The Wildling Museum of Art and Nature will mark its 20th anniversary with a special exhibition — 20/20: A Retrospective — celebrating its history in the Santa Ynez Valley. An opening reception, 4-6 p.m. Sunday, April 5, will showcase 20 works spanning two decades of exhibitions, representing one work for each year of the Wildling Museum’s history.
The public is invited to celebrate the opening with birthday cake and refreshments at the museum, 1511-B Mission Drive, Solvang. The exhibit runs April 5-Sept. 7. To attend the opening, RSVP in advance by emailing Julie Mock at julie@wildlingmuseum.org or call 805-686-8315.
Featured works include selections on loan from significant past exhibits, such as historical California paintings by artists Ray Strong and Milford Zornes, as well as highlights from the museum’s permanent collection of nearly 150 works of art, including a 19th century landscape by John Fery, block printing by Everett Ruess, contemporary photography by David Paul Bayles, and plein air works by such local artists as John Iwerks.
The Wildling Museum has organized more than 100 exhibitions in its history, but the museum has true grassroots. Founder Patti Jacquemain first discussed the idea of a museum at home with friends and colleagues in 1997.
“I had a crazy idea to start an organization that, through art, would show the beauty and diversity of our country’s natural lands and the importance of preserving them,” Jacquemain said.
The Wildling Museum came to fruition just three years later and first opened its doors in May 2000 in Los Olivos.
“We knew it would take a lot of work to make the Wildling Museum a reality, because we had no facility, no money, and no art,” said Jacquemain of the museum’s early days.
“But we had faith and were hopeful that, despite the large number of museums and nonprofit organizations in Santa Barbara, an art museum focused on showing the beauty and diversity of nature throughout America could be successful and make a difference to the community,” she said.
The Wildling has grown dramatically in the time since, ultimately moving to Solvang in 2013, where the museum has remained focused on a mission of inspiring a passion and appreciation for nature through art.
Opening concurrently with 20/20: A Retrospective is the Wildling Museum’s inaugural Tower Gallery exhibit featuring Remembering Bud Bottoms: A Legacy of Art and Activism. The display features sea life sculpture works by the Santa Barbara artist locally renowned for his iconic Dolphin Family sculpture at the base of Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara.
Bottoms (1928-2018) was an internationally known sculptor, artist, and environmental activist. He began his art education at Jefferson Machamer School of Art in Santa Monica from 1947-48 and furthered his studies at UCSB, 1948-1952.
He worked for a numbe of years as an art director for General Electric’s think tank, TEMPO. However, in 1978 after a powerful dream featuring a woman embracing a dolphin, he was inspired to sculpt, and began committing significant time and effort to marine mammal awareness and protection.
Before that dream, Bottoms became a committed environmental activist in 1969 after Santa Barbara experienced a significant oil blowout that polluted the ocean and devastated local beaches, killing sea birds and marine life. He helped establish the small, but influential group, Get Oil Out (GOO) that organized immediately following the tragic spill.
In the 1980s, Bottoms created the Dolphin Family sculpture atop the fountain at Santa Barbara’s Stearns Wharf, and created numerous other works at locations across the globe, including installations in Ireland, Japan and Mexico, as well as throughout the U.S.
The Wildling Museum of Art and Nature presented Bottoms with irs Wilderness Spirit Award in 2015 to honor his legacy of art and environmental advocacy. Bottoms was a friend to the local indigenous Chumash tribes, as well as a voice for the creatures of the sea.
The Wildling Museum’s 20th anniversary festivities continue Sunday, April 26, as the museum hosts its 17th Annual Spring BBQ Fundraiser, sponsored by Northern Trust.
The fundraiser has grown into a landmark event that coincides with the Wildling Museum’s Wilderness Spirit Award, an annual recognition of a person or group that strives to bring awareness to wilderness protection and preservation.
This year, the Wildling Museum will present the 2020 Wilderness Spirit Award to underwater photographer and author Richard Salas, whose work embodies the Wildling’s mission of bringing art and nature together as a means of preserving our wild spaces.
For more information, visit: www.wildlingmuseum.org/news/spring-bbq-2020, call 805-686-8315, or stop by the Wildling Museum.
The museum is open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekends; closed on Tuesdays. For more information, and to volunteer or join as a member, visit www.wildlingmuseum.org.