Patron of the Hearts

One of the newest storefronts in Santa Barbara wants you to know all about the products it doesn’t sell.

The Funk Zone newcomer would rather talk about its nonprofit work in the local special needs community, using art and music to help people of all ages express themselves and connect with others.

Its 1,000-square-foot art gallery is across the street from the industrial rollup doors at Lama Dog and Topa Topa. On display inside are prints by Salvador Dalí and original art by Louis Ritman and Joane Cromwell, among others. Works currently for sale range up to $24,000.

But by far the most important art projects associated with ArtLabbé (pronounced “lab-bay”), its operators insist, are produced at the 11 weekly art and music classes it holds for people with disabilities at local schools and residential facilities throughout the Santa Barbara community.

“People experience art and music in a spiritual way,” said Executive Director Nate Grotenhuis, 28. “I know what it’s like to have individuals that do not have the same communication skills to be able to express themselves. These are great tools to help them express what they’re feeling, what they’re going through, their challenges.”

Grotenhuis speaks from experience. One of his younger sisters, Abby, suffered a brain injury as a newborn baby, stemming from complications with meningitis.

Abby was beside Grotenhuis November 13 to unveil a recent ArtLabbé exhibit, Hidden Treasures, which features some rare prints by Dalí, as well as original landscapes by Douglass Parshall and figurative works from Franz Bergmann. The pieces had been tucked away in three Carpinteria storage lockers for the past 10-plus years.

The core mission of the gallery, however, is ArtLabbé’s weekly community classes held at the Devereux and Momentum facilities for people with special needs, as well as in classrooms at La Colina Junior High School and at Dos Pueblos, Santa Barbara, and San Marcos high schools. 

Music therapist Meghan Downing, who is legally blind, and art instructor James Grotenhuis, a younger brother of the gallery director, provide instruction and materials free of charge. Both instructors are graduates of the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

The outreach program is in its infancy, but quickly gaining traction. Jake Boone, a special education instructor at Dos Pueblos High School, said his students eagerly look forward to the weekly visits from the ArtLabbé team.

“They love it,” said Boone, who has taught at DP for four years. “Most of the students do the projects all by themselves. Some need a little prompting, some need hand over hand. Today, they each painted a fish, named it, and gave it a story, and then they got in front of the class and described where it was from — it’s a lot of skills they’re working on, besides art.”

In addition to remote classes, ArtLabbé hosts weekly events in its Funk Zone space. It’s coordinating with a local program that helps train and transition high school graduates into paying jobs. Grotenhuis said the gallery will bring in a handful of students each week to help clean, organize inventory and make crafts such as Christmas ornaments, which will then be sold there.

And because transportation often is a major challenge for the working families of people with disabilities, Grotenhuis said he aims to secure the use of a dedicated van that would bring students from their schools to the gallery for regular after-school art and music workshops.

ArtLabbé was founded in Santiago, Chile, in 2005 by artist Maria José Fuentes Labbe and theologian Néstor Soto Godoy. Over the years, the flagship Chile gallery has worked with artists Mario Toral, Fernando Cifuentes Soro, Isabel Margarita Heussler, and Eva Holz.

The gallery expanded into nonprofit work in 2016 and in 2018 opened a second gallery in Coral Gables, Florida. ArtLabbé Santa Barbara opened in September. The Funk Zone location is dedicated solely to nonprofit work. Grotenhuis said it is operating on a donated, first-year budget of approximately $200,000, as well as grants from the city and Rotary Club.

It’s a worthy mission many hope to see expanded. Among them is Ryan Frykman, an ArtLabbé participant and honoree. Frykman’s biological mother struggled with mental illness and addiction, and passed a mitochondrial condition onto her children. Frykman’s twin brother died from complications in 2014, sending Frykman into an intense period of pain.

“I was angry, scared, confused,” Frykman told a group gathered at the Hidden Treasures opening. “I didn’t know how to deal with my own pain. And sometimes, I took it out on people I loved…. I didn’t have the tools to express myself in a healthy way.”

With help and support, Frykman persevered and completed school. He now works at Roosevelt Elementary School and advocates for people with special needs.

“No matter how dark things can get, there is always light if you keep going,” Frykman said. “No matter what you’re facing, remember this life is not about what happens to you. It’s about whether you choose to grow from it. And turn pain into power. Loss into love. And struggle into strength. I’m living proof of that. Thank you.”

ArtLabbé Santa Barbara is located at 111 Santa Barbara Street, Suite H. See artlabbe.org.