Charting Santa Barbara’s art scene in style, with Amada Cruz
A conversation on culture, community, and and the power of creative leadership
A few months ago, I was at a Santa Barbara Historic Land Commission meeting for an upcoming project we’re working on. Just ahead of us on the agenda was the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. I was completely taken by surprise as I listened to the two women present with such charisma, energy, style, and professionalism while unveiling what is now the bright pink vinyl entrance on the stairs of the museum for the exhibition “The Impressionist Revolution: From Monet to Matisse.”
I was specifically drawn to Amada Cruz, director and CEO of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. She commanded the room—not through force, but through a genuine excitement for art, for the museum, and for our city. I turned to Alex, my business partner, and said, “I want to know that woman.” What I would soon discover—and what I’ve come to admire most about Amada—is that her entire leadership approach is rooted in accessibility, including making herself accessible to others. Within a few emails, we coordinated lunch and this interview.
While eagerly awaiting our lunch at The University Club, I wondered how she planned to bring her background and passion in contemporary art to a town that, for me, can feel traditional and slow to change at times. To be honest, I had kind of forgotten about the museum. Didn’t they once throw great parties with DJs, drinks, and an energetic young scene? In fact, it used to be the go-to party, along with the Canary Hotel’s rooftop parties. Before pop-ups became the norm, the museum was one of the main gathering spots for young adults in Santa Barbara. But 15 years later, I can’t remember the last time the museum felt relevant. Until now.
“One of the things that surprised me about moving here was how game people are for change,” said Amada, sharing her enthusiasm about her new role. “I was definitely brought in to bring a different vision to the institution.”
When Amada first saw the job description, she was surprised by what the board was seeking. In 2017, while she was running the Phoenix Art Museum, she had worked with Julie Joyce, then senior curator at the Santa Barbara museum. The two had collaborated on an exhibition of Valeska Soarez that previously had brought Amada out to Santa Barbara. So, in 2023, when she learned the museum wanted someone to diversify its offerings and create more community and partnerships, it felt like kismet.
Reimagining museums as a third space
In her first few months here, Amada immersed herself in the community— meeting with board members, donors, and the larger community. She asked what changes people hoped to see. When she heard that Santa Barbara was ready to embrace change, she acted. Partnering with chief curator James Glisson, she brought in the artist, Elliott Hundley. By juxtaposing Hundley’s contemporary work with the museum’s more traditional Hermes statue at the entrance, Amada immediately began addressing the challenge of blending fresh perspectives and contemporary art with longstanding roots. The result is colorful, evocative, and contemporary.
Her relationship with Hundley is not new. Amada brings with her relationships she has cultivated for years, in various cities and jobs, and I can tell how important these relationships are to her. It really is the “why” of what she does.
“I think the best part of my job is the relationships that you can build,” she said. “I love that. To me, it’s the most fun. It’s not work.”
In the many cities that Amada has lived in, Los Angeles was a place that taught her a lot about creativity and community. Working for a nonprofit that gave grants to artists across the country, she became immersed in the visual arts, working not only with visual artists but also musicians, architects, designers, and more.
I am always curious to hear about the challenges other institutions are facing. We often work so quietly in our own silos. Even though our work is not the same, I wanted to hear what challenges Amada is working on at the museum. For her, a major challenge is addressing “static spaces.” This is something we think about at the shop as well—how can a space truly engage someone? Amada is tackling this head-on at the museum.
“I really think that art should be for everyone,” she said. “So, how do we make this experience super accessible and welcoming to people?”
Amada’s passion to make art more accessible has led to offering free admission to the museum every other Sunday to the tri-county area—”which has doubled attendance!” she noted. She has also launched free family programming in the Art Learning Lab, where kids and adults can take classes.
“All of it is about making this space more accessible and FUN!” she said. “The kids can go upstairs to see the art and then go down and make art. And a lot of it is free.”
Amada knows that early exposure matters; children who visit museums are more likely to continue visiting as adults—nurturing the next generation of museumgoers.
This also addresses one of the museum’s biggest challenges, Amada said.
“We are always worried about attendance, getting people off the couch and out of their sweats,” she said. “How do you maintain relevance? What causes someone to come into the museum rather than doing something else?”
I flipped the question to her—what makes her get off the couch, or off her phone to go and do something?
“I am a big proponent of having an authentic experience,” Amada said. “The thing that we can actually provide for people is an experience with an authentic work of art—not a simulation, not something on your phone that is mediated. We have the real thing.”
