News & Events

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to announce the opening of FARE TRADE, an exhibition of photographs of taquerias in Central California by Patricia Houghton Clarke and lunch bars in Western Australia by Brett Leigh Dicks.

An opening reception will be held at the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara on Friday, March 21st from 5 – 7 p.m. Brett and Patricia will give an Artist Talk on Saturday, March 29, at 2 p.m. with Maria Salguero, a Senior Staff Attorney from the Immigrant Legal Defense Center. 10% of all art sales will be donated to the Immigrant Legal Defense Fund.

Photographers Clarke and Dicks have recently turned their reportorial lenses to vernacular architecture found on two different continents—taquerias in Central California and lunch bars in Western Australia.

The vivid colors and bold signage of these fast-food establishments situated on opposite sides of the equator are emblematic of how they similarly forge and fuel their communities. Both are typically family-owned businesses that possess a dogged determination to withstand the corporate fast-food onslaught—an ethos that Clarke, who has lived and photographed in Santa Barbara for five decades, has long embraced:

“These are cherished places where one can find far more than basic nourishment. The sense of community and service, joyful music, bold decorations, and financially accessible meals expands our broader sensibility of not only what it means to feed oneself in America, but what it means to be an American.”

Dicks, a long-time resident of Santa Barbara, experienced a sense of dislocation after moving to Western Australia in 2019. He was attracted by the visual quirkiness and working-class vibe of the Lunch Bars there: