She was very interested in seeing the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and thanks to the nice musuem worker...
we saved $6 on her entree fee. Homie hooked us up. Students with ID (or children age 6 - 17) are supposed to be $6. He asked if TC was a student and then charged only us two adults. He didn't charge her because he assumed she was a student in the Santa Barbara area (they are actually free, K-12, which is cool). Well, we weren't complaining.
TC recently completed AP World History last year and knew about many of the god/goddesses and concepts we learned at this particular exhibit, "Puja and Piety". Photos were not allowed inside the musuem, only in the foyer, which had this inflatable reclining Buddha art piece.
The artist is Lewis deSoto's "Paranirvarna" (more info here).
See it in action, ha ha.
The main exhibit we saw was "Puja and Piety" (more info here plus a clickable gallery of the works featured).
From their website:
"This exhibition celebrates the complexity of South Asian representation and iconography by examining the relationship between aesthetic expression and the devotional practice, or puja, in the three native religions of the Indian subcontinent. Drawn from SBMA’s collection and augmented by loans, the exhibition presents some 160 objects of diverse medium created over the past two millennia for temples, home worship, festivals, and roadside shrines. From monumental painted temple hangings to meditation diagrams and portable pictures for pilgrims, from stone sculptures to processional bronzes and wooden chariots, from ancient terracottas to various devotional objects for domestic shrines, this exhibition aims to examine and provide contextualized insights for both classical and popular works of art."
Bert and I were very impressed that TC knew a lot about the Hindu dieties. I was surprised to learn that Ganesh (the god depicted as an elephant) had a sweet tooth. This special exhibit was very educational and it was amazing to see many of the pieces (paintings, tapestries, sculptures, etc) intact after so many years. Looking back to what we learned (or rather, didn't learn) in 10th grade, I feel we didn't learn anything! At least, nothing important enough to remember thirty years later, ha ha.
Within walking distance of the Museum was another Santa Barbara landmark, the Santa Barbara Courthouse (which also includes the Sunken Garden).
It's a beautifulSpanish style building with gorgeous details outside and inside. There is a Hall of Records and a chapel that folks can get married in. Best of all, there is a tower (which is free to ascend) which showcases spectacular views of the city.
Going through this archway will take you to the Sunken Garden (those photos at the end of this post).
There is a lot of intricate detail in here, from tiles to carved wood, ornate iron work and paintings...
Words cannot adequately describe how beautiful it is in here.
Inside the beautiful chapel. Just look at all of the paintings not only on the walls but the woodbeams...
This is blurry, but a there small exhibit about clocks as you go up the staircase to the tower:
Views at the top:
What a gorgeous day this was. There were quite a few visitors up here soaking in the sights. One gentleman was sitting on a bench. He felt dizzy from climbing the stairs and being up this high made him queasy, poor guy. The security guard was friendly also. He was chatting with Bert and we found out that he was originally from Hawaii but moved to Santa Barbara ten plus years ago and loved it here.
The Sunken Garden is a huge grass area where the city holds different events throughout the year. When I saw the word "garden", I guess I was thinking of more like a botanical garden or something with flowers, but this was just all grass. But still, it was a nice place for kids to run around or to just relax in the shade (or the sun).
Bert's standard "Bigfoot" pose. He always does this to me whenever I am taking a picture form afar, ha ha.
More gorgeous handpainted tiles:
Murall of the Ohlone Indians (I forgot where I took this photo, it might have been at the Courthouse or at a bank!):
A pretty short video highlighting the Courthouse and Sunken Garden:
Santa Barbara Museum of Art
1130 State St.
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
(805) 963-4364
www.sbma.net + reviews from tripadvisor and yelp
Santa Barbara Courthouse
1100 Anacapa St.
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
(805) 568-2220
www.santabarbaracourthouse.org/sbch + revews from tripadvisor and you know where
It was back to State Street, this time for some dessert at the newer location of a Santa Barbara fave...
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