ON the Stage
Also coming up this week at the Lobero is AHA’s annual Sing It Out! performance, which features Glen Phillips along with the teens this year. Madeline Slogoff has the scoop here.
The Santa Barbara Bowl season is fully underway, with great shows from Disclosure (see Callie Fausey’s review here) and David Byrne (see my review here, spoiler alert: He’s freaking amazing) already in the books, and Charlie Puth coming our way on April 25, followed by James Taylor on May 6, and Flight of the Conchords on May 7. I’m also excited about the new Bowl-adjacent collaboration pop-up between The Shop (a breakfast favorite) and Validation Ale (with excellent beer and grub), which are now open for every Bowl show evening starting at 4 p.m. at 730 N. Milpas Street.
ON the Page
ON the Walls
If you haven’t yet had the chance, I would definitely recommend checking out Covering 40 Years, an exhibition on view at Santa Barbara Public Library’s Faulkner Gallery featuring 150 Independent covers spanning the four decades of newspapers that hit Santa Barbara’s newsstands every week. It’s quite a walk through Santa Barbara history, and it’s both calming and terrifying to see how many of the same issues — housing, oil, immigration, natural disasters — continue to make headlines year after year. Covering 40 Years is open to the public at the Faulkner Gallery through May 31. Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.
Artists of all ages and levels of experience are invited to be part of MCA Santa Barbara’s annual Arte Del Pueblo, which is always one of the most eclectically fun and diverse exhibitions in town. Check out the details in my story here.
ON the Opportunity Front
Speaking of Solstice, learn more about this year’s talented poster artist Larry Vigon here.
ON the Calendar
The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara’s (AFSB) 2026 Kids Draw Architecture (KDA) Sketch Session will be held at the Riviera Park (2020 Alameda Padre Serra) on Sunday, April 19, from 1-3 p.m. A tradition since 1988, kids are invited to sketch alongside artists, designers, and architects in an activity that honors and highlights Santa Barbara’s unique personality and promotes an understanding of the importance of architecture and design expression of the City of Santa Barbara through the simple activity of sketching.
This year’s featured site is Riviera Park, an historic 8.6-acre property located on the Santa Barbara Riviera. Built between 1912 and 1935, it once housed the first Normal School and later became an early iteration of the University of California, Santa Barbara, the Santa Barbara College. The KDA sketch session is free and drawing materials are provided…