Let’s Go to the Moon!
The Lunar Missions
Let’s Go to the Moon from March 31 to June 24, 2013, is an overview of the past lunar missions, current missions, geology and future missions. This exhibit was created by the staff at the California Oil Museum with help from NASA and JPL. Photos, text and 3-demensional items will be on display along with videos of actual footage of the lunar surface. Student workshops “On the Moon” are available.
We know more about many aspects of the Moon than we know about any world beyond our own, and yet we have barely begun to solve its countless mysteries. In the decades since the last Apollo landing on the Moon in 1972, there has been a widespread misperception that the Moon has already told us all the important things that it has to tell, that scientifically it is a “been there, done that” world. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
The Moon is, above all, a witness to 4.5 billion years of solar
system history, and it has recorded that history more completely and
more clearly than has any other planetary body. Nowhere else can we
see back with such clarity to the time when Earth and the other
terrestrial planets—Mercury, Venus, and Mars—were formed and life
emerged on Earth.
Planetary
scientists have long understood the Moon’s unique significance as
the starting point in the continuum of the evolution of rocky
worlds. Many of the processes that have modified the terrestrial
planets have been absent on the Moon. The lunar interior retains a
record of the initial stages of planetary evolution. Its crust has
never been altered by plate tectonics, which continually recycle
Earth’s crust; or by planet wide volcanism, which resurfaced Venus
only half a billion years ago; or by the action of wind and water,
which have transformed the surfaces of both Earth and Mars. The Moon
today presents a record of geologic processes of early planetary
evolution in the purest form. Its airless surface also provides a
continuous record of solar-terrestrial processes.
For
these reasons, the Moon is priceless to planetary scientists: It
remains a cornerstone for deciphering the histories of those more
complex worlds. But because of the limitations of current samples
and data derived from them, researchers cannot be sure that they
have read these histories correctly. Now, thanks to the legacy of
the Apollo program, it is possible to pose sophisticated questions
that are more relevant and focused than those that could be asked
more than three decades ago. Only by returning to the Moon to carry
out new scientific explorations can we hope to close the gaps in
understanding and learn the secrets that the Moon alone has kept for
eons.
Museum hours are Wednesday through Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Admission is $4 Adults, $3 Seniors, $1 Students, 5 years old
and younger are free.
Members are free. Call
805-933-0076 or email jorcutt@spcity.org for more information or go
to our website at
www.oilmuseum.net.
Speakers from NASA and JPL will be announced.
“Old Hands, New Works
March 12, 2013
“Old Hands, New Works”, opening March 23,
2013 at the Santa Paula Art Museum, and is an exhibition shared
between long-established Ventura County artists Michele Chapin and
Susan Petty. Their latest
works reflect strikingly new approaches and motivations brought to
form by expert hands. An
opening reception will be held Saturday, March 23 from 4 to 6 p.m.
Admission to the reception
is $10 for SPAM members and $15 for non-members.
The exhibit runs through
July 14, 2013.
“Michele Chapin’s most recent body of work
is as refreshing and rare as her spirit,” says Museum Director
Jennifer Heighton. An
award-winning stone sculptor, teacher and community arts activist,
Chapin works out of her open air “Stoneworks Studio” in Ventura.
Her inspiration comes from
found organic objects such as shells, flowers, bones, the figure,
and Mysticism. Michele’s sculptures are captivating in color and
sensual in form.
Several of her latest pieces were carved by pushing a piece of stone
past what is structurally possible.
This aggressive working of the stone created a new variety of
shapes unlike anything she has done before.
Fans of painter Susan Petty will also be
pleasantly surprised by the new direction that her work has taken.
As Susan put it, “the work in this show has come about as a
meeting of life and art.”
With photographer Bill Dewey’s “Waves” series as her muse,
Petty used the chaos and motion of waves as metaphors for changes in
her own life. Each
artwork is an expression of a different emotion.
And while Petty’s new drawings and paintings are quite
distinct from her
previous works, her art is as breathtaking
as it has always been. Together,
Chapin and Petty demonstrate that “old hands” and life experience
can produce truly innovative art.
Reservations for the opening reception are
recommended. Please contact
the Museum at (805) 525-5554, or email
info@santapaulaartmuseum.org.
The Museum is located at 117 North 10th
Street, Santa Paula, CA 93060. The
Museum’s regular hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4
p.m., and Sundays, 12 p.m. 4 PM.
March 16, 2013
A
collection of contemporary quilts inspired by fresh fruits,
vegetables, flowers, farms, and farmers will be featured in a new
exhibit called Farm Fresh Quilts. Exhibit will be on display
at the Museum of Ventura County’s Agriculture Museum from March 30
to June 16, 2013. Exhibit includes 20 one-of-a-kind pieces,
contributed by 15 quilters from Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.
Visitors who attend the opening reception for Farm Fresh Quilts,
on Saturday, April 6, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., can also see the
Agriculture Museum’s new sugar beet exhibit, From Field to
Factory: Oxnard’s Beet Generation. Admission to the reception is
$5.00 for the general public, free for museum members. Event
includes sweet treats and a no-host bar. RSVP to 805-525-3100.
Along
with the opening reception, the Agriculture Museum will host several
events focused on quilting. Quilter Pat Masterson will host a Second
Thursday Gallery Talk called Ag-Inspired Quilts, on April 11
at 2:00 p.m. Masterson will talk about the varieties of creative
expression and quilting techniques employed in the 20 original
quilts on display. General admission is charged for Second Thursday
Gallery Talks and museum members are free. No reservations are
required.
Children are encouraged to learn about quilting and enjoy the
exhibit during our Free First Sunday activity on June 2, from 1:00
to 3:00 p.m. During Quilt Blocks for Kids!, volunteers will
help children work with paper, fabric, and art supplies to create
colorful quilt blocks. Participants will learn about geometric
shapes and colors as they create pieces they can take home. A
colorful handmade quilt of California scenes will be on display so
children can add their own quilting stitches with a needle and
thread.
The
Museum of Ventura County’s Agriculture Museum is located in
historic downtown Santa Paula, at 926 Railroad Avenue, Santa
Paula, California. Hours are 10 a.m.– 4 p.m. Wednesday through
Sunday. General admission is $4 adults, $3 seniors, $1
children ages 6-17. Free for Museum of Ventura County members and
children ages 5 and younger. Paid events include free admission to
the galleries, and the first Sunday of every month is free general
admission to the public. For more information, go to
www.venturamuseum.org or call (805) 525-3100.
Artist Gail Pidduck demonstrates
painting techniques to children at the Museum’s Art Start
program.
May 19, 2013
The Museum
of Ventura County’s Art Start program for budding young artists
returns this summer and is now accepting registrations. The July 8
to 12, 2013 session from 9 a.m. to noon is designed for students
currently in 3rd through 5th grades, of all
artistic abilities and interests. The Art Start program encourages
students to have fun discovering different art media and techniques,
to learn from guest artists, and to be inspired by the museum’s
exhibitions and art collection. The session is limited to 15
participants.
T-shirt,
snacks and all art materials are included in the registration fee,
which is $85 for the general public, $70 for museum members. Partial
scholarships are available. Registration forms may be downloaded
under education resources/summer programs, at
www.venturamuseum.org,
or picked up in the Museum of Ventura County lobby, 100 East
Main Street in Ventura, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday
through Sunday. For further information contact
education@venturamuseum.org or call
(805) 653-0323 ext. 300.
Piru Affordable Housing Development
May 19, 2013
The Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation (CEDC) is pleased to
announce that it has received a $25,000
Citi Foundation grant for
its Bridgeview Apartments
project. The Bridgeview project is an affordable housing community
that will be built in the eastern Ventura County community of Piru,
and is scheduled to begin construction in 2014.
