SBMM Announces Its Newest Exhibit & Online Program: LOVE LETTERS TO THE SEA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Education Department
(805) 962-8404
education@sbmm.org
SBMM Announces Its Newest Exhibit & Online Program: LOVE LETTERS TO THE SEA
The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum’s (SBMM) Education Programs encourage curiosity through exhibits, experiential learning, and community outreach with special emphasis on California’s maritime history and human interactions with the sea. SBMM has been redefining its programs with creativity, innovation, and technology–reimagining ways to continue to serve and educate the community while complying with social and safety restrictions and preparing for the day we can reopen. And the latest of these efforts is SBMM’s Love Letters to the Sea Interactive Exhibit.
Love Letters to the Sea is an arts-enriched, creative letter- writing project, created by Art Educator/Founder, Sondra Weiss (@lostartofloveletters), that promotes positive change for our oceans. It offers participants a moment to reflect, providing an opportunity for the public to use their art and words as power for global change, with letter writing, art supplies, and postage provided by the exhibit. The handwritten letters are a balance of sentiments and solutions along with handmade and artistically decorated envelopes. Prompts are provided to inspire words and art.
Children can work together or alone, with family members or friends as they have fun creating artistic and persuasive letters and envelopes in support of ocean protection. Letters can be sent to government representatives, change-makers, advocacy organizations, and businesses. They can also be written to friends, family members & mentors friends as a colorful pick me up appreciation. Love Letters to the Sea also provides a great opportunity for teachers and parents to discuss marine ecosystems and practice clever word play, art skills, and political workings and activism.
SBMM has already successfully launched Love Letters to the Sea in a series of workshops for school children of all ages. The sessions were highly enriching, engaging children to tap into their emotions about global changes, times of crisis, concerns, grief, by expressing themselves creatively through writing and art. Individuals are invited to express their feelings about the state of our world and to voice their opinions, cares, and concerns by writing letters aimed at making a difference. SBMM believes this exhibit is even more relevant as children are experiencing various emotions in isolation from loved ones and friends.
SBMM has created an interactive nook for the exhibit, complete with a writing table and chair, art supplies writing tools, and samples of student art and words; and it is the Museum’s hope that when the Museum reopens and it becomes safe for the public to visit, this new exhibit will be a healing place for visitors to express their feelings about something that has been so unprecedented. In the meantime, instructions and resources for this project are now available online at: https://sbmm.org/education/.