We hope you can join us for the Annual Kids Draw Architecture sketch session! It will be held at Riviera Park on Sunday, April 19th from 1 -3 p.m. This is a FREE event, and all sketching materials are provided.
March 28 – May 30, 2026, at the Architectural Foundation Gallery
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 28th, 2 – 4 p.m.
Artist Talk: Saturday, April 25th, 2 – 3 p.m.
The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to announce the opening of PINHOLE NOIR, an exhibition of recent pinhole camera photographs by Lindsay Skutch.
An opening reception will be held at the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara on Saturday, March 28, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Skutch will present an Artist Talk in the gallery on Saturday, April 25, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Lindsay Skutch’s striking black & white photographs of familiar sites and sights in Southern California are taken with pinhole cameras she constructs using Sanka coffee cans, cardboard CBD containers, and Christmas cookie tins. The photographs have an eerie, outside of time feeling—like buried memories or dimly remembered dreams.
Pinhole cameras are a form of camera obscura (Latin for dark chamber)—a room or box with a small opening that allows light to pass through a tiny aperture, or pinhole, and project an inverted image of what is outside onto photographic paper on the opposite surface inside.
The exposure varies depending on location, sun direction and subject matter. The paper is processed in a darkroom, and it becomes the negative. Skutch prints all her photographs from cameras she makes and the negatives she processes.
The camera obscura/pinhole camera technique has been used since the 16th century by artists like Leonardo da Vinci; also, as a way of observing eclipses without looking directly at the sun and damaging the eyes.
Lindsay Skutch grew up in Greenwich, Conn. She was 13 years old when her father built her a dark room and she discovered that photography was her voice. She attended Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, Calif.
After a successful, 38-year career in Los Angeles and New York producing global commercials with directors John Frankenheimer, Sidney Pollock, Alfonso Cuaron, and Kathryn Bigelow, Skutch now revels in the chance element involved in making pinhole photographs:
“You have no idea if the negative will turn out or what the image is truly going to look like. There is no viewfinder and no way of knowing if the tin can is even pointing at what you want it to.”
She credits Marian Roth of Provincetown, Mass. for teaching her the basics of this art form. Roth once said to her, “I make photographs, I don’t take photographs.”
The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara (AFSB) seeks to promote quality in architecture, art, and design by fostering an understanding of excellence in the urban environment. The AFSB offers diverse programs serving Santa Barbara County that provide educational opportunities for the community with participation from local architects and design professionals. Learn more at afsb.org.
2026 Finalists (L to R): Kira Grama, Benke Sepulveda, Grace Oberg, Nicole Velandia, Keith Mullen, Itzel Vasquez-Fernandez, Cas Elliott, Nico Ruffenach, Winslow Seamans, Isabell Payne, Bella Da Re, Evie Beuville
1st Place: Isabelle (Bella) Da Re, 11th grade, Dos Pueblos High School
2nd Place: Isabell Payne, 11th grade, San Marcos High School
3rd Place: Winslow Seamans, 10th grade, Midland School
Honorable Mention: Benke Sepulveda, 11th grade, Dunn School
Honorable Mention: Cas Elliott, 12th grade, Olive Grove Charter School
Sixty-three students from 15 Santa Barbara County high schools participated in design charrettes on February 24th at two locations: Santa Barbara City College and Allan Hancock College. Twelve finalists presented their designs during a Juried Review on February 28th at Elverhøj Museum in Solvang.
Over the past 35 years, thousands of students have gone through this rigorous and fun design challege. This year’s competition challenges students to design their home in the year 2026.
Congratulations on all who participated! It was a joy to have this competition and we look forward to another year of the High School Architectural Design Competition!
For more details, visit our High School Design Competition Page.
January 17 – March 14, 2026, at the Architectural Foundation Gallery
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 17th, 2 – 4 p.m.
Artist Talk: Saturday, February 21st, 2 – 3 p.m.
The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to announce People & Places by Santa Barbara Printmakers, an exhibition of unframed, 10” x 10” prints in a wide range of artistic expression and printmaking techniques.
An opening reception will be held at the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara on Saturday, January 17, 2026, 2 – 4 p.m. All are welcome!
