Gallery Talk: Cassandra Coblentz and Krystal Tribbett, PhD on Indefinitely Wild: Preserving California’s Natural Resources

Join Cassandra Coblentz, exhibition curator, and Dr. Krystal Tribbett, UC Irvine Libraries Curator for Orange County Regional History, for a gallery talk about the exhibition, Indefinitely Wild: Preserving California’s Natural Resources.

Indefinitely Wild explores how the early history of environmental conservation in California might have influenced the state’s landscape painters. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as the final chapter of westward expansion unfolded, these artists witnessed how California’s tremendous population growth and industrialization depleted its natural resources. They also observed concurrent efforts to protect California’s wild spaces. Their artworks offer opportunities to rethink people’s relationship to nature. Coblentz shares how and why the exhibition is organized according to natural resources—mountains, trees, land, the coast, and water—that were increasingly viewed as commodities from which to profit. Tribbett discusses the presentation of archival images and materials that shed light on the period’s reconfiguration of nature and its resulting tension with California landscape painting.

DATE: Saturday, June 3, 2023
TIME: 10:30 am
VENUE: Langson IMCA, 18881 Von Karman Avenue, Irvine 92612
PARKING: Airport Tower parking structure. Parking is free.

This drop-in, in-person program is a walk and talk through the gallery and is free and open to all. Advance registration is not required. Museum benches and gallery stools are available for visitor use. Please email imca@uci.edu with questions or requests for accommodations.

Langson IMCA relies on the generosity of our supporters to ensure that museum admission and public programs like this remain free and accessible to all. An online donation to Langson IMCA can be made here; other ways to give can be found here.

About the Facilitators
Cassandra Coblentz has a diverse curatorial practice that champions the artistic process and forefronts creating meaningful, engaging experiences for audiences with works of art. As an independent curator Coblentz takes innovative approaches to collaborating with artists, curating exhibitions, and building community. She is currently Lead Curator of Transformative Currents: Art and Action in the Pacific Ocean for The Getty Foundation's Pacific Standard Time Initiative, Art x Science x LA. 

As the former Senior Curator and Director of Public Engagement at the Orange County Museum of Art she curated the 2017 California Pacific Triennial: Building As Ever and designed and implemented the program concept for the museum’s temporary location, OCMAExpand. Coblentz has curated over fifty exhibitions, published numerous exhibition catalogues, and held appointments at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Hammer Museum, Dia Art Foundation, and The J. Paul Getty Museum. She received a BA in Art History and English from Cornell University and an MA from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College.

Dr. Krystal Tribbett is the Curator for Orange County Regional History for the University of California, Irvine Libraries, Special Collections and Archives. In this role, she develops, makes accessible, and advocates for archives and special collections materials as well as oral history and documentation initiatives relating to the history of the Orange County, California region. She is especially focused on documenting the cultural heritage of underrepresented communities in Orange County. Throughout the year, Tribbett teaches classes and gives presentations on community-centered archives, ethnic studies and archives, how to conduct primary source research, Orange County regional history, and oral history.

At UCI, Tribbett was a member of the core research team for the Institute of Museum and Library Services Community Anchors funded research grant “Transforming Knowledge | Transforming Libraries” which explored the intersection of ethnic studies and community archives. She was also part of the UCI Libraries research team examining the impact of incorporating inclusive histories in primary source workshops on learning outcomes as part of the American Research Library, Research Library Impact Framework Pilot Project. She is a co-lead on the Mellon funded grant project “Community-Centered Archives Practice: Transforming Education, Archives, and Community History.” 

Tribbett is a member of several professional organizations including the Oral History Association, Society of California Archivists; Society of American Archivists; and Black Caucus of the American Library Association. She is a member of Orange County Archives in Action, a grassroots group that hosts the Orange County Archives Bazaar. Tribbett holds a doctorate in history of science from UC San Diego and is an Andrew W. Mellow Fellow for Diversity, Inclusion & Cultural Heritage.

About Langson IMCA
Langson IMCA explores and celebrates artists and their capacity to develop new forms and ideas in response to the California experience. It collects, conserves, and generates scholarship for modern and contemporary art inspired by the State’s diverse societal, cultural, and natural environments. As an institution dedicated to becoming the epicenter of California Art, Langson IMCA presents programming that strives to provoke questions around an expansive understanding of art making inspired by the Golden State.