The Community Arts Workshop provides affordable workspace, event space, and exhibition space for artists and community groups in Santa Barbara.
Description
Every Area Meeting we invite our community to gather and discuss art with a mouth slightly full of a fun snack created by our innovative bakers and cooks.
The main draw is always the open crits. This portion we inherited from the academic world. We select artists from our community to present their physical work for the audience to discuss and give live feedback. The discussion is led by Patrick Melroy. While vigorous, the nights always remain respectful and safe for the artists presenting.
So often art appreciation is disconnected from direct dialogue. We look at art at shows but can’t drill down into the thinking behind the meaning. At openings presenting artists are too impacted with obligation to candidly discuss their art. There is beauty in the story of the making of art and so often the residue, the art itself, tells an abbreviated story of its own making. Area Meeting allows an audience to meet the creator before the work reaches its final form. Before the world has formed a final opinion.
Our November keynote speaker will be social practice artist, Patrick Melroy. Melroy will discuss, as we are faced with an ever-accelerating digital world, the sanctuary in the creative analog experiences of community. Elaborating on the subtle choices that make exciting differences in results from one session to the next. He finds joy in the tactile connection to the process and sharing language in the form of artistic gestures. Sometimes manifests as a cookie residency with the delivery of cookies on a schedule to adults at his daughter’s elementary school; other times it is in building a play structure for the Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens.
Melroy currently maintains a studio art practice in the city of Santa Barbara California. Melroy’s practice exists most often as interactive objects and experiences designed to engage an audience. The work has appeared in shows from Belgrade Serbia to Los Angeles California. Melroy was a founding member of the influential Uppur Bunk Collaborative, Pullstring Press, MISC Workshop, and a charter member of Bottled Lightning Projects in Portland OR. Melroy received an MFA from the storied Department of Art at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Periodically, Melroy teaches art for universities and colleges throughout the region. Most recently at CalPoly San Luis Obispo. Melroy has presented numerous creativity workshops and often presents strategies for creativity to corporations big and small. Once a year traveling to remote locations to teach AI and machine-learning experts how to build axes. Returning them to the first tool before they build the latest tool.
For more information contact Adrienne De Guevara at adrienne@artscollaborative.org.
Date & Time
Tue, Nov 11, 2025 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Venue Details
The Community Arts Workshop, Santa Barbara
631 Garden StreetSanta Barbara, California 93101
