Earlier this year, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s Board of Trustees faced a difficult decision. An architectural assessment of the museum’s Ridley-Tree Educational Center in McCormick House revealed that the 85-year-old building required extensive renovations to bring it up to code.
Originally a private home, the property at 1600 Santa Barbara St. was inhabited by benefactress Katherine McCormick from the 1940s until her death at age 92. She bequeathed the property to the museum in 1967, and it was renovated in 1991 thanks to the generosity of Lord Paul and Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree.
After months of research and discussion, the board made a bold move. Rather than raise funds for renovation, the board chose to put the property up for sale and use the proceeds to endow a fund to support ongoing and future education activities. The decision was unanimous.
While McCormick House has not yet hit the market, the museum has doubled down on its education programs for adults and children with the opening of the Art Learning Lab.
“The heart of education at the museum remains the same,” said Patsy Hicks, the museum’s longtime education director. “Programming is more important than a building. We can make magic anywhere, as art exists everywhere. There are no borders.”
The new lab is adjacent to the museum in areas that housed the Museum Store, the Family Resource Center and, at one time, a café. Museum Store fans should not despair, as plans are underway for a pop-up shop in the museum’s atrium.
It is free to visit, and is open from noon to 4 p.m. on weekends and from 5 to 7 p.m. on First Thursdays. Also, museum admission is free on the second Sunday of each month. Visit sbma.net for more information.
It’s an open sunny area, with large windows and an entrance onto State Street. A second, larger studio classroom is farther back, along with a room for prep, storage, and offices for the seven teaching artists.
“This new space gives kids a sense of the whole museum. They see curators hanging shows, get to know the guards, and the director might even stop by,” Hicks said. “They see that the museum is connected to the street and that we are part of the community.”
On a recent Sunday at noon, all spaces were abuzz with activity.
A group of 40 Cal Poly education students arrived hours earlier, completed an art project and were touring the galleries.
The interior classroom was full for an adult Studio Sunday collage workshop based on the current solo exhibition of works by Elliott Hundley.
Members of the public were coming in, many snagged by Joshua Alan, a visitor service associate who was on the sidewalk by the entrance.
“I’m like a circus barker, as I am trying to engage people,” he said with a smile. “Creation and art-making are for everybody, and we want to be open and inviting. I’m more like an ambassador, as I try to meet people on their level.”
Clara Tang and Andrew Northrop were visiting from San Francisco with their young son, Bobby. An older son, Nicholas, is a construction management student at Santa Barbara City College.
“We were just walking through town and wanted to find something for Bobby to do,” Tang said.
Each family member engaged in a different activity. Clara was weaving, using materials provided in a communal area, beneath a display of woven works by past visitors. Andrew was nearby, making a black and white collage, picking from what appeared to be thousands of images on paper, plus pins and tiny figurative objects.
Bobby was shaping a pear from clay, the activity showcased for that week and inspired by Katherine Schmidt’s “Precious Pear,” a still-life painting in the museum’s collection. Once sculpted to his liking, he would paint it and let it air-dry.
“I give them clay, and they do what they want,” said Loree Gold, one of the lab’s teaching artists. “Everyone can explore as they like, what I call ‘free-range art-making.’ They just have to bring their own mojo.”
Friendly and approachable, Gold has been with the education team for 25 years, serving first as a volunteer docent for a year, and then was hired.
“The themed projects allow visitors to experience something different each week, be it in clay, paint, drawing or another medium,” Gold said. “There’s something for everyone, in both individual and collaborative spaces.”
She noted that several store fixtures are still in place, which reflects the museum’s commitment to reuse and repurpose not only art supplies but furniture, clothing and more.
A packing crate that once held artwork is now a cozy nook to read one of the many children’s books about art and artists from a nearby bookcase.
A former display case is now a “curio cabinet” and features objects intended to spark the imaginations of children (and adults) before they begin their art projects. One shelf features antique items used to make oil paint, such as muddlers, bottles of linseed oil and turpentine, ground pigments and a palette knife.
The Cal Poly students returned from their tour, and Josie Croy picked up the clay lemon she had made.
“This project was great because it used materials available to young students,” she said. “We got to experience how it would work in an elementary school setting.”
In the collage workshop, instructor Nicola Gherson helped students complete their work. She’s a teaching artist as well as an instructor for after-school programs and the museum’s popular Summer Art Camps, which are moving into the new lab this year.
Workshop participant Sara Moses shared her inspiration with the group.
“It’s on the theme of love, as I am becoming a matchmaker,” she said. “I thought it was done, but Nicola suggested adding pins, which brought it all together.”
“Hang it in your new office,” a classmate suggested, a fitting completion to the process that drives this new space — conceive by inspiration, make real through creativity and bring to life as art.