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Based in Venice Beach, CA, an epicenter of nonconformist energy in the 1970s, Environmental Communications (EC) was a collective of architects, artists, and sociologists who championed an expanded understanding of architecture—one that encompassed not just individual buildings but the entire urban environment. To that end, the group documented defining traits of the then-booming consumerist society and the vibrant counterculture pushing back against it, primarily through photographic slides.

Challenging the architectural pedagogy of the time, which viewed architectural history as the evolution of styles through isolated buildings, EC distributed their slide sets to architecture schools and libraries across the country, offering a real-time and sweeping lens through which to teach the discipline.

Los Angeles—a crucible of market-driven ambition and anti-establishment spirit—became a central focus of EC’s visual inquiries. From smog-choked skies and sprawling suburbs to garish street art and Pop architecture, their slide sets captured the era’s cultural contradictions, evoking a sense of systemic unraveling while L.A. emerged as a beacon of radical freedom and creativity.

Including hundreds of slides, along with dozens of booklets and videos, the collective’s legacy stands as one of the most comprehensive and electrifying visual records of 1970s L.A. The presentation of EC’s materials from the Architecture and Design Collection here, following this year’s devastating fires in the Palisades and Altadena, serves not only as a poignant reminder of the city’s environmental fragility but also as a tribute to the extraordinary urban creativity that has fueled its resilience over the past five decades.

Big Bang Beat L.A. is organized by the Art, Design & Architecture Museum at UC Santa Barbara and is coordinated by Silvia Perea, curator of the Architecture and Design Collection. The exhibition is made possible thanks to the support of the AD&A Museum Council. Exhibition furniture has generously been provided by Fatboy.

EVENT DATE:
Saturday, September 13, 2025 - 5:30pm
Sunday, December 7, 2025 - 5:00pm

Beyond the Object: Selections from the Permanent Collection brings together a range of artworks from the Art, Design & Architecture Museum’s holdings that engage with our lived environment beyond its constructed reality. By reimagining or presenting our contemporary moment anew, the artists highlighted in this exhibition point to various subjects in conceptual or abstracted ways. At times, the works on display are not what they seem at first, inviting viewers to look closely and consider another way of understanding the art object.

Featuring painting, sculpture, photography, and works on paper, this exhibition highlights recent acquisitions and gifts primarily from the past five years, demonstrating the Museum's commitment to expanding its modern and contemporary art collection. The title of the exhibition draws from the work of conceptual art group Art & Language, whose series Map to indicate… (2002) is on view. Through a reimagined world map, the collective plays with the conventions of cartography to comment on the worldwide influence of subjects such as art theory, social constructions, socio-political representation, and the ability for all of us to enact change.

Beyond the Object is organized by the Art, Design & Architecture Museum and is curated by Ana Briz, AD&A Museum Assistant Director and Curator of Exhibitions, with support from Curatorial Assistant Letícia Cobra Lima. The exhibition is made possible thanks to the generous support of the AD&A Museum Council.

Artists in the Exhibition

Art & Language (est. England, c. 1967)
Herbert Bayer (b. Austria, 1900–1985)
Huma Bhabha (b. Pakistan, 1962)
Jonathan Borofsky (b. United States, 1942)
Rose D’Amato (b. United States, 1991)
Elizabeth Sisco (b. United States, 1954), Louis Hock (b. United States, 1948), and David Avalos (b. United States, 1947–2025)
Theaster Gates (b. United States, 1973)
Ishi Glinsky (b. United States, 1982)
Michael Gonzalez (b. United States, 1953)
Mona Kuhn (b. Brazil, 1969)
Tony Lewis (b. United States, 1986)
Hung Liu (b. China, 1948–2021)
Gordon Matta-Clark (b. United States, 1943–1978)
Aliza Nisenbaum (b. Mexico, 1977)
Ruben Ochoa (b. United States, 1974)
Hank Pitcher (b. United States, 1949)
Steve Roden (b. United States, 1964–2023)
Harmonia Rosales (b. United States, 1984)
Analia Saban (b. Argentina, 1980)
Christopher Suarez (b. United States, 1994)
Jennifer West (b. United States, 1966)

EVENT DATE:
Saturday, September 13, 2025 - 5:30pm to Sunday, December 7, 2025 - 5:00pm

Mexican Prints: The Garcia-Correa Collection celebrates the gift of sixty-one Mexican prints from local collectors Gil Garcia and Marti Correa de Garcia to the Art, Design & Architecture Museum at UC Santa Barbara. Focusing on lithographs, etchings, and linocuts from the 1920s to the 1980s, the Garcia-Correa Collection of Mexican Prints highlights the importance of the graphic arts in Mexico.

