With Van Gogh to Munch, Picasso and Braque, Ori Gersht, New Faces, and Noh Drama, the community and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) have celebrated the Museum's 70th-anniversary year with the masters. Your membership and support of the Museum Fund for Excellence helped make possible these exhibitions as well as our community, family, school, and children's programs.

SBMA serves over 40,000 members of our community each year through our renowned in-school, after-school, and art education outreach programs serving both school children and adults. Additionally, the Museum offers free programming to the community and has trained over 1,000 of our community's public school teachers how to use art to teach across the curriculum. These teachers have become our partners in bringing visual-arts education into the lives of public school students – young people who might not have otherwise experienced the transformative power of great works of art. In this difficult economy, we believe there is no better way to leverage educational resources.

The most exciting news is that Santa Barbara teachers who have regularly participated in our programs, and have incorporated the teaching strategies learned at the Museum into their curriculum, have reported increases in students' State language-arts (reading, writing, and literature) test scores – from 6% to as much as 40% – making the strongest case yet for the connection between visual literacy and literacy.

Art is a powerful source of affirmation – a visual reminder that humanity is creative, resilient, and resourceful. Please help us integrate art into the lives of people. Make your contribution to the Museum Fund for Excellence today.

Sincerely yours,

Larry J. Feinberg
Director and Chief Executive Officer

P.S. Please click the link below to contribute online or to print and mail your tax-deductible contribution to SBMA's Museum Fund for Excellence today. I hope I can count on your new or renewed support today. Your gift does make a difference.