Museum Goes Big with 300 Small Works
The 黑料百科 Ridley-Tree Museum of Art celebrates its fifth anniversary with a fundraising exhibition, 鈥5x5: Celebrating Five Years,鈥 from Aug. 28-Sept.11. The exhibition features more than 300 small-scale pieces of art that will be available for purchase through an online auction () that ends Thursday, Sept. 11, at 5 p.m. An artists鈥 reception with live music on Tuesday, Sept. 2, from 4-6 p.m., is free and open to the public.
Renowned artists Frank Gehry, Jessica Stockholder, Milton Glaser, Mark Ryden, Kinuko Craft and Chris Raschka have contributed to the fundraiser, which benefits the museum鈥檚 outreach and educational programming. More than two thirds of the contributing artists are from the local Tri-County area, including Dane Goodman, Richard Aber, Linda Ekstrom, Nicole Strasburg and Marie Schoeff.
鈥淚鈥檝e been delighted by the generous response to our fundraiser from Santa Barbara artists as well as nationally known artists,鈥 says Judy L. Larson, Askew professor of art history and director of the museum. 鈥淲e are grateful for their willingness to support the museum鈥檚 educational outreach efforts.
鈥淚t鈥檚 amazing how small, 5-inch squares of paper can be transformed into unique works of art.鈥
The exhibition features artwork in a variety of media, including oil paint, acrylic, watercolor, ink, printmaking, drawing, photography, sculpture, assemblage and collage.
The exhibition kicks off an ambitious season at the museum that features the west coast premiere of internationally famous (Dec. 11-Jan. 31) and 鈥淩embrandt and the Jews鈥 (Feb. 12-March 28).
The museum first opened during the 2010-11 season with an art collection of 453 objects, valued at $2 million. As of June 2014, the collection has grown to 1,545, valued at more than $15 million.
The museum is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. It is closed Sundays and college holidays. For more information, please visit or contact the museum at (805) 565-6162.