At the outset of the Mexican Revolution (1910–20), artists and activists alike turned to printmaking as a specifically Mexican way to address social and political issues such as agrarian and land reform. This mid-century collection of prints thematically focuses on labor, gender, and domesticity, all key aspects of campesino culture and its farming community that have informed the lives of the collectors.

On view are a selection of thirty-one prints that represent a preview of a larger, more comprehensive presentation planned in the years ahead. As an unprecedented addition to the Museum's permanent collection, the Garcia-Correa Collection of Mexican Prints features works by artists who have been foundational to the Mexican printmaking movement through collectives such as the Taller de Gráfica Popular [People’s Graphic Workshop]—one of the longest running artist collectives and most influential groups in the history of twentieth-century printmaking.

Mexican Prints is organized by the Art, Design & Architecture Museum and is curated by Ana Briz, AD&A Museum Assistant Director and Curator of Exhibitions, with support from Curatorial Assistants Claudia Grego March and Kaitlin Zarembinski. The exhibition is made possible thanks to the generous support of Gil Garcia and Marti Correa de Garcia, the AD&A Museum Council, and the UCSB Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.

Artists in the Exhibition

Ignacio Aguirre (b. Mexico, 1900–1990)
Emilio Amero (b. Mexico, 1901–1976)
Raúl Anguiano (b. Mexico, 1915–2006)
Alberto Beltrán (b. Mexico, 1923–2002)
Angel Bracho (b. Mexico, 1911–2005)
Jean Charlot (b. France 1898–1979)
Jose Chávez Morado (b. Mexico, 1909–2002)
Miguel Covarrubias (b. Mexico 1904–1957)
Marion Greenwood (b. United States, 1909-1970)
Sarah Jiménez (b. Mexico, 1927–2017)
Leopoldo Méndez (b. Mexico, 1902–1969)
Isidoro Ocampo (b. Mexico, 1920–1983)
Pablo O’Higgins (b. United States, 1904–1983)
José Clemente Orozco (b. Mexico, 1883–1949)
Fanny Rabel (b. Poland, 1922–2008)
David Alfaro Siqueiros (b.Mexico, 1896–1974)
Rufino Tamayo (b. Mexico, 1899–1991)
Alfredo Zalce (b. Mexico 1908–2003)
Francisco Zúñiga (b. Costa Rica, 1912–1998)

About the Collectors

Gil Garcia is the president of Garcia Architects Inc. Born and raised in Santa Barbara, he served on the Santa Barbara City Council for a tenure of ten years. Both Gil and Marti Correa de Garcia have served on the board of numerous non-profit organizations, including the Santa Barbara/Puerta Vallarta Sister City Committee and the Rotary Club of Santa Barbara North. Gil and Marti are the recipients of many community awards, including the 1997 Santa Barbara Lifetime Achievement Award.

Come sing with us!

Singers with choral experience are invited to join us as we prepare for Santa Barbara Master Chorale’s performance of “The Light So Shines”—a holiday celebration of hope, joy, and our gift of light to the world. Performances will be on December 6 & 7, 2025. Rehearsals begin on September 2, 2025, and auditions will be held on September 2, 9, and 16 between 5:00 and 6:40 p.m. in the sanctuary at First Presbyterian Church (corner of Constance Ave. and State St. in Santa Barbara).

Email dr.davidlozanotorres@gmail.com to arrange for an audition. If you are accepted, plan on singing with the chorus at the rehearsal after your audition. For more information, go to http://www.sbmasterchorale.org.

Camerata Pacifica launches its 2025-26 season with an all-string program including new and legacy chamber works anchored by Brahms’ String Sextet in G Major, Op. 36, an innovative work noted for its exotic opening strains. Presented at four Southern California locations, the performances are Tuesday, September 23, 7:30 pm, at The Huntington’s Rothenberg Hall in San Marino; Thursday, September 25, 8:00 pm, at Zipper Hall in Downtown Los Angeles; Friday, September 26, 7:00 pm, at Santa Barbara’s Music Academy of the West; and Sunday, September 28, 2025, 3:00 pm, at Thousand Oaks’ Janet and Ray Scherr Forum. This marks the beginning of the acclaimed Santa Barbara-based chamber collective’s 36th season.

