Enjoy an afternoon of wine tasting, delicious appetizers and great conversations on the Saint Mary's College campus. Proceeds from ticket sales and the silent auction support student scholarships at Saint Mary's College.
Enter to win a one-week stay in La Quercia Villa in Tuscany, Italy & 120,000 airline miles on United.
The lucky runner-up will also win a vacation on the Russian River.
The winner will be drawn at the Benefit. You do not need to be present at the Benefit to win. Grand Prize is subject to applicable taxes.
Only 350 tickets will be sold.
Join us for An Evening Of Wine and Hors D'oeuvres
The Language of Food: A Conversation with Samin Nosrat & Cindy Pawlcyn, moderated by Alev Croutier.
ALEV LYTLE CROUTIERis the author of the non-fiction international bestseller, Harem: The World Behind the Veil, Taking the Waters, and the novels The Palace of Tears and Seven Houses. Her articles have appeared in Harper's, Gourmet, Savour, the Edible Series, SF Magazine, Focus, the London Telegraph and Zyzzyva, as well as in many anthologies. She was one of the two women invited to contribute to "A Window Over the Mediterranean" at the G8 Summit in Genoa in 2001. Croutier was the commentator of the Canadian Film Board series The Powder Room, BBC's Mozart in Turkey, Channel 4's (BBC) The Reign of Women and Harem. Her novel Palace of Tears is in development for an internationally cast motion picture.
CINDY PAWLCYNhas pioneered fresh, local, seasonal, sustainable wine-country cuisine since opening Napa Valley's legendary Mustards Grill in 1983. She is the founder and owner of three of Napa Valley's most beloved restaurants— Mustards Grill, Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen, and Brassica Wine Bar & Wood Grill— and is Culinary Partner at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Cindy has earned rave reviews from the most exacting critics, a devoted following, and countless national awards, such as a Robert Mondavi Award for Culinary Excellence. She is the author of the James Beard Award-winning Mustards Grill Napa Valley Cookbook, Fog City Diner Cookbook, Big Small Plates and Appetizers. Her fifth book, Cindy's Supper Club, was released in May 2012.
SAMIN NOSRAT began her cooking career in her family kitchen, learning the art of Persian cooking and the importance of gathering around the table. While studying journalism with Michael Pollan at UC Berkeley and working in the kitchen at Chez Panisse, Samin developed a passion for telling stories about food, articulating the importance of how and what we eat. Samin coordinates fundraising and awareness-raising activities nationwide using food as the vehicle for engagement and activism. She is currently at work on her first book and has published food articles in Martha Stewart Living, Yoga Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, and Edible San Francisco. Samin lives in Berkeley, California.
The event is underwritten by the generous support of Carol Sayers and John Briscoe.
Proceeds of this event benefit the MFA Scholarship Fund. The fair market value of this event is $50. All contributions exceeding fair market value are tax-deductible to the extent that the law allows.
The exuberant creativity, color, and pageantry that is Carnaval comes to the Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art. The sights and sounds of Carnaval in New Orleans, Mexico, Bolivia, Brazil, Trinidad, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland are on display in one of the Museum’s liveliest exhibitions ever. Costumes, headdresses, masks, musical instruments, plus videos of performances and parades, show the history and traditions of Carnaval, and its often outlandish and ribald behavior.
Carnaval is a rich tradition of partying before Lent’s 40 days of penance. In Carnaval everything shifts. The social order is overturned as masks and elaborate costumes conceal identities. The poor and powerless can become kings and queens for a day. Everyone - rich or poor, young or old - breaks loose in spectacular ways. Yet it is distinctly different in each region, and the Carnaval exhibition shows this diversity.
In Venice, Carnevale has flourished from the 12th century. On display are its elegant masks that are collected as works of art. In Brazil, huge crowds play frevo music and dance the passo. In Mexico, men dress as French nobility perform burlesque dances. In New Orleans, the famed Mardi Gras krewes work year round to prepare for their famous floats, costumes, music and parades.
