SANTA BARBARA– Exhibition Opening: Sacred Art in the Age of Contact

SANTA BARBARA–The new exhibition brings together, for the first time, a diverse body of objects from local collections, from the first decades following the Chumash’s first contact with the Spanish, c. 1769-1824. Together, these materials offer a fuller picture of the relationship between art and spirituality in both Chumash and Spanish traditions, and demonstrate the sustained deployment of Chumash visual systems by native artists in early colonial visual culture. Highlighting themes of sacred geography, language, materiality and resistance, Sacred Art investigates the mutually transformative interaction between these traditions, which have immediate implications on the ways in which the cultural dynamics of Santa Barbara County are understood today. Exhibition Opening Celebration Thursday, September 14^th 5:30-7:00 pm Santa Barbara Historical Museum Free entry.  RSVP to reception@sbhistorical.org Note that theArt, Design and Architecture Museum, UC Santa Barbara will celebrate their opening on Wednesday, September 27^th, 5:30-7:30 pm. The exhibition will be on public view: Santa Barbara Historical Museum September 15 – January 14, 2018 Art, Design & Architecture Museum, UC Santa Barbara September 16 – December 8, 2017 Sacred Art is curated by Maggie Bell and Diva Zumaya, Adjunct Assistant Curators and Doctoral Candidates, History of Art and Architecture, UC Santa Barbara and is organized by the Art, Design & Architecture Museum, UC Santa Barbara.