CEDC secured the Citi Foundation grant through a competitive
application process in January 2013. The
funds will be used to advance predevelopment work
necessary to start
construction. It will
provide some of the funding for critical predevelopment design
expenses (architectural, civil, and landscape plans) that are
necessary to secure permits and entitlements
to advance to the construction drawings stage.
Successful completion of these and other predevelopment
activities, and construction of the development, will ultimately
result in a total of 24 affordable rental homes added to the County
of Ventura's housing stock for families living and working in the
Piru community. It will serve an estimated 96 individuals.
On-site amenities will include a community center, a tot lot,
open space, a community garden, on-site parking, and the community
will have an on-site resident manager.
The project will seek a LEED certification. CEDC is well-known for
its green-building efforts, and received the LEED Platinum for Homes
designation from the U.S. Green Building Council for
its Azahar Place
Apartments in Ventura last year. CEDC also received the prestigious
“Affordable Builder of the Year” award from Build it Green in 2012 (http://www.builditgreen.org).
The community need that CEDC seeks to address with the Bridgeview
project is the lack of housing supply that is affordable to very-low
income and low-income individuals and families in the unincorporated
area of Ventura County, specifically
in
the rural community of Piru. The Bridgeview Apartments project will
offer housing to low-income individuals that is modern, decent,
sanitary, energy efficient and service- enriched.
“We appreciate the Citi Foundation’s generous support of our
Bridgeview project,” said Nancy Conk, CEDC’s Chief Executive
Officer. “This new community will serve many lower-income families
in the beautiful city of Piru. Not only will it ultimately give
people the opportunity to live in decent, affordable homes, it will
also benefit the entire community when residents of the area can
afford their housing and potentially live closer to their jobs,
decreasing traffic and pollution and increasing residential
stability. The Citi Foundation is one of our valued partners in this
important, new community project.”
“Citi is excited to once again partner with the Cabrillo EDC,” said
Gustavo Bidart, Southern California Regional Director of Citi
Community Development. “The Bridgeview project will provide more
than 90 individuals with safe and affordable housing in the City of
Piru.”
CEDC is currently in the predevelopment stage for this project, and
has submitted its entitlement and discretionary approval for the
Bridgeview project to the County of Ventura for review.
February 18, 2013
Inspired by Rose Frantzen's acclaimed “Portrait of Maquoketa”, two
artists in Santa Paula, California decided to take on a similar
adventure in their own town, calling it the “Santa Paula Portrait
Project”. Photographer John Nichols and painter Gail Pidduck have
spent part of the past two years making portraits of the people in
their community. Since January of 2011, the two have produced over
60 works which will be on display at the Santa Paula Art Museum from
February 23 until June 23, 2013. An opening reception will be held
Saturday, February 23 from 4 to 6 p.m. Admission to the reception is
$10 for SPAM members and $15 for non-members.
In an
email from Rose Frantzen to Gail she wrote, "The wish, that we would
endeavor to explore through our creative mediums, this miraculous
opportunity of being alive, maybe, by recognizing this gift in the
eyes of my neighbor as I realize it in myself." With no outside
funding, Nichols and Pidduck decided to spend a good portion of two
years working on a project that would not provide any income, but
would enrich their lives. For Pidduck, it was the opportunity to sit
for a while with her subjects, most of whom she met by chance on
Main Street, which taught her that everyone “has an interesting
story to tell.”
Like
Frantzen, Nichols and Pidduck desired to capture a collective
portrait of a community and of humanity rather than isolated images.
“The goal in these portraits,” says Nichols, “is to reveal as much
of myself, the artist, as I reveal of the sitter.” The project
encouraged both artists to open their hearts to their neighbors and
strangers on the streets of Santa Paula, the final product of which
illustrates both the ordinary and the extraordinary facets of
everyday life in a small town.
Reservations for the opening reception are
recommended. Please contact the Museum at (805) 525-5554, or email
info@santapaulaartmuseum.org. The Museum is located at 117 North 10th
Street, Santa Paula, CA 93060. The Museum’s regular hours are
Wednesday through Saturday, 10 AM – 4 PM, and Sundays, 12 PM – 4 PM.
