by a Lady’

Early botanical illustrations by women featured in museum exhibit

By MARILYN MCMAHON NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History’s newest exhibit, “Drawn by a Lady: Early Women Illustrators,” celebrates the talent of artists and authors in 19th-century Victorian England who were disregarded because of their gender. More than 40 works of early botanical illustration are on view profiling the lives of eight women who defied convention in an era when it was socially unacceptable for them to earn a living.

Denied access to formal education, they used their skills in drawing and painting to make meaningful contributions to the emerging field of botany.

They wrote and illustrated books, sometimes published anonymously, using their husband’s name, or credited simply . . . ”By a Lady.”

“ ‘Drawn by a Lady’ provides a fascinating look at gender issues in the history of science. For Victorian women, illustrating and writing about plants could be a means to both support themselves and to shape botanical knowledge,” said Linda Miller, Maximus Gallery curator,

COURTESY IMAGES who provided the text for the illustrations.

The exhibition is open through July 2 and is included in museum admission.

Among the drawings in the

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. “Entangled: Responding to Environmental Crisis,” runs through March 25 at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art. The museum is open from 10 a.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. It’s closed on Sundays and college holidays. For more information, call 805-565-6162 or visit westmont.edu/museum.

COURTESY PHOTO Boogie Knights, above, will perform 1970s hits during the New Year’s Eve Disco Boogie Ball at 9 p.m. Dec. 31 at the Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez. And the Spazmatics will play hits from the ’80s. Tickets cost $50.

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.

The Marjorie Luke Theatre at Santa Barbara Junior High School, 721 E. Cota St., Santa Barbara. The concert is presented by Viva el Arte de Santa Barbara.

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 p.m. “Interlopings: Colors in the Warp and Weft of Ecological Entanglements” is an exhibit that runs through March 12 at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, 1212 Mission Canyon Road, Santa Barbara. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. The exhibit features weavings dyed with pigments from non-native plants on Santa Cruz Island. The weavings were created by artists Helen Svensson and Lisa Jevbratt. For more information, see sbbotanicgarden.org.

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Coast artist and London native Annie Hoffman’s exhibit “Seeing Ourselves in Colour” will be displayed through Feb. 28 at Gallery Los Olivos, 2920 Grand Ave., Los Olivos. For more information, visit anniehoffmann. com.

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. The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily. For more information, www. sullivangoss.com.

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.

MARCH 23

7:30 p.m. Opera Santa Barbara’s Chrisman Studio Artists will perform “The Light in the Piazza,” an acclaimed musical by Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas, March 23-26 at Center Stage Theater, upstairs at Paseo Nuevo, in Santa Barbara. To purchase tickets, go to centerstagetheater.org. An artist reception will follow the March 23 performance.

MARCH 24

7:30 p.m. Opera Santa Barbara’s Chrisman Studio Artists will

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