Sacred Art in the Age of Contact: Chumash and Latin American Traditions in Santa Barbara

Sacred Art in the Age of Contact: Chumash and Latin American Traditions in Santa Barbara brings together, for the first time, a diverse body of objects from Santa Barbara area collections, many of which have never been on display, dating from the first decades following the Chumash’s first contact with the Spanish, c. 1769-1824. Together, these materials offer a fuller picture of the relationship between art and spirituality in both Chumash and Spanish traditions, and demonstrate the sustained deployment of Chumash visual systems by native artists in early colonial visual culture. Highlighting themes of sacred geography, language, materiality and resistance, Sacred Art investigates the mutually transformative interaction between these traditions, which have immediate implications on the ways in which the cultural dynamics of Santa Barbara County are understood today. The exhibition will be presented at two venues, the Art, Design & Architecture Museum, UCSB and the Santa Barbara Historical Museum.