an artist’s talk on Saturday, September 19 at 3 p.m.

Hernandez is available for an interview, and high-resolution artwork, installation photographs and additional background materials are available.

Indah Gallery
2190 N. Refugio Road
Santa Ynez, California
https://chuchoart.com
https://www.indahgallery.org/

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a88f8cin41cXNEOVSTbYgM5_IQ1nPheC/view?usp=sharing

Thank you for considering this local arts story.