Now at the CAW
The Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative Presents:
Area Meeting
A Place for Creative Exchange
Tuesday March 10th, 6-8pm
$12
At its core, Area Meeting is an open forum where the local creative community can gather to explore the meaning behind art and the processes driving it. The event features a keynote presentation from a career artist who will share images of their work, giving a place-in-time snapshot of their practice. This talk will explore the intricacies, struggles, and breakthroughs of a life devoted to art, setting the tone for an evening designed to spark new ideas, questions, and connections.
Beyond the keynote, the highlight of Area Meeting is the open critique sessions. Selected artists will present their physical work—unfinished pieces, experimental projects, or newly completed works—inviting direct input from attendees. Led by facilitator Patrick Melroy and other guest facilitators, these candid, respectful critiques grant audiences a unique window into an artist’s thought process before the work has been sealed with a final opinion. It’s a rare opportunity for both artists and viewers to engage in meaningful, two-way dialogue not typically available in traditional gallery or museum settings.
The March 10th Area Meeting keynote speaker will be Erin Smith of a ceramic artist and designer based in Santa Barbara, currently serving as Studio Director at Maker House. With an MFA from Alfred University and a background in product design and entrepreneurship, her interdisciplinary practice bridges industrial design, craft, and material research. For more information about her work visit: erinlynnsmith.studio.
Area Meeting is a Program organized and run by the Arts Collaborative.
For more information, or to inquire about presenting, contact Adrienne De Guevara at adrienne@artscollaborative.org.
Daniel Kanow, Certified Grief Educator Presents:
Art 4 Grief Support Group
A Creative Path Through Grief
March 9 & 16, 2026: 6-8pm
From the organizer:
A gentle, supportive sequence for anyone navigating loss, transition, illness, identity change, or emotional overwhelm.
Facilitated by Daniel Kanow — Certified Grief Educator trained in the methodology of world-renowned grief expert David Kessler — these two evening sessions use guided expressive art techniques to create a compassionate space where grief can be safely felt, visually expressed, and gently transformed.
You do not need to be an artist.
You do not need any art experience.
You only need to arrive exactly as you are.
Through simple, guided creative processes we honor the rocky terrain of grief and give it form, color, and voice — often bringing unexpected relief, insight, and a sense of companionship.
All art materials provided. Bring your own easel if you have one, or work at the table.
Two consecutive Monday evenings offer a supportive rhythm — a creative companion on the grief journey.
The VADA Program at Santa Barbara High School Presents:
VADA Draw
Local Artists Support Young Artists
March 14th, 7-10pm
From the organizer:
Why come to the VADA Draw?
Because it’s where art, community, and celebration come together. Each year, local artists generously donate original art pieces that are raffled off at the VADA Draw event—meaning every guest goes home with a one-of-a-kind work of art.
Add in a fabulous party featuring local food and beverages, music, and a room full of creative energy, and you’ve got an unforgettable night that directly supports future artists. It’s more than an event—it’s a celebration of local talent, generosity, and community spirit.
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The Visual Arts and Design Academy (VADA) is a small learning community at Santa Barbara High School with about 225 students in 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade. VADA is a unique “school-within-a-school” that integrates rigorous academic coursework with project-based, career-focused art and design instruction, in a supportive and creative environment.
Tayllor & Ademola Oyewole-Davis Presents:
OFF THE PAGE
A poetic exhibition to conclude the 2025-2026 Community Arts Residency program, Storytelling Is Our Revolution
March 24, 5-7:30pm
Free to Attend
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From the organizer:
This showcase is the culmination of a weekly poetry and performance workshop co-facilitated by Tayllor and Ademola Oyewole-Davis, as part of the 2025-2026 Community Arts Residency at the Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative.
Come witness what happens when a community of artists brings the written word to life. Featuring live poetry performances, exhibited written work, visual art, animation, and interdisciplinary collaborations across the arts — this is a celebration of voice, creativity, and community.
Featuring Artists: Erin Bonski, Casey Caldwell, Eric Cloutier, Maria Henderson, Sebastian Herics, Emily Lord-Kambitsch, Meni Philip, Kelsey Resetco, Sarah Emma Ruth, Grace Vega, & leesh
Adelante Charter School Presents:
Annual Student Art Showcase
Thursday March 26, 4:30-7pm
Artists grades K through 6
Free to Attend, Open to All
From the organizer:
Please join us in celebrating our young artists at Adelante Charter School. Students in grades Kindergarten through 6th will be showcasing their creativity through drawing, painting, sculpture, and more.
