End of Year Letter from MAH Executive Director, Robb Woulfe
Hello friends,
As I sit and reflect on the challenges and successes of the past year, I cannot help but look forward to the many exciting things the MAH has planned for 2021. Next year is an important milestone for the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History because it marks 25 years since our founding in 1996. We will be honoring our silver anniversary with a series of special exhibitions, events, and activities that connect art, history, and community. We hope you will join us for this commemorative occasion.
We also have a great exhibition lineup coming up— including the world-renowned RedBall Project, a rotating outdoor exhibition by Kurt Perschke; In These Uncertain Times, in which 60+ local artists explore creativity and compassion during a global pandemic; Ocean of Light: Submergence, an immersive kaleidoscope of light and sound by U.K.-based digital arts collective Squidsoup; and Conexiónes, a selection of artworks from the Museum of Latin American Art, connected with stories of local Latinx individuals and communities. Then in September, we are excited to unveil Frequency, our reimagined, four-day festival of light, sound, and digital culture, a mostly free event that will take place in and around the MAH.
For me, the year 2020 meant moving to a new community and taking on the challenge of leading this amazing, boundary-pushing organization—conducted primarily through Zoom meetings and sometimes from hotels as my wife, pets, and I evacuated our home due to the wildfires—through one of the most difficult years the MAH has ever faced.
“For me, the year 2020 meant moving to a new community and taking on the challenge of leading this amazing, boundary-pushing organization...”
Robb Woulfe, Executive Director
I am heartened by how the Santa Cruz community has welcomed us, and how together as a community we faced the COVID pandemic and California wildfires. This past year we reflected on our values—contemplating justice, diversity, and equity—and navigated relationships in a charged political landscape. We wondered what the future will bring.
At the MAH we looked inward and assessed our strengths as well as the community’s needs. We dreamed up virtual exhibitions, screenings, online activities, small gatherings, and outdoor installations to offer during the COVID closures. I am proud of our staff for their resilience, creativity, and determination. We will continue to conceive of the best ways to serve you, our community, in these changed times.
Once it is prudent to do so, we look forward to welcoming you back to the downtown MAH. Until then, we will try to meet you wherever you are—creating safe and inclusive spaces online and outdoors, with old friends and new, for personal, creative, and community contemplation.
Thank you to everyone who supported us this year or plans to do so in the future. And to all, a better year ahead.
– Robb Woulfe
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MAH staff are here to reflect back on their favorite event moments of 2020. Take a stroll down memory lane as we reflect on some of the silver linings we saw this year.
