Charles Donelan’s Favorite Stories of 2019
The Year in Review with Our Executive Arts Editor
Looking back at 2019 through the lens of the more than 140 pieces I wrote for the Indy this year, I’m grateful that I had the chance to talk to so many interesting people, to see everything I could, and to try to make sense of it all in these pages. Special thanks to those who shared their ideas and their stories with me, and to all the organizations — including this one! — that work so hard to keep the arts alive in our community.
The year began auspiciously at the Arts Fund with Cut and Paste, a brilliant show curated by Dug Uyesaka that documented Santa Barbara’s important place in the history of collage. UCSB Professor William Davies King was part of that group exhibition, and he followed it in the spring with a “Tree of LIFE” pop-up featuring his incredible collection of cereal boxes.
Beginning with the appearance of British author Rachel Cusk at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s “Parallel Stories” series in January, opportunities to hear from sagacious women proliferated. Glenn Close accepted her Modern Master Award from the SBIFF in 2019 and granted us a charming, insightful interview about her Academy Award–nominated performance in The Wife.
