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The Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum’s 41st Annual Vaquero Benefit Dinner & Auction is Saturday, November 8 from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Ramon Becerra, renowned equestrian entertainer, will be honored as Vaquero of the Year in recognition of his decades-long career as a celebrated horse trainer, performer in film, television, advertising, and his live shows. The event at the museum (3596 Sagunto St., Santa Ynez) spotlights the California Vaquero and their influence on modern ranching in California. The evening includes dinner, live music and silent and live auctions. Proceeds benefit the Santa Ynez Historical Museum and the Parks-Janeway Carriage House, as well as its public programs presented throughout the year. Tickets are $225 For more information and to purchase tickets, go to www.santaynezmuseum.org/41st-annual-vaquero-benefit-dinner-auction.

Art and science are often seen as distinct, yet both thrive on creativity. Scientists, like artists, seek new perspectives, experiment with ideas, and push boundaries to reveal something novel. The Art of Science competition at UCSB celebrates this shared spirit of innovation, transforming research into striking visual expressions.

Each image in this exhibit is a testament to the imagination that drives discovery. By sharing these creations, we connect as a community in a celebration of curiosity and creativity.

Join us in exploring the beauty of science—where creativity fuels both artistic expression and groundbreaking research!

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.

Join us for our next Film in the Gallery!



This month, we will be screening Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Portrait de la jeune fille en feu). A major entrant in the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, this French historical romantic drama revolving around a painter and her commission won the Queer Palm—the first ever film directed by a woman to win the award. Its reputation has continued to enjoy growth since its release, and it is routinely listed as one of the best films of the 21st century. A truly outstanding example of how cinema can utilize diegetic music to maximal effect, this modern masterpiece is not to be missed.



VIP tickets include priority seating and a free drink and snack from our bar.

Join us for another Film in the Gallery! This month, we will be screening Victor Sjöström’s The Phantom Carriage (Körkarlen). A sometimes-overlooked standout from the silent era, The Phantom Carriage was voted by FLM—Sweden’s leading film magazine—as the greatest Swedish film of all time, earning the honor above the major of films of Ingmar Bergman and other outstanding Swedish directors. This horror-adjacent film follows David Holm, as he is taken by the ghostly driver of the eponymous carriage and forced to contend with the ways he has selfishly lived his life.



We are beyond excited to present this Swedish masterpiece with the live piano accompaniment of Michael D. Mortilla!



VIP tickets include priority seating and a free drink and snack from our bar.

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Michael D. Mortilla has worked as a full-time, freelance journeyman composer for over half a century. His many commissions include feature films by Frank Capra for Sony/Columbia Pictures, countless scores for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, as well as original scores for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Library of Congress, Olympic Games, Martha Graham Dance Company, and many others. Michael scored the World’s First Internet broadcast of a film in association with the American Film Institute and was resident composer on the faculty at UC Santa Barbara for 14 years. He has lectured at CALARTS and has a teaching license for the City of New York Public Schools. Michael is also the entertainment curator for the Catalina Island Museum for Art & History. He is largely self-taught.

Join us for our next Film in the Gallery!

This month, we will be screening Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru. A tough but enriching look at the last days of a man who is dying of stomach cancer, Ikiru brings together the Japanese master with one of his frequent on-screen collaborators, Takashi Shimura, in career-high marks for both the director and actor. Partially inspired by Tolstoy’s seminal The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Ikiru finds beauty in its search of purpose in ways which are unique within the Kurosawa canon.



VIP tickets include priority seating and a free drink and snack from our bar.

“There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also isn’t an American at all…This is a nation, not a polyglot boarding house.” Although these words might sound familiar considering our contemporary political rhetoric, it was Theodore Roosevelt who uttered these words more than 100 years ago. This course will explore and trace the past, present and future of global authoritarian movements. From the rise of notorious 20th Century dictators such as Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, and Pol Pot to the present global authoritarian/populist shift, we will examine how and why these forms of government take hold, even in democratic societies. Along these lines, we will play special attention to the American experience with authoritarianism; both its short and long-term consequences and what it tells us about our current global moment.

This course takes place both in-person at the Thousand Oaks campus and online via Zoom.

Course does not meet on Tuesday, September 23.

The Fifty and Better (FAB) program was designed for people ages 50 and older, seeking intellectual stimulation through university-level courses — without the pressure of grades — for the sake of learning and social engagement.

The Arctic world is a land of stark duality. Geographically peripheral, yet central to today’s most pressing strategic, economic, and climatological questions. A primordial wilderness that nonetheless hosts several million human inhabitants and a surprisingly rich—if endangered—ecosystem. Presently, one of the most important places on earth, yet still one of the most poorly understood. Come explore this forbidding but endlessly fascinating region, starting with its indigenous peoples, then moving on to Euro-American exploration (including the race to the North Pole), scientific and anthropological research, and the industrial and military exploitation of the Arctic.

Week 1: Encounters: Indigenous Northerners and Early European Incursions

Week 2: From Bering to Franklin: Exploration in the 1700s and Early 1800s

Week 3: Northern Steeplechase: Exploration and Nation-Building from the 1840s to the 1940s

Week 4: Arcticide? Militarization, Exploitation, and Climate Change from 1945 to the Present

This course takes place online via Zoom.

Course does not meet on Wednesday, September 24.

The Fifty and Better (FAB) program was designed for people ages 50 and older, seeking intellectual stimulation through university-level courses — without the pressure of grades — for the sake of learning and social engagement.

Cults capture our attention because we wonder why they exist and how people can be made to make such out of the ordinary choices and have vastly different views of reality. In the previous course, we considered some of the more well-known cults, looking deeply into Jonestown, the Branch Davidians, and NXIVM. This second course will discuss some lesser-known cults, such as Heaven’s Gate and Synanon. Each week will examine one specific cult to understand its inception and its end. The final week will investigate the members of the various cults discussed in parts 1 and 2, in order to grasp what makes people join cults and why they stay.

You do not need to have attended the Part 1 course in order to attend Part 2.

This course takes place both in-person at the Thousand Oaks campus and online via Zoom.

Course does not meet on Wednesday, September 24.

The Fifty and Better (FAB) program was designed for people ages 50 and older, seeking intellectual stimulation through university-level courses — without the pressure of grades — for the sake of learning and social engagement.

Bruce Springsteen stands as one of America’s true rock-and-roll superstars, one who has achieved both commercial and artistic success. Springsteen’s influence extends beyond music, however, as in recent years he has become a prominent and outspoken voice in American politics. This course will explore Springsteen’s development as an artist working within the same tradition as Walt Whitman, Hank Williams, Woody Guthrie, and Bob Dylan. We will also explore key themes in his work, especially the American Dream, the power of love, and humanity’s deep need for redemption. We will look at how Springsteen has continuously updated his conception of American promise and possibilities, and how this vision has increasingly led him to engage in contemporary political debate, challenging President Trump over perceived erosion of American constitutional limits and liberties. In short, we will listen to some great music and at the same time explore how Bruce Springsteen has engaged in and continued to influence the American cultural and political landscape.

TOPICS

● Week 1: New Jersey Rocker to Folk Poet

● Week 2: Bruce Springsteen and the American Dream

● Week 3: Stay True: Mega-Stardom and the Working Class Hero

● Week 4: Voice of Americans: This Land is Our Land

This course takes place both in-person at the Thousand Oaks campus and online via Zoom.

The Fifty and Better (FAB) program was designed for people ages 50 and older, seeking intellectual stimulation through university-level courses — without the pressure of grades — for the sake of learning and social engagement.