Oct 10 Friday
Join us for our next Film in the Gallery!
This month, we will be screening Andrzej Wajda’s Ashes and Diamonds (Popiół i diament). Based on the 1948 novel by Jerzy Andrzejewski, this film completes the director’s loose war trilogy and is a standalone look at post-World War II Poland. Featuring actor Zbigniew Cybulski in a role which earned him the moniker of “the Polish James Dean”, Ashes and Diamonds has been championed by Martin Scorsese and was included in his Masterpieces of Polish Cinema.
VIP tickets include priority seating and a free drink and snack from our bar.
Attendees will enjoy a welcome drink while we give a brief introduction to our bean-to-bar, dark chocolate making process. Ingredients for decorating will abound and inspire, and you'll learn a few tidbits about how we invent flavor combinations for new delicious, sweet products at our chocolate factory. We will fill chocolate bar molds with luscious 75% dark chocolate, and you will get to decorate chocolate bars with local ingredients, like flowers, salt and fruit. While bars are setting up, we will lead a 20-30 minute chocolate tasting experience while you sip on perfectly paired wines to enhance the flavors. We are happy to provide a non-alcoholic tasting experience for anyone in the group who might require that. Your custom chocolate bars will go home with you in beautiful, resealable Twenty-Four Blackbirds pouches. Don't miss out on this delicious experience!
Start Eerie October off at NAMBA ARTS with a night of weird, mysterious, hilarious scenes and games – all made up for you, on the spot!Passionate about fostering creativity and community through top-notch improv education and electrifying performances, Ventura Improv Company has been bringing side-splitting laughter to Ventura County since 1989. Join us and experience a night of comedic magic you’ll be talking about for weeks!
More info: venturaimprov.comVentura Improv Company is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.
The Ojai Film Society’s beloved outdoor film series is back at Libbey Bowl, running on select Fridays from July 25–October 3. This year’s theme, Imagine A World, invites audiences to gather under the stars for films that spark creativity, connection, and conversation.
All screenings are free and begin at 7:30 PM.Walk-ups welcome; RSVPs encouraged.
Here's the line-up:
July 25: Sally
August 8: The NeverEnding Story
August 22: The Greatest Night in Pop (with director Bao Nguyen in attendance)
September 5: 9 to 5
September 18: Speak. (with director Jennifer Tiexiera in attendance)
October 3: Close Encounters of the Third Kind
👉 Learn more & RSVP: ojaifilmsociety.org
Oct 11 Saturday
October 1- 31 - Join us for a month-long celebration of new vegan dishes all over Santa Barbara!
For the second year in a row, businesses across the region will showcase exciting special vegan menu items for an entire month, giving everyone the opportunity to explore creative plant-based dishes crafted by talented local chefs.
How It Works:
1- Visit participating restaurants across Santa Barbara.2- Try their exclusive vegan offerings.3- Share your experience—rate and review the dishes you try, comment, post photos of your favorite meals, and tag us at @veganchefchallengeWest.
This event is open to everyone, not just vegans! It’s about bringing our community together to celebrate incredible food and support our region's chefs.
Get Involved: Looking for ways to connect? Volunteer with us! We’re seeking passionate individuals to help with outreach, event promotion, and community building throughout the month. It's a great way to meet like-minded people and make a difference! Volunteer using this link: TinyURL.com/VOLVCC
Join us in making Santa Barbara an even more inclusive, vibrant, and compassionate community.
For details on participating businesses, menus, sponsorship opportunities, and more, visit our website at veganchefchallenge.org/SantaBarbara.
"Through most of our lives and work, Cedric and I have had deep commitments to collaboration, internationalism, and solidarity movements."–Elizabeth Robinson, 2024
This exhibition documents the life’s work of Cedric J. Robinson and Elizabeth Peters Robinson, placing it in the global context of the Black radical tradition. The Robinsons were renowned for their seminal scholarship and activism that had wide-ranging influence at UC Santa Barbara (UCSB), in academia, and across many public arenas. The exhibition is drawn from the Cedric J. and Elizabeth P. Robinson Archive (“Robinson Archive”) and supplemented by a variety of materials from other collections in UCSB Library’s Special Research Collections, as well as personal contributions from Elizabeth Robinson.