The repertoire also features Anton Arensky’s String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 35, which he dedicated to the memory of Tchaikovsky, his close musical colleague. Its solemn aesthetic is heightened by its unusual scoring for violin, viola, and two cellos.

Latvian composer Peteris Vasks’ Castillo Interior for Violin & Cello, written in 2013 in remembrance of the great mystic St. Teresa of Avila, adds crisp contemporary flair to the program with bursts of emotion that weave together contemplative passages.

Showcasing their virtuosity in the technically demanding repertoire are violinists Paul Huang, The Bob Christensen Chair in Violin who is “a compelling podium presence” (Culture OC), and recipient of the 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the 2017 Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists, and Alena Hove, applauded for her “rich, smooth tone” (CityArts). They are joined by violists Che-Yen Chen who plays “with silken finesse” (Dallas Morning News), and Meredith Crawford, a “superlative violist” (Crescenta Valley Weekly). Completing the string sextet are Principal Cello Ani Aznavoorian, whose “scorchingly committed performances…wring every last drop of emotion out of the music” (The Strad), and Santiago Cañón-Valencia, a “technically flawless” cellist (The Strad).

For tickets ($75 at The Huntington, Music Academy of the West, and Zipper Hall; $94.40, including fees, at Janet and Ray Scherr Forum) and information, visit www.cameratapacifica.org.

The Good Good Show is a stand up comedy show featuring the hottest comedians working today that you've seen or heard on Comedy Central, CONAN, Hulu, Jimmy Kimmel, Last Comic Standing, Amazon Prime, Sirius XM and more.

FEATURING: Billy Wayne Davis, Jeremy Talamantes Julie Weidmann and Faith Ladzinski

Come have some laughs with us and enjoy a delicious craft beer (wine available too)!

7:30 p.m. $10

Show is 21+

The Chapman Estate Foundation's 10th annual fundraiser, Swingin' By the Sea, features live music, food and wine as well as a silent and live auction. The food vendors joining us will be: Lido at Dolphin Bay, Pono Pacific Kitchen, Burgers and More, Shell Beach Brew House, Cracked Crab, The Mark, Del's Pizzeria, Hubbalicious Sweet Shoppe, Luca's Deli and Wines and California Fresh Market. Wineries include: Tablas Creek Vineyard, Piedra Creek, Saucelito Canyon, Sinor-LaVallee, Laetitia, Opolo, Wolff Vineyard, Kynsi, Matthews Vineyard and Avila Wine and Roasting Co.
You will also be able to bid on art pieces donated by local artists, exclusive dinners for 12 inside the Chapman House catered by LIdo at Dolphin Bay, BBQs for 25 in the gardens of the estate as well as many exciting silent auction packages donated by local artists and businesses.

Ice in Paradise is hosting a Try Hockey for Free event on Saturday, September 13, 2025 from 1PM-2PM or 2:15PM-3:15PM. No experience necessary! This event is designed to provide kids ages 4 to 9 the opportunity to try hockey in a FUN, safe environment with trained coaching staff.

Come celebrate Another Day in Paradise with us at Santa Barbara’s premier ice rink on October 11, 2025 from 11AM to 5PM. Tickets will be available at the door for $10 in celebration of our 10 years, your ticket to the event will feature a full day of fun for the whole family at Ice in Paradise!

11:15am-11:45am Skating Lesson

11:45am-12:00pm Skating Show

12:00pm-1:00pm Learn to Play Hockey

12:00pm-3:00pm Public Skating Party

1:00pm-2:00pm Open Broomball

3:00pm-5:00pm Try Curling

Outdoor activities all day!

Join us for a lecture by Nicholas van Hoogstraten, author of Broadway Poster Art: 1945–1969 (Schiffer Publishing, 2024). Van Hoogstraten will explore the vibrant advertising art of Broadway’s golden age, sharing behind-the-scenes stories of designers, illustrators, and photographers, along with rare and alternate poster designs and artist progressions.

The lecture complements the exhibition Broadway Posters from the Golden Age: Selections from the Richard C. Norton Musical Theater Poster Collection, on view at UCSB Library from October 7 to December 5.

About the Speaker:
Nicholas van Hoogstraten is an author, playwright, television producer, and lecturer, and he is the owner of New York City’s Triton Gallery, which showcases vintage and current Broadway posters. He lives in New York City.

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.