Life theArts ‘Politics of Beauty’

Film celebrates life and legacy of Stewart Udall

Calendar

The calendar appears Mondays through Saturdays in the “Life & the Arts” section. Items are welcome. Please email them a full week before the event to Managing Editor Dave Mason at dmason@ newspress.com.

TODAY 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. : The Isla Vista Juggling Festival takes place with open juggling at the UCSB Multi-Activity Court. The festival runs today through Sunday. For more about the festival, visit sbjuggle.org. The festival is a fundraiser for Standing Together to End Sexual Assault. For more information, see sbstesa.org.

10 a.m. to noon. A Rolled Paper Picture Frame workshop will take place at the Santa Maria Public Library, 421 S. McClelland St., Santa Maria.

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. “Storytelling:

Native People Through the Lens of Edward S. Curtis” is on display through April 30 at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, 2559 Puesta del Sol, Santa Barbara. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Mondays. For more information, visit sbnature.org.

10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. “SURREAL

WOMEN: Surrealist Art by American Women” is on display through April 24 at Sullivan Goss: An American Gallery, 11 E. Anapamu St., Santa Barbara. The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily. For more information, www. sullivangoss.com.

By appointment on weekdays: “Holly Hungett: Natural Interpretations” is on view through May 20 at the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara’s gallery, 229 E. Victoria St., Santa Barbara. The gallery is open 1 to 4 p.m. Saturdays and weekdays by appointment. For more information, call the foundation at 805-965-6307 or go to www.afsb.org.

Noon to 5 p.m. “Clarence Mattei: Portrait of a Community” is on view now through May at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum, which is located in downtown Santa Barbara at 136 E. De la Guerra St. Admission is free.

Hours are currently from noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays and from noon to 7 p.m. Thursdays. For more information, visit www.sbhistorical.org. to etcsb.org or call 805-965-5400.

Redskins football team in 1962.

By MARILYN MCMAHON NEWS-PRESS

Just in time for Earth Day next weekend, the Santa Barbara Permaculture Network is hosting the film premiere of “Stewart Udall and The Politics of Beauty” from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the Marjorie Luke Theatre, 721 E. Cota St. John de Graaf, the awardwinning filmmaker behind the movie, will participate in a Q&A and discussion after the screening. He will discuss Mr. Udall’s connection to Santa Barbara and the first Earth Day.

Celebrating the life and legacy of former U.S. congressman and Secretary of the Interior, this film tells the inspiring story of Mr. Udall as an advocate for social and environmental justice, international cooperation, the arts and most of all, the protection of the environment and its natural beauty. Mr. Udall is known for leading the way for much of the environmental legislation now taken for granted.

Serving as secretary of the interior under both Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, he provided the political leadership for a legacy that includes the Clean Air and Clean Water Restoration Acts, Land and Water Conservation Fund, Wilderness Act, Endangered Species List, Highway Beautification Act, Wild and Scenic Rivers and National Scenic Trails Acts, Pesticide Reduction and Mining Reclamation Acts, Solid Waste Disposal Act and the National Historic Preservation Act.

Mr. Udall was also responsible for the creation of many national parks and monuments, more than any other American since President Theodore Roosevelt. Working collaboratively with Congress, he added 3.85 million acres to the public domain, including four national parks — Canyonlands in Utah, Redwood in California, North Cascades in Washington state, Guadalupe Mountains in Texas — and six national monuments, eight national seashores and lakeshores, nine national recreation areas, 20 historic sites and 56 wildlife refuges.

Mr. Udall was also the government’s primary advocate for the 1964 Wilderness Act, which permanently ensured that millions of acres of wild land would remain “untrammeled by man.”

He was the intellectual force behind the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which directed fees and royalties from offshore oil and gas drilling to pay for wilderness protection and recreation.

But Mr. Udall was more than an environmentalist. He spoke out for peace during the Cold War, at one point traveling with poet Robert Frost to the Soviet Union to meet its premier, Nikita Khrushchev, to encourage weapons reductions.

With his brother Morris Udall while still in college, they challenged racism at the University of Arizona, where both were celebrated and popular athletes. Later as a public official, with the support of President Kennedy, he forced the integration of the Washington

When Mr. Udall discovered that the National Park Service had only one black ranger (in the Virgin Islands), he directed the NPS to launch a major recruiting campaign in traditionally black colleges. Robert Stanton, the only black director of the National Park Service, credits Mr. Udall’s effort as helping make possible his career as a park ranger.

Mr. Udall also reshaped the Bureau of Indian Affairs to give more power to tribal organizations, appointing Oneida leader Robert Bennett as the first Native American to direct the BIA.

“Udall always took a back seat to Indian leaders,” said Diane Humetewa, a Hopi and the first Native American federal judge.

In 1966, Mr. Udall froze the federal transfer of lands to the state of Alaska to ensure that Alaska natives would not lose their lands.

As William Hensley, an Alaskan native leader later wrote, “Udall, with his sense of fairness, used his power to help establish the most generous land settlement in American history. Later in life, Udall managed a law practice that represented uranium miners, many of them Navajos, who had health issues due to radiation exposure.”

Among his rare missteps, one that had devastating consequences for this city, was when Mr. Udall approved federal oil and gas leases off the coast of Santa Barbara. As a result of that fateful decision, in 1969 a catastrophic oil

6 p.m. to 10 p.m.: The Isla Vista Juggling Festival takes place with open juggling at the UCSB Multi-Activity Court. The festival runs today through Sunday. For more about the festival, visit sbjuggle.org. The festival is a fundraiser for Standing Together to End Sexual Assault. For more information, see sbstesa.org.

7:30 p.m. The Ensemble Theatre Company will perform “The Children” at The New Vic, 33 W. Victoria St., Santa Barbara. Tickets cost $40 to $84. To purchase, go to etcsb.org or call 805965-5400. ETC is partnering with the nonprofit One Tree Planted to plant one tree in California for every ticket sold for this play.

8 p.m. Sō Percussion with Caroline Shaw will perform at UCSB Campbell Hall. Pulitzer Prize-winner Caroline Shaw joins Sō Percussion as vocalist for 10 songs she co-composed with the quartet members. Tickets are $20 to $35 for the general public and $10 for UCSB students with current student ID. TO purchase, call Arts & Lectures at 805-893-3535 or go to www. artsandlecturesucsb.edu.

7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. The Isla Vista Juggling Festival presents its public show at the Isla Vista Theater, 960 Embarcadero del Norte, Isla Vista. 10 p.m. to midnight. Glow toys will be juggled during the Isla Vista Juggling Festival at People’s Park on Embarcadero del Norte, Isla Vista.

APRIL 23 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.: The Isla Vista Juggling Festival takes place with open juggling at the UCSB Multi-Activity Court. The festival runs today through Sunday. For more about the festival, visit sbjuggle.org. The festival is a fundraiser for Standing Together to End Sexual Assault. For more information, see sbstesa.org.

7:30 p.m. The Ensemble Theatre Company will perform “The Children” at The New Vic, 33 W. Victoria St., Santa Barbara. Tickets cost $40 to $84. To purchase, go to etcsb.org or call 805965-5400. ETC is partnering with the