At Adelante, we are proud of our strong arts education program. We are committed to providing students with a wide variety of creative opportunities through weekly Art, Music, and Dance classes, as well as an after-school theater program. At Adelante we believe every child should have the opportunity to discover and develop a love for the artist within them.
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Adelante Charter School is a Spanish-English Dual Language Immersion (DLI) elementary school which offers the opportunity for children of all backgrounds to become bilingual, biliterate, and multicultural. Two languages and rich cultural experiences are woven into each child’s day through outstanding academics. Students are taught in a supportive environment to excel as creative, empowered thinkers and problem-solvers. We invite you to visit our school, where you will find students actively engaged in becoming self-directed, lifelong learners in two languages.
Eric Saint Georges Presents:
Figure Drawing Workshop
Saturday March 28th, 2026, 9am-12:30pm
Cost: $70
From the organizer:
The goal of this short workshop is to give an introduction to tools and methods one can use to improve the liveliness and expression of quick gestural drawings of the
human form.
Focusing on short poses (mostly 30 seconds to 2 minutes), students will practice techniques and exercises to develop hand-eye coordination and learn strategies for gesture drawings (such as in which order to start and develop the drawing) and improve their ability to draw quick and expressive drawings.
This workshop is appropriate for all levels including beginners. Demos and hands-on critiques are an important part of the instruction.
Cost: $70
To Register (or for questions), email Eric Saint Georges at ericsgc@hawaii.edu
Jennifer Bi Presents:
Charcoal Drawing Workshop
Mondays 6-9pm: Mar 30, Apr 6, Apr 13
Cost: $180 for all three sessions
From the organizer:
Learn how to use light and shadow to create 3-dimensional form in your drawings.
In the first of three sessions, you will learn simple observational drawing techniques and methods for working with charcoal. In the later sessions, we’ll study figure drawing with an emphasis on gesture and form and practice drawing from a live model.
Demonstrations, lectures, and critique will be offered.
Cost: $180 for all three sessions.
With questions please go to jennifer-bi.com/contact
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Jennifer Bi is a figurative artist and sculptor based in Santa Barbara. She studied fine art drawing and sculpture at Academy of Art in San Francisco in 2024.
Examples of her drawings can be found in the workshop flyer and at www.jennifer-bi.com
Mckenna Van Koppen + Chloe Shelton Present:
Wild at Heart
Art for the Wild at Heart
Public Art Show April 4th 11am-3pm
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From the organizer:
This body of work began with a dream. Each piece represents a fragment of that dream world, where animals guide us back to our wild nature. Growing from florals and adorned with gold, these figures symbolize transformation, magic, and the beauty found within both the natural world and ourselves.
Created during a season of personal homecoming and renewal, this series celebrates reconnection to the natural world and to the wild spirit that lives within us all.
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Mckenna Van Koppen is a contemporary wildlife painter based in Santa Barbara, California. Her work is bold, vibrant, and full of movement—capturing the spirit and energy of the natural world with both intensity and reverence. With a deep admiration for wildlife and wild places, she creates paintings in oils, mixed media, and gold leaf on surfaces ranging from intimate canvases to expansive outdoor murals.
At the heart of her practice is a love for the magic of art—its ability to transport, transform, and reconnect us. Her pieces are created to offer viewers a sense of wonder and a meaningful connection to beauty, wildlife, and the natural world. Through color, texture, and wild expression, Mckenna invites people to step away from the noise of daily life and immerse themselves in something untamed, luminous, and alive.
Lumina Nostri Presents:
Creative Cluster
Artist Way Creativity Course
Monday Nights 5:30-7:30PM beginning Jan 26 and ending April 20
What happens when you nurture your creativity?
From the organizer:
Lumina Nostri’s Sarah Emma Ruth is facilitating a 12 week exploration of Julia Cameron’s Artist way on Mondays from 5:30-7:30 starting January 26th.
Designed to reconnect us with our Creative within, the class can be enjoyed both as a drop in experience or full-season commitment.
The book, Artist Way by Julia Cameron, can be checked out at the library, purchased from Chaucers or ThriftBooks, or you can come in and experience it through hearsay.
The magic of this experience is the in-person community. As we deepen our connection to ourselves and the material, we become expanders for one another’s experience. This course is action-oriented, and aims to begin to answer to the question what happens when we invest in our own creativity.
