Honoring the Community Environmental Council and the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians
SUNDAY, May 19, 2024 | 11 AM - 1:30 PM
Grand Ballroom, Marriott, Buellton
Tickets are on sale now! Join us for our biggest bash of the year - the annual Wilderness Spirit Award Brunch!
Join us for a delicious brunch , mimosa and bloody marys, live and silent auction, artist demonstrations and art auctions, wine pull, & more!
Read MoreSATURDAY, APRIL 6TH, 2024 | 10:00 AM–3:00 PM
At the California Nature Art Museum (formerly the Wildling Museum)
Celebrate California Poppy Day with free admission to the California Nature Art Museum. Create your own flower crown or boutonniere, marvel at Leslie Franklin's collection of poppy vintage items & collectibles, enjoy poppy-inspired treats from Lindsay's Little Bakery. Be one of the first fifty guests to arrive to secure your free collectible sticker!
Read MoreLecture & Book Signing: "California's Changing Landscape: The Way of Water" by George Rose
FRIDAY, APRIL 12TH, 2024 / 4:30 PM–6:30 PM
At the California Nature Art Museum (formerly the Wildling Museum)
Over 140 stunning photographs capture George Rose's expansive documentation of California’s complicated and dramatic water story. George began this project during the Covid-19 pandemic, just as the effects of drought were becoming increasingly visible. Then suddenly, California was hit with record-setting rain and snowstorms in early 2023. This onslaught of water effectively filled reservoirs and – at least temporarily – ended the drought.
Read MoreSUNDAY, APRIL 21ST, 2024 | 10:00 AM–3:00 PM
At the California Nature Art Museum (formerly the Wildling Museum)
Celebrate Native Plant Appreciation Month with native plants, coffee, and used books. Enjoy a large variety of native plants for sale from Yes Yes Nursery and Manzanita Nursery, be inspired by educational materials from Santa Ynez Valley Botanic Garden and Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, cozy-up to a cup of coffee from Coffee a la Cart, peruse a selection of used books benefitting Museum education, and get creative with a free planter-painting activity.
Read MoreSUNDAY, JUNE 9TH, 2024 | 3:00 PM–5:00 PM
At the California Nature Art Museum (formerly the Wildling Museum)
Join the California Nature Art Museum & Community Clayworks for an art workshop at the Museum, creating bee baths for the home garden. Participants will learn to sculpt an open, flat flower with elevated petals throughout to create safe landing spots for the bees, as well as paint their pieces with colorful underglazes. After firing and clear glazing, completed pieces will be available for pick up in-person at the Museum or can be shipped by request (for an additional fee).
Read MoreSUN. JUNE 30TH, 2024 / 3:00 PM– 4:30 PM
At the California Nature Art Museum (formerly the Wildling Museum), Second Floor Valley Oak Gallery
Film-making, advocacy, education and outreach, art and photography, habitat restoration, volunteer work, and efforts in citizen-science collide as Western Monarch experts Ole Schell, Mia Monroe, Audrey Fusco, and Elizabeth Weber talk monarch butterflies during this exciting panel on one of California’s most famous pollinators. While each is a monarch expert in their own right the four speakers all approach their passion for monarch butterflies in different ways.
Join us for an inspirational and educational panel on monarch butterflies in the Second Floor Valley Oak Gallery. Tickets are $5 for members, and $10 for non-members.
Read MoreSUNDAY, JULY 21ST, 2024 | 3:00 PM–5:00 PM
At the California Nature Art Museum (formerly the Wildling Museum)
Join the California Nature Art Museum & Community Clayworks for an art workshop at the Museum, creating bee baths for the home garden. Participants will learn to sculpt an open, flat flower with elevated petals throughout to create safe landing spots for the bees, as well as paint their pieces with colorful underglazes. After firing and clear glazing, completed pieces will be available for pick up in-person at the Museum or can be shipped by request (for an additional fee).
