Now at the CAW
Brad Nack Presents:
The Cat Room and Other Decorative Splendours
Brad Nack's new and biggest art show
Opening: Friday Sept. 5th, 6-10 pm
Gallery Hours Saturday-Tuesday, Sept. 6-9 | 12–6 PM
From the organizer:
Opening Reception 6 - 10pm Friday Sept. 5th, 2025
With special guest DJ set 8-9pm by DJ Espinaca (aka Spencer)
You are invited to the opening reception for "The Cat Room and Other Decorative Splendours" Friday Sept. 5th, from 6-10pm.
Over 100+ original works of art in Nack's largest one person show to date.
The Cat Room will feature cat themed pieces in the Olsen Gallery while The Shed Gallery will showcase an array of Nack's decorative pieces old and new.
From 8-9pm there will be a special guest DJ set by DJ Espinaca (A.K.A. Spencer).
Save the date! 6-10pm, Friday Sept. 5th, 2025 I hope to see you at the opening reception.
Can’t make the opening?
The galleries will also be open:
Saturday, Sept. 6th | 12–6 PM
Sunday, Sept. 7th | 12–6 PM
All ages welcome. With questions please contact artwork.bradnack@gmail.com
The Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative Presents:
Ready to Hang
Artist Submissions open Sept 1, 2025
Community-Wide Art Show
One of Our Region's Largest Exhibitions of Local Art
Ready to Hang is a community-wide art show that brings together artists of all stripes for an art sale and party, building our creative community. It is one of our region's largest showcases of local art.
We are seeking all types of art - painting, print, fabric, photography, assemblage, clay, wood, and more! Each piece must be exactly 12 x 12 inches, no more, no less and no more than 5 inches deep, and ready to hang.
All styles, all mediums, all experience levels, all ages, all people.
Visit sbcaw.org/hang for more.
Now in its 6th year, Ready to Hang has become a beloved showcase of our community's visual artists. The diversity of work represented boggles the mind, and there are few opportunities like it for so many artists to mix and mingle, form connections, sell their work, and build creative community.
If you are an artist, please participate! If you are an art appreciator, this event is not to be missed. This show brings together emerging and established artists alike. There is something here for experienced collectors as well as first time art buyers. For some art buyers, it is their first purchase, and for some artists, it is their first sale.
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Art Intake: Monday, November 17, 8AM - 7PM and Tuesday, November 18, 8AM - 1PM
Private Artists' Party: Friday, November 21, 6- 9PM
Public Sale: Saturday, November 22, 4 - 9PM
At the Community Arts Workshop, 631 Garden Street, Santa Barbara
Eric Saint Georges Presents:
Figure Drawing Workshop
Saturday September 6th, 2025, 9am-12:30pm
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: $60
To Register (or for questions), email Eric Saint Georges at ericsgc@hawaii.edu
The Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative and Patrick Melroy of MISC Workshop Present:
Area Meeting
A Place for Creative Exchange
Next Area Meeting September 9, 6-8pm
$10
A Place for Creative Exchange
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.
Keynote Presenter
The keynote speaker for September will be local artist Madeleine Eve Ignon is a multimedia artist and graphic designer who works in a variety of techniques. Her work explores the ways painting, graphic design, and craft can be combined, both conceptually and formally. She has been awarded residencies at Starry Night Program (Truth or Consequences, New Mexico), Vermont Studio Center, Drop Forge & Tool (Hudson, NY) and Spring Creek Project at Oregon State University, and has exhibited nationally and internationally.
Open Discussion
The second half of Area Meeting is an open discussion with selected artists presenting physical work—unfinished pieces, experimental projects, or newly completed works—inviting direct input from attendees. Led by facilitator Patrick Melroy, 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.
10 Local Artists, in Collaboration with the CAW, Present:
Little Shop of Hoarders
Art Show — Artist Swap Meet — Pancakes
"Where Chaos meets Curation"
Art Show Opening Night: Friday Sept. 12, 5PM to 8PM
Swap Meet: Saturday Sept. 13, 9AM - 3PM
Gallery show runs Sept 12-21, open hours Fridays 10AM to 5PM, and by appointment. (Text 805-324-7443.)