A panel discussion, When Is A Print No Longer A Print?, will take place on Saturday, February 21, 2026, at 2 p.m. Featured speakers are Mollie Doctrow (environmental woodcut Artist, Curator Emerita at the South Florida State College Museum of Florida Art & Culture), Stephanie Dotson (Artist, Associate Professor of Art at SBCC), and Meagan Stirling (Artist, Associate Professor of Art at Westmont College).
The Santa Barbara Printmakers (SBP) is a group of Artists dedicated to creating and presenting prints made using hand and press printing techniques: etching, engraving, monotype, monoprint, woodcut, collagraph, linocut, lithography, and serigraph/silkscreen.
These diverse Artists use techniques ranging from basic (linocuts) to complex (viscosity etchings, Chine collé) and from traditional (Japanese moku hanga woodblock) to contemporary (photopolymer etchings of digitally manipulated photographs). Many of the prints are hybrids that combine one or more techniques and multiple plates. Regardless of the techniques used, magical moments occur whenever a piece of paper and an inked plate are pressed together and the paper is lifted from the inked surface to reveal the image–in reverse!
Their artistic explorations include impressionist, expressionist, realistic, abstract, and conceptual approaches – at times mystical, whimsical, meditative, and heartfelt.
In 2018, Josef Woodard wrote, “Santa Barbara’s printmaking scene… is alive, well, and in forward motion.” In 2026, this lively exhibition is proof of that momentum!
Currently the SBP has 65 members and operates under the guidance of a volunteer coordinating committee. Members include emerging and established artists throughout the California Central Coast. The organization evolved over several decades from a small group of Artists known as the Monotype Guild (1989) into the larger membership organization it is today..
The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara (AFSB) seeks to promote quality in architecture, art, and design by fostering an understanding of excellence in the urban environment. The AFSB offers diverse programs serving Santa Barbara County that provide educational opportunities for the community with participation from local architects and design professionals. Learn more at afsb.org.
Architecture looks different in every corner of the world — and through a child’s eyes, it becomes even more magical. Our Kids Draw Architecture program is inspired by how children from around the world see their built environment — from familiar streets to grand monuments. Each drawing tells a story, invites us to explore a culture, and reminds us that architecture speaks a universal language.
We are delighted to share this beautiful piece of creativity from a young artist in Turkey! We hope these drawings spark your imagination, just as it has ours, a wonderful reminder that great ideas and inspiration can come from anywhere.
The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to announce that the Youtube video for the free public forum on housing policy with Assemblymember Gregg Hart is available HERE!
CA State Assemblymember Gregg Hart: Housing Policy Public Forum
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 at 6:00 pm
Robertson Auditorium at the Balboa Building, 735 State Street
Watch the Public Forum on Youtube Here
A Santa Barbara local who previously served as a Planning Commissioner, City Councilmember, and County Supervisor, Assemblymember Gregg Hart brings a unique understanding of our local needs to Sacramento. Assemblymember Hart will offer context about our regional housing needs, highlight promising housing efforts that are worthy of support, and share his perspective on certain concerning Builder’s Remedy development proposals that exploit state law to disregard community standards.
September 6 – November 1, 2025 at the Architectural Foundation Gallery
Artist Talk: Saturday, October 25th at 2 p.m.
Press: Read Josef Woodard’s article in The Independent here.
The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to present an artist talk on Saturday, October 25 at 2 p.m. with Madeleine Ignon on her exhibition the taut and the lush, a series of multimedia works made during Ignon’s pregnancy and the first year and half of her daughter’s life, when she was contending with a new reality—daily paradoxes of the mundane and the miraculous, the ordinary and the life-changing.
Reservations are recommended but not required: (805) 965-6307 or lydia@afsb.org.
The Architectural Foundation Gallery is located at 229 East Victoria Street, in Santa Barbara at the corner of Victoria and Garden Streets. Gallery hours are Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. and by appointment.
The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara (AFSB) seeks to promote quality in architecture, art, and design by fostering an understanding of excellence in the urban environment. The AFSB offers diverse programs serving Santa Barbara County that provide educational opportunities for the community with participation from local architects and design professionals. Learn more at afsb.org.