Read MoreSATURDAY, AUGUST 10TH, 2024 | 10:00 AM–3:00 PM
At the California Nature Art Museum (formerly the Wildling Museum)
Join the California Nature Art Museum for a free-admission, end-of-summer Family Day on Saturday, August 10th 2024, from 10AM – 3PM. This annual event invites visitors to bring the whole family and enjoy free admission to the Museum, and participate in a variety of art-and-nature inspired activities.
Create your own free bee-themed hanging wall craft and wonder at an observation hive (live bees) from Santa Barbara Hives!
Read MoreFRI. SEPTEMBER 27TH - SUN. SEPTEMBER 29TH
At the Nature Conservancy Field Station on Santa Cruz Island, with the California Nature Art Museum
Join the California Nature Art Museum for a two-night trip to Santa Cruz Island on Friday, September 27th 2024 - Sunday, September 29th 2024. Guests will be staying in the dorms at the Nature Conservancy (TNC) Field Station, which cannot typically be accessed by the general public.
Throughout this trip, guests may enjoy fully-included, structured activities such as hiking, species identification, nature journaling, swimming, and travel through the use of the on-island vehicles.
Read MoreJuly 14, 2024 – January 13, 2025
Second-Floor Valley Oak Gallery
The California Nature Art Museum is pleased to announce its upcoming 2024 summer exhibition, California, Quilted: Wild in the Oak Woodland, on view from July 14, 2024 – January 13, 2025, featuring new and recent works by artist Julia Laraway.
From butterflies to bullfrogs to bobcats, Oak Woodland habitats support thousands of animal species all over California. Inhabitants might find shelter in the open grasslands between trees, scattered shrubs, fallen logs, streams, and tree canopies. The wonders of this important habitat – its creatures, colors, and lines of the land – all inspire Julia Laraway’s collection of fabric collages and quilts featuring flora and fauna of the coastal oak woodland.
Read MoreSUN. MARCH 10TH, 2024 / 3:00 PM– 4:30 PM
At the California Nature Art Museum (formerly the Wildling Museum), Second Floor Valley Oak Gallery
While the topic of pollination in Santa Barbara County is both engrossing and essential, few are familiar with the actual processes of the phenomenon and the major pollinators behind it: bees, of course, but also hummingbirds, butterflies, moths, and beneficial insects.
Join us for an inspirational and educational lecture with Richard Merrill at the California Nature Art Museum (formerly the Wildling Museum) in the First Floor Wildling Gallery.
Read MoreChuck Graham’s Paddling Into a Natural Balance: Stories of Kayaking & Conservation Around Channel Islands National Park
FRI. JANUARY 26TH, 2024 / 4:30 PM–6:00 PM
Ten chapters and 170 photographs vividly describe conservation efforts observed from Chuck Graham’s kayak. In February 2021, after photographing a bald eagle on the cliffs surrounding Scorpion Anchorage, Graham was inspired to create this pertinent and breathtaking ode to Channel Islands National Park.
Read MoreHeadgames Trivia at Fig Mountain Brewing Co. Buellton | Bonus Round on California National Parks, Sponsored by the California Nature Art Museum
TUES. FEBRUARY 13, 2024 / 6:00 PM–8:00 PM
45 Industrial Way, Buellton, CA 93427 | Second Floor
On February 13th 2024, the Museum will be sponsoring a bonus round of trivia on National Parks in California in celebration of the last week of our juried show, "California National Parks: Stories of Water."
Join us for a night of colorful competition, fun and food as we test your knowledge of some of the most beautiful natural spaces in our golden state. Our sponsored bonus round will include two free gifts from the Museum gift store, and will not affect players' overall trivia score.
March 2, 2024 – September 2, 2024
First Floor Wildling Gallery
We are excited to bring the important topic of pollinators to our California Nature Art Museum gallery featuring original art by Ava Roth, Elizabeth Weber, Susan McDonnell, Cynthia James, Sara Woodburn, and John Gould. Each artist brings a unique perspective to their pollinating subjects.