A deeply influential educator, Cedric Robinson (1940-2016) was a well-known scholar of racial capitalism and the Black radical tradition, and an active participant in political movements, both at home and internationally. For more than 30 years, Elizabeth Robinson has been an educator, social worker, former associate director for media at KCSB-FM radio, activist, and community media producer.
This exhibition was curated by Yolanda Blue, the Library’s Curator of American and International History, Politics, and Cultures Collections, in collaboration with New York University and UCSB Library staff.
This exhibition showcases historic Broadway posters from collector Richard C. Norton, a comprehensive selection of musical theater posters 1972 to the present ranging from the famous to the obscure, from the celebrated to the damned. These posters offer insight into the evolution of American musical theater, graphic design, marketing, image branding and audience engagement. Far more than advertisements, they reflect the artistic, social and commercial contexts of their time—revealing how productions were first introduced, how stars were celebrated, and how visual trends paralleled theatrical innovation. As ephemeral objects, their preservation provides rare evidence of the material culture surrounding performance. By examining these posters through an academic lens, we can better understand Broadway’s influence on American theater, music and popular culture. The exhibition invites viewers to explore how theater has been represented and remembered, and how visual media contributes to the construction of cultural memory.The exhibition will be accompanied by a lecture featuring Nicholas van Hoogstraten, author of Broadway Poster Art: 1945–1969 (Schiffer Publishing, 2024).
About the Richard C. Norton Musical Theater History Collection:The Richard C. Norton Musical Theater History Collection consists of materials documenting musical theater including 25,000 playbills, 800 typescripts, and 1,500 published libretti, as well as sheet music and 78rpm records. Norton is the author of A Chronology of American Musical Theater (Oxford UP, 2002) a landmark work with details on thousands of Broadway productions. The collection was assembled to support the research for his book.
UCSB Library presents an art installation by artist Elena Yu, exploring histories of the Ethnic and Gender Studies Collection (EGSC) and space in celebration of its 30th anniversary.
In Fall 2023, Yu was invited to create artworks in response to the history of the EGSC. The artist was drawn to two untouched back rooms - former staff offices left exactly as they were when vacated in 2022. Inside, decades of belongings sat frozen in time. In February 2024, the Library was preparing to renovate the rooms. Librarians had sorted and removed items to be sent to the University Archives and gave Yu access to use the remaining materials in her artworks. She was inspired by encountering ephemera related to the history of Ethnic Studies at UCSB and the day-to-day occupations of the library staff, including file cabinets full of book dust jackets and printed correspondences, and bulletin boards whose contents speak to the specific interests of former staff, who were charged with the upkeep of the collections and space.
This exhibition is part of a campus-wide arts partnership with the UCSB Arts Equity Commons (AEC) to support opportunities for engagement of faculty, students, and staff through the presence and practices of contemporary artists. AEC was established in 2022 as a consortium of the Department of Art, Department of History of Art and Architecture, and the Art Design & Architecture Museum through a systemwide grant from the UC Office of the President. The artist would like to thank Gary Colmenar, Angel Diaz, Alyce Harris, Sara Kelly, Marisol Ramos, Jonathan Rissmeyer, and Kim Yasuda for their support of this project.
This self-guided, three-day tour offers an extraordinary opportunity to experience a wide range of original artwork—including painting, sculpture, fiber art, mosaic, collage, jewelry, glass, prints, and mixed media—in the unique and often surprising environments where the art is created. The weekend kicks off with a free public reception on Friday, October 10, from 5–7 PM at the Ojai Valley Museum. Guests can meet the artists, view a special preview exhibit featuring work by all participating tour artists, and pick up tour brochures and maps.
