Ready to Hang 2022: A Panoply of Local Art

Ready to Hang: One of Our Region’s Largest Showcases of Local Art

 One-Day Popup Brings Together an Incredible Array of Local Artists to the Community Arts Workshop, Now in the Final Phase of its Capital Campaign

Saturday November 19, 2022, 4-7pm 

Community Arts Workshop (CAW), 631 Garden Street, Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara, CA – This year will be the third iteration of what has already become an annually-awaited artistic tradition: Ready to Hang. A pop up show open to all local artists for creations 12 inches by 12 inches in size, Ready to Hang presents a unique opportunity to see new works by our entire community of artists in one show.

“I don’t think there’s another show in town that brings together this many artists and this many kinds of art together in a single show,” said Casey Caldwell, the Community Arts Workshop Managing Director. “The range of work takes the breath away. We have works from some of Santa Barbara’s best-known artists, sharing walls with artists for whom this is their very first show. Having all these folks together shows the “now” of our arts scene in a remarkable way, and builds connections and artistic community for everyone.”

This year’s Ready to Hang corresponds with the 15-year Anniversary of the Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative, and the homestretch of the CAW Capital Campaign. Founded in 2007, the SBAC is a nonprofit committed to sustaining and growing all forms of the arts in Santa Barbara. Since 2014, it has worked to renovate and develop the Santa Barbara Community Arts Workshop to provide affordable workspace for local artists, performers, and students and to serve as a hub for creativity, inspiration, and dialogue. Of a $2 million capital campaign to renovate the space, only $100,000 remains, needed to provide heat and cooling, entryway renovation, and solar power.

Ready to Hang typifies the spirit of the CAW as space for everyone to create and share. The show is already one of our region’s largest showcases of local art. In its first year, it exhibited 418 pieces of art by more than 200 artists. In two nights, more than 600 people visited and 102 works of art were sold. Up to 450 pieces are anticipated this year, and even more artists and visitors participating. 

“Ready to Hang has quickly become one of the most beloved events of the entire year, and it’s a personal favorite of mine,” said Nathan Vonk, Owner of Sullivan Goss Gallery and sponsor of Ready to Hang. “It’s one of the biggest art shows of the year, but also one of the most intimate, a real celebration of our community’s creative diversity.”

Free and open to the public, Ready to Hang is held at the Community Arts Workshop and features works for sale by dozens of area painters, photographers, assemblage makers, tattoo artists, printmakers and more, including in the last years and this David Archer, Tony Askew, Jerelyn Barber, Tracey Beeler, Stuart Carey, Patricia Houghton Clarke, David Diamant, Perry Hoffman, D.J. Javier, Colleen Kelly, Dan Levin, Karen Lehrer, Hugh Margerum, Michael Matheson, Diego Melgoza, Marilyn McRae, Ted Mills, Jessie Rand, Jane Bellevue Road, Joe Rohde, Matt Rodriguez, Kathleen Scarminach, Sheryl Schroeder, Diane Stevenett, Matt Straka, Ethan Turpin, Dug Uyesaka, Sue Van Horsen, Erika Van Wingerden, Thomas Van Stein, Chelsea Willett, Apricot Winsayer, John Zarate-Khus, and many others. 

Purchases will be immediately available to “un-hang” and take home. Artists interested in participating can contact show organizer Michael Long: (805) 729-2425 or michaelevanlong@gmail.com, or visit sbcaw.org/hang for artist entry information.

WHO: Local artists

WHAT: “Ready to Hang” pop up art show

WHERE: Community Arts Workshop, 631 Garden Street, Santa Barbara.

WHEN: 4 to 7 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 19, 2022

Special thanks to our sponsor 

and to collaborative co-organizers Mercury Lounge, Fishbon, and the Rondo.