SBMA Online

Welcome to SBMA! Advance ticketing reservations are highly recommended and guarantee your entry time.

Harmon Siegel, Ph.D.
Junior Fellow, Harvard Society of Fellows

Impressionism has, from the beginning, been seen as an art of nature. Today, however, in the moment we call the Anthropocene, when human projects have transformed every corner of the planet and threaten to make it uninhabitable, this commitment may seem hopelessly naive. In fact, however, impressionist paintings illuminate our condition, revealing the entanglement of nature and society. In so doing, they help us overcome nostalgia for a lost nature and recognize our responsibility for shaping the world we inhabit

credit: Camille Pissarro, La Machine de Marly à Bougival, c. 1869. Image courtesy of Sotheby's, Inc.

This event is in person at Santa Barbara Museum of Art's Mary Craig Auditorium.

Generous support for Art Matters is provided by the SBMA Women’s Board.

Ticket Cost:
SBMA Member (Museum Circles): FREE
SBMA Member (Enthusiast and below): $10.00
Non-Member: $15.00
Student (Valid student ID required): FREE

All skill levels are invited to experience the tradition of sketching from original works of art in current exhibitions. Museum Teaching Artists provide general guidance and all materials.

Ticket Cost:
General Admission: FREE

Celebrate the Season at the Members Holiday Party.

Bring the whole family for live music, art activities, refreshments, and more.

Ticket Cost:
SBMA Member: FREE

Writers of all levels are invited to participate in this informal exploration of the Museum’s galleries as an impetus to writing. Monthly sessions are led by a visiting writer who begins with a conversation and prompt, partially inspired by works on view. Participants write on their own, then reconvene to share and comment on each other’s work. Please bring something on which to write.

In this special December session, SBCC Creative Writing Professor Joshua Escobar explores the idea of transformation as a prompt for writing. Participants may submit their work for consideration of inclusion in a related public reading and performance at SBMA on February 12 or to the upcoming issue of Open Fruit, SBCC's Creative Writing Magazine. For further information, contact jmescobar2@pipeline.sbcc.edu.

Ticket Cost:
General Admission: FREE

SBMA is excited to welcome the Catalyst Quartet back for their 7th performance. Hailed by The New York Times at its Carnegie Hall debut as “invariably energetic and finely burnished… playing with earthy vigor,” the Grammy Award-winning Catalyst Quartet was founded by the internationally acclaimed Sphinx Organization in 2010. The ensemblehas toured widely throughout the United States and abroad, including sold-out performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Chicago’s Harris Theater, Miami’s New World Center, and Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Their program of all female composers includes Jessie Montgomery’s Strum, Teresa Careño’s Quartett, Germaine Tailleferre’s String Quartet, and Fanny Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in E-flat.

Chamber Music Concerts at SBMA are supported by the Katharine Putnam and Reginald M. Faletti Concert Fund with additional support from the Curletti Fund.

This event is in person at Santa Barbara Museum of Art's Mary Craig Auditorium.

Ticket Cost:
SBMA Member: $20.00
Non-Member: $25.00

Formed in 1995, the Austin, Texas-based Miró Quartet, is one of America’s most celebrated string quartets, having performed throughout the world on the most prestigious concert stages. They won first prizes at the Banff International String Quartet Competition and Naumburg Chamber Music Competition, and in 2005, became the first ensemble ever to be awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant. The Miró is quartet-in-residence at Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, OR and Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival in Washington State.

They will perform Haydn’s Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 64, No. 3, Caroline Shaw’s Microfictions*, and Antonin Dvořák’s Quartet in G major, Op. 106.

* Caroline Shaw’s work will be performed three times this season. This New York City-based contemporary musician and composer became the youngest composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2013. She is often cited as proof that classical music has an exciting future.

Chamber Music Concerts at SBMA are supported by the Katharine Putnam and Reginald M. Faletti Concert Fund with additional support from the Curletti Fund.

This event is in person at Santa Barbara Museum of Art's Mary Craig Auditorium.

Ticket Cost:
SBMA Member: $20.00
Non-Member: $25.00