Santa Barbara Artist Mentors Take a Turn in the Spotlight

For the last 30 years, the Arts Fund of Santa Barbara has helped hundreds of young people hone their art skills in their Teen Arts Mentorship program. This year, they’ve decided to flip the focus on some of the mentors that have made the past three decades so successful. 

The Arts Fund’s newest exhibition, Nurturing the Youth, is now on view, showcasing the work of 10 established artist mentors who’ve helped young artists flourish. The pieces range from pen and ink to cyanotype, 2D to 3D, documentary to sci-fi. 

Terra Cobian has been on both sides of the program as a mentee and mentor. They now serve as the Arts Fund’s Program Manager and helped curate the show.

“The point of the show was kind of to have more of an eclectic feel to it,” Cobian explained. “We’ve also invited the mentors to specifically showcase things that they were perhaps working on either while they were mentoring, or the medium that they did teach.”

Rather than seeming disjointed, the varied mix of artwork really works. Walking around the gallery feels like a journey through time and the possibilities of art. Colin Gray’s remixed Renaissance portraits take viewers to the past right before they are throttled to the future with Laura-Susan Thomas’s “Lost Luggage” dystopian creation. Even the short-term passage of time is invoked with Oscar Pearson’s Grounded series.

Susan M. Connors mentored younger children for 24 years through the Arts Fund program. In her artist statement, Connors said she misses the “unique and lively impact of mentoring kids in art,” as “creating with them is an endless inspiration.” Her acrylic and collage pieces are quite striking, with splattered patterns peeking out from underneath other layers of paint.

Program Manager Cobian’s own photography pieces hang on opposite walls of the gallery, each depicting a Black pregnant person. Cobian shared that their work was inspired by the creation of Black life and timelines and was originally on display in the Melanin Gallery. This work also reflects their experience as a trans nonbinary artist.

“I think as queer people we often are on a different timeline. It’s just a completely different structure. … I’ve come out as something new at least like probably five times now,” they said. “I see a lot of my other friends who aren’t queer and they are getting married and having kids at my age. It’s kind of interesting to see the big differences and even cultural shifts.”

Cobian got their start in photography at 16 years old, thanks to the very same mentorship program. Growing up in a low-income household meant most opportunities to pursue art were inaccessible, but when their mom found the Arts Fund’s free photography class, they begrudgingly gave it a shot.

After the program, Cobian stayed in contact with their mentor and assisted him in big brand shoots. This was possible due to Arts Fund Mentorship’s unique focus on teaching teens how to make a living from their artistic passions.

Now celebrating 40 years of public art programming and 30 years of mentorship, the Arts Fund is expanding their course offerings to include musical theater and music production.

---

Nurturing the Youth can be viewed Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Arts Fund Gallery in La Cumbre Plaza through September 8. The Teen Arts Mentorship student work will go on display in November. See artsfundsb.org.