The group is only open to Women and Gender minorities this round. 🙏
With questions and to sign up, e-mail luminanostri@gmail.com or go to https://bit.ly/luminanostri.
More information about the organizer.
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Sarah Emma Ruth, de Lumina Nostri, impartirá un curso de 12 semanas sobre El Camino del Artista, escrito por Julia Cameron, los lunes de 17:30 a 19:30pm. Diseñado para reconectarnos con nuestra creatividad interior, el curso se puede disfrutar tanto de forma puntual como con un compromiso para toda la temporada.
El libro El camino del artista, de Julia Cameron, se puede consultar en la biblioteca, comprar en Chaucers o ThriftBooks, o puedes venir y experimentarlo de primera mano.
La magia de esta experiencia es la comunidad presencial. A medida que profundizamos nuestra conexión con nosotros mismos y con el material, nos convertimos en amplificadores de la experiencia de los demás. Este curso está orientado a la acción y tiene como objetivo comenzar a responder a la pregunta de qué sucede cuando invertimos en nuestra propia creatividad.
El grupo solo está abierto a mujeres y minorías de género en esta ronda.
Para cualquier consulta o para registrarse, envíe un correo electrónico a luminanostri@gmail.com o visite https://bit.ly/luminanostrisp.
Tayllor and Ademola Oyewole-Davis Present:
Storytelling is the Revolution
What's Your Story?
Tuesday & Thursday 5-7pm Poetry Workshops for All
First Workshop: Tuesday December 2nd, 5pm
Showcase and Exhibition March 2026
Free!
At the Community Arts Workshop
Part of the SBAC Community Arts Residency Program
Create art that no only moves people but also moves the community forward.
Tayllor and Ademola Oyewole-Davis, artists and poets in the 2025-26 Community Arts Residency, are hosting and curating a poetic experience that celebrates all our stories and connects us as a community.
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Two FREE poetry workshops a week, starting in December, at the Community Arts Workshop
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Workshops are open to all (18+ years). Bring something to write with and on! Refreshments are provided.
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A safe community space for members to share their stories and write about them through poetry. We will support members in the writing, editing, and performance process, inviting members to perform in the exhibition in the March 2026.
Who Should Participate?
Anyone! All levels of experience are welcome, from no experience to a lot. The workshops seek to bring together people from all walks of life.
What's the Time Commitment?
Feel free to drop in for just one evening and see what it is about, or commit to as much as you choose. The workshops will build to a concluding showcase, but the point is to give our community a chance to write, share stories, and build connections.
About the Artists
Tayllor Oyewole-Davis is an educator, social impact strategist, and internationally recognized poet. As Founder of Sisterhood(verb), Inc., she merges the arts with community engagement to create sustainable, creative spaces. As Executive Assistant & Artist in Residence at The Riviera Ridge School, she develops arts-integrated programs and partnerships. Her work has been featured in global anthologies, galleries, and stages. Tayllor has presented at national conferences and received honors like the H. Elizabeth Braun Catalyst for Change Award. She holds an M.A. in Humanities and Social Thought from NYU and a B.A. in Psychology from Mount Holyoke College.
Ademola Oyewole-Davis is a Brooklyn-born singer, songwriter, poet, educator, and activist who has performed since age eight. His artistry spans the U.S., with recent collaborations alongside his father, Abiodun Oyewole of The Last Poets, and his upcoming solo project, "Lib(er)ation." With over seven years of teaching experience through Urban Word NYC and independent schools, Ademola cultivates creative, critical learning environments that empower everyone to speak truth and pursue justice.
Use the CAW
The CAW collaborates to empower and provide affordable space for art projects of all kinds. Have an idea? Use the CAW.
The Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative works to maintain the CAW as a "blank canvas" for as wide a diversity of arts uses and users as possible, providing space and collaborating with project initiators to make their ideas a success for the benefit of the broader community, and supporting and cultivating collaborations between artists and arts organizations, community groups, the business community, non-profit organizations and the entire community.
Find out more about how you can use the CAW here:
The SBAC facilitates the use of the CAW by artists, nonprofits, and community groups of all types; fostering exploration, conversation, collaboration, and connection to further its mission to sustain and grow all forms of the arts in Santa Barbara. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the users’ own, and do not necessarily represent those of the Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative. The SBAC welcomes all in the work to sustain and grow the unique cultural ecology of our community.