And it’s true. On those walls right now for the Impressionist exhibition, there are real Monet’s, a real Matisse, real Van Goghs, real Paul Gaugins…As someone who studied Art History, it feels important that we have access to these works of art at this caliber in Santa Barbara. But I think Amada is onto something bigger: In the post-Covid world, how do we get people out of their pajamas?
I agree that most people want an authentic experience. You can see this at the bustling farmers market, where Amada and her husband frequent every Saturday, as well as at The Eddy where she marvels over the tuna fish selections. And you can see it out on the surf breaks or hiking trails where people are immersed in the real thing. People want to touch, smell, and taste the fruit they’re buying, and they want to be in the ocean rather than on a simulation of being in the ocean. Our town has a lot of this genuine experience to offer, but how do we do it in these more static spaces, like a museum or a retail store?
“I think it’s an emotional connection to something,” Amada said. “Whether it’s hand crafted, or planned in a certain way with intentionality and integrity.”
We see this in fashion and retail as well, where people are increasingly drawn to smaller, more intentional wardrobes rather than mass-produced pieces. But is that enough to get them off the couch? Amada reminded me how lucky we are in Santa Barbara, surrounded by so many great organizations offering rich cultural experiences—ones that remain relevant, engaging, and stimulate our community.
The art museum’s current exhibition, “The Impressionist Revolution: From Monet to Matisse,” is not only an extraordinary exhibition of these classics, it is also a tribute to the museum’s own collection. Amada wanted to honor the legacy of the institution, the different collections there, and also the legacy of the donors who have been so generous to the museum (and, in turn, to Santa Barbara).
In “Encore,” a sort of bonus of the Impressionist exhibition, Amada highlights the many French 19th-century works of our own museum’s collection, which she comments is extensive. Again, I think this really highlights Amada’s commitment to blending the appetite for change with the respect for what already exists, a balance that can often be hard to strike. Next year, Amada will focus on the museum’s own collections, saying there is “an opportunity to recontextualize them into various exhibitions.”
The making of a curator
Amada was a contemporary art curator for 20 years. Her background is doing special projects and exhibitions with living artists—like the show she did with artist Felix González-Torres, who was very important to her and later died of AIDS. As she spoke of her love of being in dialogue with artists, it reminded me of my own grandmother who once lined up to get Dalí’s signature, and who, too, was very interested in knowing the artists she collected.
Having been an intern at the Guggenheim and studying at New York University, Amada spent a lot of time in museums and galleries in New York City. Her first job was to help curate a show called “New American Talent,” where she helped identify emerging talent. She knew immediately she wanted to work directly with artists.
“Without knowing how to curate, I just loved it,” she said. Dialogue was most important to her, and she would never do a show without having spent time with the artist first.
While talking with Amada, my own curiosity about discovering art and artists continued to bubble up. Amada spoke about the importance of looking, what the industry calls “training your eye.” She encourages people to go out and see as much art as they can.
“Look as much as possible, read as much as possible, and then buy what you really love,” she said. “There are people who buy because they want art on the walls, and then there are people who want museum quality.”
She then offered a piece of guidance I often give our customers at Jake and Jones: if you want to build a collection, buy one piece of art a year—after 10 years, you’ll have a collection. That approach, she said, requires discipline. It made me reflect—doesn’t this apply to everything? Becoming a true connoisseur, even in my own industry, takes both discernment and consistency.
Amada is infusing this philosophy into the museum’s offerings.
“We do studio visits in LA which is a great opportunity for young collectors and for people to have experiences with artists,” she said. “People forget that artists make the art. So, when you are looking at a Monet, there’s a whole story behind that. It used to be that you were supposed to ignore the story of the artist. I don’t think people feel that way anymore.”
It reminds me of the time I worked at The Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy and how Peggy herself was rather revolutionary for having relationships with the artists she collected. I agree that people today—like myself—want to know the artist behind the work.
The art of dressing
There is such an overlap between art and fashion, and Amada undoubtedly has great style. Recently, she visited the shop and bought a great pair of Jacques Solovière loafers, made in France by a woman who used to work for Oscar De la Renta. At our lunch, she wore a Cordera vest layered over a shirt with Brochu Walker denim. Before our interview, I came across a photo from 10 years ago (seen above) and I asked her about how her style has evolved.
“In terms of evolving, I have to be professional-looking. That’s really important in my role because I’m a woman and I’m small,” Amada said. “But I also really like to be comfortable. I would rather not look very generic, but sometimes I do and I don’t worry about it. So in terms of style, that’s what I try to balance—-can I be really comfortable but look professional at the same time.”
