Arte del Pueblo: Our Commitment & Description

Arte del Pueblo is both a celebration and a conviction that the walls of a contemporary art museum should reflect the full, unfiltered breadth of the community outside them.

Santa Barbara has a rich and vibrant creative community, one far more diverse than what has traditionally been seen on museum walls. This exhibition exists to change that. We hold ourselves accountable to making visible the full spectrum of voices, perspectives, and lived experiences that make up our region. We are especially committed to creating space for BIPOC artists and communities that have historically been excluded from museum exhibition programs, and we are dedicated to building an exhibition program where everyone feels welcome to participate.

The Process

To ensure true access, we remove traditional barriers. There is no theme. There are no jurors. There are no gatekeepers. Just art, and the community that makes it.

The Invitation

Our call is primarily directed to artists rooted in Santa Barbara and the Central Coast, as this is a celebration of our local ecosystem. However, our doors remain open to all artists regardless of location. We operate on a first-come, first-served basis, welcoming every creator regardless of background, training, or experience level.

The Work

We ask that artists submit new work, pieces never before shown publicly. We believe the museum should be a space for fresh creation and current dialogue. Painters, photographers, sculptors, printmakers, mixed media, and digital artists: if you make art and have new work to share, this show is for you.

Arte del Pueblo keeps growing because this community keeps showing up. That is the most powerful statement of all.

Special Exhibitions: Making Space for Local Artists

At the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, transformation is not just a word, it is a practice. As part of our ongoing commitment to building a more inclusive and community-rooted institution, we are expanding our summer programming this year to dedicate additional gallery space to local artists whose practices deserve a deeper, more sustained platform.

This is the first year we are programming in this way, and we are doing it with intention. We believe that a contemporary art museum rooted in Santa Barbara must actively create opportunities for local artists, not occasionally, not as an afterthought, but as a core part of who we are. We see this as a beginning. As we grow, we hope to expand these opportunities and deepen our relationships with the rich and diverse artistic community that surrounds us.

Alongside Arte del Pueblo, MCASB is proud to present two special solo exhibitions in our Norton Gallery and Classroom Gallery Memories of Barbed Wire by Tama Takahashi and Diagramming Sentences by Christina McPhee. These shows represent something new for MCASB: a deliberate effort to move beyond the open call format and invest in the individual voices of artists who live and work in our community, giving their work the space and attention it deserves.