This exhibition has been made possible by NEH on the Road, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities. It was curated by Barbara Mauldin, Ph.D., curator of Latin American Collections, Museum of International Folk Art, and is toured by Mid-America Arts Alliance.
Opening Day Events, Saturday, February 2.
Opening Day visitors are welcome to wear Carnaval and Mardi Gras masks, costumes and medallions!
In addition to the four new exhibitions, a highlight of the day will be a fascinating and dynamic video documentary of festivities in each of the exhibition's eight regions and twenty-two more by Robert Jerome.
Mr. Jerome, an award-winning, internationally published travel photojournalist who specializes in topics related to folklore and culture, has photographed Carnaval in Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean during the past thirty years. “Carnaval represents a distillation of a particular culture’s customs and traditions, its native dress, its food, its music, its real spirit," notes Mr. Jerome, "Carnival is an invitation of the world to come celebrate what is special about a particular place.”
The video will be on big screen view from 2 to 4 PM in Studio 105, during the opening reception.
In the John and Julia Armistead Gallery (through April 7)
In Search of the Source: The Nile and Beyond by Lockwood de Forest
Lockwood de Forest, one of America’s fine atmospheric painters, took the lessons of the Hudson River school and applied them in his own manner, creating a looser landscape “sketch.” As a young man he studied briefly with the Italian painter Hermann Corrodi, and later took instruction from his distant cousin Frederic Church, who was then considered the most famous artist in America. During a European trip in 1868-1869, he accompanied Church on a sketching excursion to the Acropolis in Athens. In 1875-1876, de Forest traveled extensively in Syria, Greece and Egypt. He spent four months along the Nile River. Selections from that trip are included in this exhibition. As well as being a painter, de Forest was an interior and building designer, and furnishings importer, who had working partnerships with Louis Comfort Tiffany, among others. He was recognized by his peers, as evidenced by his election to the prestigious National Academy of Design.
In the Studio Gallery (through April 7)
Ryan Renolds: Landscape Assembled
Ryan M. Reynolds was born in Simi Valley, CA in 1974 and started painting with his grandmother, an art teacher, at the age of six. He received a BFA from the University of Santa Cruz and an MFA from the University of California, Berkeley where he was awarded the J. Ruth Kelsey Traveling Merit Award, the Eisner Award for the highest achievement in the Creative Arts, and a full tuition grant. Currently he lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, drawn primarily to the diverse urban landscape of the hills and bay lands. He is an assistant professor at Santa Clara University, where he has taught painting and drawing since 2005.
Reynolds is primarily a landscape artist whose work evokes the elements of time and the presence of place to which the viewer can directly relate. Every brushstroke is an observation and an impulse which accumulates over hours and weeks of study, resulting in a visual representation of the abstract concept of time.
The California Alps: William Keith Paintings from the 1870s, 80s, and 90s
A selection of High Sierra oil paintings, many of which were painted in Keith's San Francisco studio following sketching excursions with John Muir. Muir was one of the first people to refer to the great mountain range as the California Alps.
It is fitting that the Collection, now numbering more than 180 paintings, is the result of the work of Saint Mary's College professor and Christian Brother Cornelius Braeg. The Swiss native was born at the foot of the Alps in 1877, and as a boy emigrated to Pennsylvaia with his family. Brother Cornelius was also an avid mouuntain climber and landscape artist who first saw Keith paintings during a 1908 visit with Muir in his Martinez home.
He returned to Muir's home several more times to view the paintings and learn more from Muir about his old friend Keith. Brother Cornelius subsequently devoted much of his professional career to researching Keith's life and work. He is the author of the first comprehensive Keith biography, published by Putnam's, New York, 1942. He also organized a number of Keith exhibitions in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and Saint Mary's College over the years.
Visitors to the Keith exhibition may also wish to view a 20 minute video about the artist and his times and peruse The Comprehensive Keith: The 100 Year History of the Saint Mary's College Collection, published in 2011.
*All programming subject to change
The Saint Mary's College Museum of Art is accredited by the American Association of Museums
Public Hours: Wed. – Sun., 11 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Admission: $5 adults; K-12 graders free; SMC Museum of Art Members free.