She then brought up Issey Miyake: “That I buy in your store,” she said. “I love it in the evening because it feels like I am wearing pajamas. It’s so insanely comfortable, and if I throw it on, I am done!”
Born in Cuba, Amada describes Miami—where her parents live and where she considers a capital of Latin America—a second home.
We share this love of Miami. I grew up visiting my grandparents and my aunt in these rather large Orthodox communities, much like Amada’s experience in Miami’s Latinx communities. Her mother, unusually for the time, was raised in a nonreligious family and attended a private, nonreligious girls’ school where many Jewish families also sent their daughters.
“Miami is all about color,” she said. “People dress in a certain way. It’s a lot sexier, it’s a lot of color, and women wear high heels. I mean my mother is in her 80s and she finally stopped wearing high heels.”
When it comes to Amada getting dressed, she observed that Santa Barbara’s weather and lifestyle shape local dress.
“I think the weather and the ambience, in my opinion, affect how people dress. People here are so casual because they’re outdoors, they’re hanging out, they are going hiking,” she said.
Amada gravitates toward menswear, a more tailored way of dressing. “As you get older, there’s no pressure to wear things that aren’t me.” She laughed recounting how at one point she tried working with a stylist, but when they tried to get her to wear a sequined dress, she had to call it a day. Her laugh makes me laugh. Getting dressed is such a personal experience, we really do have to be comfortable in what we are wearing.
I’m always curious about women in leadership, and Amada offers a compelling perspective. She notes how much the art industry has evolved—women now make up 50% of the field. Diversity is important to her, and she appreciates being part of this positive shift.
As a child, Amada was shy, something she realized she would need to overcome. Today, she is an excellent speaker who has embraced her own style: working in the moment, staying present, and relying less on scripted delivery.
After our lunch interview, I took the Jake and Jones team on a docent-lead tour of the Impressionist exhibition. It reignited my commitment to sharing my excitement for art with my team and participating in our city’s cultural life. Supporting our institutions matters. I have learned how important it is to support our city’s institutions.
While walking the exhibition, I kept hearing what Amada had to say about art: “I think (art) is really powerful because it makes you see the world differently or makes you think about things in a different way,” she said. “I really want to be challenged intellectually.”
The Impressionist show is that. What people might not know is that the entire Impressionist movement was, in fact, revolutionary. Monet, Matisse, Van Gogh…these were artists who were anti-establishment, so much so that their art literally was not permitted to be presented in museums or exhibitions. They had to create their own community.
This brings me back to the question of what gets us out of our pajamas and off our couches. For me, I think it is this sense of community or belonging. I think it’s as simple as the small chit-chat you have with the person making your coffee, to the larger roles we can play in the cities we live in. It’s a connection to something outside yourself.
What about the museum’s community?
“There is definitely a community around this museum which is so nice,” she said. “And so what I want to do is broaden that community. That’s one of my goals. The thing is, you don’t want to have just one group in leadership, of the board for example. You want to have lots of different groups. So not just one circle of influence, but a lot of different circles of influence. You don’t want the PLU (people like us). We are really broadening that.” I think she is right.
When our lunch ended, I snapped this quick photo outside. I left feeling refreshed, excited, engaged—and also like I just left lunch with a friend, knowing I will see them soon. Engaging with leadership can sometimes feel unattainable in a city, like we have such a distance from the people who run our town. But meeting Amada—and seeing her openness and her leadership take course—grounded me.
This theme of accessibility makes me think of all the ways we can be open to one another. It’s not just in large institutions, but at smaller levels, too. Real learning and relationships happen when we are open to being in spaces with one another where we can learn, inspire, and ask questions. It’s supportive, not competitive.
Amada has so much to offer our city—not only through her role as the museum’s director, but also through the way she understands art’s place in the community. Her leadership reflects well on Santa Barbara and on the museum’s board and executives, who have embraced change and invited a fresh vision while blending our city’s rich past with its evolving future.
Thank you to Amada Cruz, James Glisson, and Lindsey Garrison who helped make this interview possible. We are big fans. See you at the museum.
X,
Jen
100%! Our small town has so much to offer and such great leaders like Amada! Should we meet and walk through the exhibition together? xo Jen
What a wonderful, generous piece of writing! So many things to celebrate here: our town, our museum, Amada’s rich experience….and her style. 🏆