The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM) is bringing back its Curated Cocktail programs and Longshot Bar. On the second Thursday of each month, May through December, SBMM will host a Curated Cocktail event on its patio, 5-7 p.m., with the first one scheduled for Thursday, May 12.
Each program’s theme will focus on the museum’s lecture series, an important historic maritime event, a current exhibit, or items from the museum’s collections. Each will feature a speaker, a signature cocktail, a full bar, and refreshments.
While free for SBMM Navigators Circle members, all other SBMM members will be able to attend for $20. Navigators Circle members should RSVP to mdonelan@sbmm.org; other museum members can register at https://sbmm.org; and members of the general public who are not members, may join and pay at the door or become members by visiting https://sbmm.org/membership/.
For its first event, the Curated Cocktails theme will be the visit to Santa Barbara of the Great White Fleet 114 years ago during the last week of April 1908. Featured speaker Lydia Kaestner, SBMM’s collections manager, will discuss an antique copper halftone plate printing block, from the SBMM collection.
The plate was used to reproduce an innovative panoramic image of the fleet and local festivities for newspapers and postcards of the time.
SBMM’s in-person lecture, at 7 p.m. May 19 is “Dearest Minnie: A Sailor’s Story, ” the story of the Great White Fleet told through postcards sent by one of the sailors to his girlfriend in 1907 and 1908.
The Curated Cocktails program began in the fall of 2021. Last year’s attendees heard from maritime experts including surfboard shaper Renny Yater, artist John Comer, and the crew of SBMM’s flagship Ranger.
During each Curated Cocktails event, the Museum Store will be open and the museum itself will be open for guided tours with Executive Director Greg Gorga. For more, visit sbmm.org or call 805-962-8404 for details.
