Nights! is back ... and more expensive

BY STEVEN LIBOWITZ
DAILY SOUND ARTS EDITOR

NIGHTS!, Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s wildly popular upscale monthly happy-hour gathering, is back for the summer – bigger, broader, and more expensive than ever.

The museum kicks off its fifth season of NIGHTS! from 5:30 to 8 p.m. this evening with an art and entertainment extravaganza that ties in with its current major exhibition, “Over Rainbows and Down Rabbit Holes: The Art of Children’s Books.”
The fantasy begins before people even step through the doors.
The museum’s front steps on State Street will hosts the “We’re Not In Kansas Anymore” Wizard of Oz Cupcake Bar, which organizer Kristy Thomas described as “Carnegie Deli meets Emerald City.”
“It’s a real performance art piece,” she said. “There will be three burly men in Oz guard costumes asking people why they want to see the wizard.”
Once inside, visitors will be greeted by 12-foot Rapunzel wigs hanging from the upper level above the court (the foyer with the Greco-Roman statues) and a big banner sporting a quote from “Chronicles of Narnia” author C.S. Lewis: “Someday you’ll be old enough to start reading fairy tales.”
The tag line for tonight’s event is “Unlock the wonder and fantasy of childhood.”
“So that’s what we’re asking you to do for the whole show,” said Thomas, the museum’s education director who came up with the original concept for NIGHTS! and has coordinated all the shows since 2004.
Thomas said she had a bit of a head start coming up with the features for tonight’s event, since it’s based on children’s books to begin with.
“We’re already starting form the world of imagination,” she explained. “But we still have to keep raising the bar to new creative thresholds.”
Hence, the high-energy area for the night will be the “The Mad Hatter’s (Rock) Tea Party,” which Thomas said will “blur between reality and animation, with set pieces that are amalgamations of the two, and performers interacting with the set and animations.” The band Instant Love Mix will play off-beat cover tunes, Thomas said, including “White Rabbit,” Jefferson Airplane’s “Alice in Wonderland”-themed ode to drug-induced psychedelic fantasy. Giant mushrooms and an illuminated Cheshire Cat are among the props.
“Fatal Attraction: The Tale of Peter Rabbit Masks” is May’s featured do-it-yourself art piece. “We put together a favorite children’s story and a mature film about obsession and temptation,” Thomas said. “A local artist did an original illustration of what would have happened if Peter Rabbit went down the wrong path.” Patrons will get to add their own decorations.
Visitor participation is also required at the “Fairy Tale Mixed-Media Mad Libs,” where you can fill in the blanks on the classic storybooks and then post the results for all to see.
“People have intense nostalgia about those things,” Thomas said. “It’s going to be very popular.”
NIGHTS! itself, of course, has become incredibly popular, selling out virtually every month since soon after it started. Indeed, only 100 tickets remain for tonight’s event.
It’s already too late to take advantage of one new feature: for the first time Luxe passes — which provide a private entrance, separate bar lines (and $3 discounts) and access to the VIP lounge featuring special hors d’ oeuvres, an exclusive bar, complimentary wine tasting and VIP-only activities and installations — are available for individual events in addition to the whole season. But they are already sold out for tonight.
What’s also new is a big increase in price. Luxe passes, which require museum membership, are now $60 per night, or $300 for the season. Regular admission has jumped to $35 per evening, with a $15 discount for museum members.
“The Luxe passes went up because people requested that we have the lounge available at every event,” Thomas explained. “There is a lot of expense involved in that.”
As for the regular admission?
“Doing five fully original events like this with artists creating and making everything you see just for the night, it’s not cheap. We wanted to keep the flavor of what we’ve been doing and keep upping the artistic ante.”