We are delighted to also be collaborating with the Cheadle Center For Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration at UC Santa Barbara. The Cheadle Center's contribution is focused on native bees, including high-resolution images of rare, local bees from the UCSB Natural History Collection and images of bees visiting flowers of native plants for an up-close look at their beauty and biodiversity.
Read MoreSeptember 14, 2024 - February 24, 2025
Reception: Sunday, September 15, 2024
First Floor Main Gallery
The California Nature Art Museum is pleased to announce its forthcoming exhibition, A Deeper Love: New Paintings Inspired by Coral Reefs, coming September 2024, featuring new work by artists Nansi Bielanski Gallup and David Gallup.
A Deeper Love will offer a thoughtful artistic examination of the life, sub-marine landscape, and human interaction with coral reef ecosystems. While deepwater corals may be found in virtually every part of every ocean in the world, tropical coral reefs have the most powerful impact on human existence. It is estimated that up to one billion people rely on tropical coral reefs for food and income.
Read MoreOctober 21 - November 12, 2023
Reception: Sunday, October 22, 2023, 2 - 4:30 p.m.
Second Floor Valley Oak Gallery
The Wildling Museum is pleased to partner with award-winning artist Mara Abboud in presenting Mara Abboud: Visions of Beauty, an exhibition and fundraiser supporting the Wildling on view from October 21 - November 12, 2023 in the Valley Oak Gallery.
Abboud has received international recognition for her brilliant innovation and unusual painting technique, working with acrylics on canvas and silk. Her painting style is uniquely her own, interweaving a palette of spectacular colors with fantasy designs, achieving a jewel-like tapestry effect reminiscent of tiles and stained glass.
Read MoreCANCELLED
Join us at The Wildling Museum on Saturday, October 14th, 1 – 3 p.m. for a memorable afternoon with exhibiting artist Elizabeth Criss, whose work is currently featured in Message in a Bottle in the Michele Kuelbs Tower Gallery. Criss will guide attendees in an upcycling art workshop transforming household plastic discards into an eco-friendly fridge fishscape inspired by her own underwater creations on view at the Museum.
Workshop participants will make two (or more!) of their own magnetic fish to take home, along with newfound skills to turn old plastics into artworks of their own creation.
Read MoreMarch 18 - September 4, 2023
Reception: Sunday, March 19th, 3 - 5 p.m.
First Floor Main Gallery
The Wildling Museum is pleased to announce its upcoming 2023 spring exhibition, Bird’s Eye View: Four Perspectives, on view from March 18 - September 4, 2023, featuring new and recent works by artists Chris Maynard, David Tomb, Shae Warnick, and Chester Wilcox. The public is invited to attend an opening reception on Sunday, March 19, 2023 from 3 – 5 p.m. at The Wildling Museum.
People live among more than an estimated 10,000 bird species worldwide. These animals uniquely inform the works of the four artists featured in this exhibition. Realistic wood carvings by Chester Wilcox, intricately shaped and carved feathers by Chris Maynard, a hand-crafted fabric bird doll aviary by Shae Warnick, and an immersive wetland environment installation by David Tomb all express the magic, mystery, and incredible diversity of the avian world.
Read MoreThe Wildling Museum invites the public to attend its third-annual free Summer Family Day on Sunday, August 20, 2023, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Visitors are invited to bring the whole family and enjoy free museum admission during event hours, an owl meet-and-greet, mermaid visit, nature-inspired art activities for all ages, and more.
Read MoreJoin The Wildling Museum on Thursday, August 17th, 4 - 5 p.m. for a special Zoom presentation by exhibiting artist Shae Warnick, one of four artists featured in Bird’s Eye View: Four Perspectives, currently on view at the California Nature Art Museum through September 4, 2023. Warnick will provide an inside look into her process and share more about her incredible work on view at the California Nature Art Museum, Aviary of the Reverend William J. Long, which features 260 stuffed bird dolls created by Warnick.
Read More
