Section 3 of 6
A town of ninety thousand kept a kunsthalle
The Contemporary Arts Forum in Paseo Nuevo, 1976 to 2013.
A town this size is not supposed to sustain one
The Contemporary Arts Forum ran from 1976 to 2013 as a non-collecting exhibition space — a kunsthalle model that usually needs a much bigger city.
The gallery sat inside a shopping centre, and that was the argument
The Forum's Paseo Nuevo home put contemporary work above retail, which made it public in a way a dedicated building would not have been.
The other sections
Before the Quake
Before the quake, painters came for the light
Plein-air work on the coast, and the collectors who followed it.
The Compulsory Style
Thirteen seconds in June, and a style that became compulsory
The 1925 earthquake, the Architectural Board of Review, and what got rebuilt.
After the Forum
The Forum closed and the thread was picked up
MCASB, and the galleries that grew near the tracks.
The Teaching
Half the story is the schools
Brooks, UCSB and a small college gallery that punches above its enrolment.
The Coast
The coast and what was painted on it
Chumash rock art, and a potter in the next valley.