The KINGSLEY ART CLUB is excited to present our 2025 Speaker Series.
Please note All lectures start at 1:30 pm, at the Crocker Art Museum Auditorium,216 O Street Sacramento, CA 95814.
Come early to enjoy lunch at the Crocker Cafe

Past Speaker Videos. Videos of past speakers are password protected and are for Kingsley Art Club members only.  Members may click here to enter the case sensitive password to access the videos.

Art Deco, Art Balls &
The Kingsley in the 1920s-1930s

Presented by designer and historian Bruce Marwick
Wednesday, April 16th

Bruce Marwick will explore the artists, architects and art organizations that created a vibrant art community in Sacramento in the 1920s and 1930s. During this period many new art institutions sprang up in Sacramento, first during the rapid expansion of the Roaring Twenties and then during the turbulent years of the Great Depression in the 1930s.

In 1926, Sacramento Junior College (SJC), now “City College”, hired a young art professor, John Mathew, who established two notable organizations: the SJC Art Students League and its annual Art Ball held annually at Memorial Auditorium. In the 1920s, Gladding McBean, the architectural terra cotta manufacturer, was at the height of its creative output. The firm hired many classically trained artists from Milan and Florence and supplied terra cotta to buildings and skyscrapers around the country.

In the 1930s, New Deal agencies helped fund state buildings and public art projects in Sacramento including the Tower Bridge, designed by Alfred Eichler. The Public Works Administration helped Sacramento establish an “Art Center” because of the city’s strong commitment to the arts. Additionally, many SJC art professors and students, Gladding McBean sculptors and local artists, such as Alfred Eichler participated in Kingsley Art Club exhibitions!

Bruce Marwick is a board member of the Sacramento History Alliance and President and Preservation Chair of the Sacramento Art Deco Society. He graduated from Occidental College in Los Angeles with degrees in Studio Art and Art History. Additionally, Bruce did postgraduate work at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He spent many years as a marketing and graphic design professional in Los Angeles and Sacramento. Over the last ten years, Bruce Marwick has written many articles about early 20th century Sacramento artists and architects, including Dunbar Dyson Beck, a painter, New Deal muralist, and set designer, and Carlo Taliabue, a noted Gladding McBean sculptor.

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Are you a Kingsley Art Club member? You enjoy free admission. Our membership year runs July 1 – June 30.
Not a member yet? Click here to become a member.