From the organizer:
Twenty five Barbie heads, fifteen glass door knobs, two thousand burned matches... assemblage artists are notorious collectors.
Whether you are an assemblage artist or not, Little Shop of Hoarders Swap Meet is your opportunity to clear out the storage unit, the garage, your secret stash of postage stamps… and all the money you make from sales you keep.
Little Shop of Hoarders was the brain child of Michael Long and Sue Van Horsen who thought they would invite their artists friends and others to participate in a “junk“ extravaganza at the CAW. So...
Sign up for a vendors' space now! Space is limited. The Swap Meet is 9/13, one day only. Vendor application closes 9/8/25, 11:45pm.
Got… Ephemera, Junk, Treasures, Antiques, Art, Assemblage Fixin’s, Collage Collateral? Little Shop of Hoarders is for you! BUT THERE’S MORE!
LITTLE SHOP OF HOARDERS ART SHOW — Opening Night Friday Sept. 12, 5PM to 8PM
Ten Local Assemblage/Collage Artists have been invited to participate in the Little Shop of Hoarders Art Show. Featured Artists: Adrienne De Guevara, Leslie Ekker, Gisele Grable, Skip Lau, Dan LeVin, Michael Long, Vanae Rivera, Dug Uyesaka, Sue Van Horsen, and Frank Whipple.
ARTIST SWAP MEET — Saturday Sept. 13, 9AM - 3PM
PANCAKE BREAKFAST FUNDRAISER — Saturday Sept. 13, 9AM - 1PM
Lead pancake flipper: Patrick Melroy. Proceeds go to the CAW.
Gallery show runs Sept 12-21, open hours Fridays 10AM to 5PM, and by appointment. (Text 805-324-7443.)
The Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative Presents:
Art KIT:
Marketing & Promotion for Creatives
Sunday, Sept 14, 1-3pm, at the Community Arts Workshop
A hands-on workshop and discussion
$10
Art KIT (Know Important Tools) continues its program expansion in 2025 with its fifth educational event of the year, Marketing Your Artwork.
Art KIT: Marketing Your Artwork hosts three panelists, Lauren Gonzales of the Santa Barbara Airport, Cecilia Martini Muth of the Lobero Theatre, and Alex Ramirez of Desmadre Media. Our experts are generously donating their time to discuss topics like how to define your work, finding your target audience, making decisions about how to sell your work, and identifying a budget and strategy for getting your work out into the world.
Art KIT is aimed at serving artists in Santa Barbara County and the surrounding areas. This program summons artists to share the challenges and the successes of working in an economy that undervalues the way in which artistic contributions are woven into the fabric of human life.
Creative practice doesn’t often fit neatly into standard business practices and the mercurial nature of the work requires different approaches. This next panel discussion will focus on marketing, with the goal to support creatives in understanding the value of their work and sharing insights that are relevant to their unique practices.
The Brill Family Foundation Presents:
Symbiosis or Schism?
The AI-Human Odyssey
October 2-12, 2025, at the Community Arts Workshop
Opening Reception: Thursday October 2, 5:30-8:30pm
Gallery hours Fridays 10a-5pm, and by appointment
From the organizer:
"Symbiosis or Schism? The AI-Human Odyssey" is an AI Art exhibition showing at the Community Arts Workshop in Santa Barbara from October 2-12, 2025 with an opening reception event on October 2nd from 5:30-8:30pm. This event will be included as a stop on the 1st Thursday Art Walk, and promises to be an exciting evening filled with music, keynote speakers, artist presentations, a grant award ceremony and refreshments, as well as a first peak at the innovative and incredible work of all the artists involved.
This exhibition invites you to witness a conversation between human imagination and artificial intelligence—a dialogue where art becomes the shared language.
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The Brill Family Foundation is currently interested in finding ways to encourage the use of emerging technologies like AI and AR in the Arts to positively impact human consciousness and engender qualities like empathy, trust, connection, and awe.
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.