September 6 – November 1, 2025 at the Architectural Foundation Gallery
Opening Reception: Friday, September 5th from 5 – 7 p.m.
Artist Talk: Saturday, October 25th at 2 p.m.
The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to announce the opening of the taut and the lush, an exhibition of recent works by Madeleine Eve Ignon.
An opening reception will be held at the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara on Friday, September 5th from 5 – 7 p.m. Ignon will give an artist talk at the gallery on Saturday, October 25th at 2 p.m.
Using a phrase borrowed from friend, artist, poet, and mother Kathleen Loe, the taut and the lush describes two modes of being within the state and space of motherhood, and two ways of making marks. Expanding on Ignon’s earlier concerns and themes, these multimedia works were made during Ignon’s pregnancy and the first year and half of her daughter’s life, when she was contending with a new reality—daily paradoxes of the mundane and the miraculous, the ordinary and the life-changing. Incorporating painting, stitchery and more, Ignon attempts to convey the surreality, the emotional landscape, and the splitting of self that come with becoming a parent for the first time.
Ignon is a multimedia artist and graphic designer. Her work explores the ways painting, graphic design, and craft can be combined, both conceptually and formally. She has been awarded residencies at Starry Night Program (Truth or Consequences, New Mexico), Vermont Studio Center, Drop Forge & Tool (Hudson, New York), Spring Creek Project at Oregon State University, and has exhibited nationally and internationally. Her work has been featured in LUM Art Magazine (a publication she has also written for) as well as Carpinteria magazine. She teaches graphic design at Santa Barbara City College and art at UC Santa Barbara’s College of Creative Studies. She earned her MFA from UCSB in 2019. She is one-half of the experimental curatorial collaborative Beta Epochs, and was a 2023–24 artist-in-residence at Taft Gardens and Nature Preserve in Ojai, CA.
Find Madeleine’s work online at madeleineignon.com or on Instagram @madeveart
The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara (AFSB) seeks to promote quality in architecture, art, and design by fostering an understanding of excellence in the urban environment. The AFSB offers diverse programs serving Santa Barbara County that provide educational opportunities for the community with participation from local architects and design professionals. Learn more at afsb.org.
May 31 – August 9, 2025 at the Architectural Foundation Gallery
Artist Talk: Saturday, March 29th at 2 p.m.
Gallery Hours: Saturdays from 1 – 4 p.m.
The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to announce A conversation with Marcia Rickard and Architectural Historian Dennis Doordan. The discussion will take place on July 12th at 2 p.m. GIMME SHELTER is an exhibition of paintings and prints by Marcia Rickard that highlight the fragility of “home” in a world fraught by war and natural disasters.
Art is a way to confront what scares and scars us. Local artist Marcia Rickard has created a body of work that addresses the human tragedy caused by the physical destruction of home, be it Aleppo, Ukraine, Gaza, Los Angeles—or Santa Barbara.
GIMME SHELTER includes paintings, drypoint prints, monotypes, paintings, and fabric pieces with images of current events often added as collage elements and photo transfers. Despite the perverse allure of such images (sometimes referred to as “disaster porn”), Rickard asks us not to forget the human lives impacted by such events. Her work reflects the human dimension that loss of shelter—a place of personal safety, a refuge, a home—means, the recognition that in today’s world, this could suddenly be any of us.
“… I am drawn to the horrifying yet mesmerizing daily news photographs of destruction— war, terrorism, environmental degradation, natural disasters—that emphasize the fragility of our world.”
Marcia Rickard is a retired art historian (Professor Emerita from Saint Mary’s College, Indiana) who maintained a consistent artistic practice throughout her thirty-four years of teaching art history courses ranging from European Gothic art to Indonesian textiles. Since moving to Santa Barbara in 2019, she has studied printmaking with Siu Zimmerman.
The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara (AFSB) seeks to promote quality in architecture, art, and design by fostering an understanding of excellence in the urban environment. The AFSB offers diverse programs serving Santa Barbara County that provide educational opportunities for the community with participation from local architects and design professionals. Learn more at afsb.org.