450 Years of Cuban Architecture in 45 Minutes

A Lecture by Brent Winebrenner, Photographer

Thursday, June 7, 2018

Reception 6-7 pm / Lecture 7-8 pm

Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara

The Cuba that we know lies beneath a crumbling facade, the silent victim of the relentless family feud between the Castro brothers and the aging exiles in Miami’s Little Havana.  While true that most of Cuba’s architectural heritage is in irreparable ruins, there are priceless treasures that have been lovingly maintained, often hidden from even the most observant visitor’s eye.

Join Brent Winebrenner for an entertaining and enlightening survey of Cuba’s architectural heritage. Along the way, he’ll provide an overview of the social, economic, physical and political forces that shaped the continually evolving Cuban architectural trends – from the early colonial period until May 1, 1961, the day that Fidel stopped time and declared Cuba a socialist state.

Unseen and Unheard: Accidental Musing

March 16 – May 12, 2018

“Unseen and Unheard: Accidental Musings” evolves from Gebhart’s background in science and art history.  Her organic compositions resonate with sumptuous textures and images, meandering line formations and color transparencies.  Each work on paper is a unique, one-of-a-kind viscosity monotype—a printmaking technique that lends itself to the creation of luminous effects, chaos, and turbulence. Over the last decade, the topography of the Southwest influenced her horizons, undulating lines and explosions of color.

Educated first in the health professions, Gebhart then went on to learn art history and printmaking.  After attending Immaculate Heart College, she earned a BA in Art History at the California State University in Los Angeles, followed by art classes in Santa Barbara and workshops in traditional etching techniques at Crown Point Press in San Francisco.  She makes annual visits to Santa Fe to develop her skills in printmaking and is a Docent at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

Modernist Inventions of the Brazilian Baroque

Thursday, July 19, 2018, Reception 5-6 pm / Lecture 6-7 pm
229 E. Victoria Street.

This talk explores how the “Brazilian Baroque” was reinvented by leading intellectuals and architects in mid-twentieth century Brazil as a forerunner of a national modernist architectural idiom. We will see some of the most important late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Baroque churches, and consider how these buildings, during the Getúlio Vargas dictatorship, served to support nationalist politics through the construction of a “Brazilian” architectural lineage. In the process, Baroque architecture and sculpture in Brazil, particularly the works of “Aleijadinho” [Antônio Francisco Lisboa] (1730/8-1814) with the works of leading modernist architects and planners, such as Oscar Niemeyer (1907-1912) and Lúcio Costa (1902-1998).

There is a suggested donation of $10.00 to attend the lecture. There are 32 seats available for the lecture. Tickets will be sold on a first-come-first-served basis via Eventbrite, at the door, or by calling 805-965-6307.