Taking time to reflect on the past, our personal and collective histories, challenges, and successes, grounds us as we look forward to the future. How does your past and present inform your future? What does it mean to evolve, to blossom, and to truly discover who you are and who you want to become?

New Museum Los Gatos (NUMU) invites Santa Clara County high school students to create an original work of art that reveals the complex journey of being In Transition. Consider the significance of this chapter of your youth – a stage of metamorphosis from childhood into adulthood. Explore the subtle but powerful shifts in your personal development within contemporary societal culture and the stories of your ancestors. Transition is temporal, emotional, constructive, empowering, and a fundamental part of life.

“A lot of people resist transition and therefore never allow themselves to enjoy who they are. Embrace the change, no matter what it is; once you do, you can learn about the new world you're in and take advantage of it.” - Nikki Giovani, American poet, activist and educator

This year’s theme was co-created with the ArtNow Teen Council, an exciting step forward in elevating the program to be widely accessible and relevant to teenagers living across Santa Clara County. Through this meaningful partnership with student artists, teens are not only the beneficiaries of ArtNow, but its architects.

A solo show featuring artist Liz Harvey.

the lost ones: iterations and murmurs is an exhibition centered on the artworks, artifacts, and ephemera behind creating the lost ones, a multi-year performance project by Bay Area artist Liz Harvey. For the lost ones performance project, Harvey worked with a range of collaborators, including choreographers Mary Armentrout, Cherie Hill, and Megan Nicely, as well as, science editor Lauren Muscatine. The project featured myriad performers rotating through an embroidered performance garment on which participants were invited to stitch images of endangered plants in order to highlight overlooked species, untold feminist histories, and little-acknowledged art practices.

The Greater Bay Area Open (GBAO) is a juried fine-art-only competition and exhibition presented by the Los Gatos Art Association (LGAA), designed to promote fine art and artists from the greater Bay Area. Starting in 2015 and held biannually, the GBAO is now in its fifth showing and is presented biennially. This exhibition forges an exciting and dynamic association between the LGAA and NUMU, host to this collaboration.

Spanning twelve Bay Area counties, from Sonoma to Monterey, this juried event draws artists to compete for awards and recognition but also brings exposure to respected jurors, galleries, and art collectors from the region. The GBAO embraces artistic excellence, accepting both two-dimensional and three-dimensional fine art into a premier venue.

In every moment of creativity, there is an option to explore one’s perspective and expression. For this exhibition, LGAA invites artists to push work past usual boundaries to embrace the movement between potentiality and actuality. All artists are encouraged to interpret the theme, “Potentiality / Actuality” in their own way.

A solo show featuring artist Linda Simmel.

Through evocative drawings, etchings, and paintings, Linda Simmel explores personal and cultural connections between landscape, memory, and history. The Hiking Club: A Vocabulary of Yearning intertwines the story of being the daughter of an immigrant, with the sublime in nature. The works in the show are in part homage to landscape, trees, and the histories they’ve lived in, as well as Simmel’s immigrant father and the time in which he lived. For the artist, the work reveals the process of unraveling the burden of history that defines her, which ultimately presents a sensitive inquiry into intergenerational cultural identity, loss, and renewal.

As individuals, we tend to move through life as if we are the main character; going about our days with ourselves at the front of our minds. We know ourselves best. But what happens when we take a moment to pause and listen to our neighbor? How can someone else’s story help us unpack our own? Turning our stories into collective experiences and feelings allows us to heal both individually and as a community. The familiarity we know in ourselves is found in others, each of us working through unfamiliar transitions and moving beyond our comfort zones. Each of us is working to become more connected—familiar with the unfamiliar.

On view May 5 through Nov 12, 2023, In the Artists’ Studio: Featuring RREVV Studio will introduce visitors to the artists behind the Santa Cruz-based design studio, Rachel and Rigel Hunter. Dive into their shared creative process to develop and execute new works by following along with a piece of unique wearable artwork as it goes from concept to raw material, to a collectible object. RREVV Studio will discuss negotiating the tensions inherent in working between the realms of art and design, as well as the pressures that come with being practicing artists who manage businesses to support their work.

ArtNow is an annual juried Santa Clara County high school art exhibition and educational program, presented by New Museum Los Gatos (NUMU). The ArtNow Exhibition and supporting programs offer opportunities for high school student artists, from Palo Alto to Gilroy, to gain real-world experience in participating in a juried museum exhibition. Each year, a new theme is chosen for the exhibition and students are asked to submit works based on that theme. $10,000 in scholarships and awards are given to participating students.