The Artist Spotlight Series is back for 2025! Public programming will take place at Namba Performing Arts Space in Downtown Ventura.
Spotlight Talks are meet-the-artist interviews that conclude the formal FOTM documentation process. Each public interview captures the development, achievements, reflections and personal experiences of an artist before a live audience. Attendees have the opportunity to interact with the artists, participate in a question and answer session, and view original work.
After each Spotlight talk artists participate in an intimate AfterGLOW dinner where patrons have the opportunity to socialize and connect with them in a more candid setting. Hosted by FOTM patrons, space is limited.
Please scroll down to see the lineup and RSVP.
Spotlight Series Tickets
General Public
Seniors
FOTM Members
AfterGLOW Fundraiser Tickets
General Public
FOTM Members
Spotlight Talks 2025
A Conversation with Jennifer Wolf
August 24, 2025 from 3:30 to 5:00pm
Focus on the Masters Artist Spotlight with Jennifer Wolf will take place at NAMBA Performing Arts Space. Click button for tickets and RSVP.
We expect this event to sell out.
Please reserve your seats ahead of time.
A Conversation with Stephen Edwards
October 5, 2025 from 3:00 to 4:30pm
Focus on the Masters Artist Spotlight with Stephen Edwards will take place at NAMBA Performing Arts Space. Click button for tickets and RSVP.
We expect this event to sell out.
Please reserve your seats ahead of time.
Upcoming Spotlight Talks
including those postponed during the Covid 19 pandemic
A Conversation with Margaret Garcia
A Conversation with Margaret Garcia on Sunday, Feb 15, 2026 from 3:00 to 4:30 pm at Nambia Arts Center in Ventura, CA
A Conversation with Joe Adams
A Conversation with Joe Adams Sunday, April 19. 3 - 4:30Whether an underwater sculpture of stone, a pair of metal fins diving into a concrete sea, or an other-worldly being captured in graphite and scrolled onto a wall, Joe Adams's talent promises to deliver lyrical,...
A Conversation with Lori Cozen-Geller
A Conversation with Lori Cozen-Geller Sunday, June 7. 3:00 - 4:30 pmLori Cozen-Geller is a minimalist sculptor working in metal, wood and fiberglass, overlaid with automotive paint. The artist creates geometric shapes that stand alone and as wall sculptures with...
A Conversation with Bruce Freeman
A Conversation with Bruce Freeman Sunday, August 30 3:00 - 4:30 pmMost recently recognized for the wine label he created, Clos des Amis, Bruce Freeman’s exceptional wine producing capabilities are the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to creativity and...
A Conversation with Katie Van Horne
A Conversation with Katie Van HorneSunday, May 19, 2024 - 3:00PM - 4:30PMKatie Van Horne is a celebrated painter and printmaker of her native California landscape, the human form and animals. She is best known for painting portraits. Her gestural drawing style invite...
A Conversation with Charles Arnoldi
A Conversation with Charles Arnoldi Postponed - Date/Time to be AnnouncedCharles Arnoldi is an abstract painter, sculptor and printmaker. The artist’s boldly graphic and colorful aesthetic employs a wide range of abstract visual language, from hard-edged geometric...
A Conversation with David Furman
A Conversation with David FurmanPostponed - Date/Time to be AnnouncedCeramist David Furman draws inspiration from his personal experiences and the explorations of the world around him. His hyperrealism and trompe l’oeil techniques fool the eye into believing you are...
A Conversation with Margaret Garcia
A Conversation with Margaret GarciaPostponed - Date/Time to be Announced“I define Chicano art by creating it,” Garcia states. The Los Angeles native began her career as a muralist, involved in the murals that swept through the 1984 Olympics. Identified as one of 24...
2020 Spotlight Artists
A Conversation with Margaret Garcia
A Conversation with Margaret Garcia on Sunday, Feb 15, 2026 from 3:00 to 4:30 pm at Nambia Arts Center in Ventura, CA
A Conversation with Joe Adams
A Conversation with Joe Adams Sunday, April 19. 3 - 4:30Whether an underwater sculpture of stone, a pair of metal fins diving into a concrete sea, or an other-worldly being captured in graphite and scrolled onto a wall, Joe Adams's talent promises to deliver lyrical,...
A Conversation with Lori Cozen-Geller
A Conversation with Lori Cozen-Geller Sunday, June 7. 3:00 - 4:30 pmLori Cozen-Geller is a minimalist sculptor working in metal, wood and fiberglass, overlaid with automotive paint. The artist creates geometric shapes that stand alone and as wall sculptures with...
A Conversation with Bruce Freeman
A Conversation with Bruce Freeman Sunday, August 30 3:00 - 4:30 pmMost recently recognized for the wine label he created, Clos des Amis, Bruce Freeman’s exceptional wine producing capabilities are the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to creativity and...
Double Your Impact on Giving Tuesday
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Double your Donation: Thanks to Paula Spellman!
[dipl_image_card title="Paula Spellman volunteering" image="https://focusonthemasters.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Paula-in-the-FOTM-Archive-helping-with-a-mailing-FTLOA.jpeg" show_button="on" button_text="Donate"...
Cataloging FOTM’s Archive: Join In!
Would you like to help? FOTM has partnered with the Art History Department at California Lutheran University to give students hands-on experience working with our special collections. This multi-year project will make the FOTM Arts Archive & Library more...
Learning to See Receives Grant
Learning To See Outreach (LTS) receives funding through the VibeWell Ventura County Arts & Wellness Grant Program to help address mental health needs of our students through art. We will provide 25 classrooms with our new Beat the Odds+ program that integrates the...
A Conversation with Jennifer Wolf: SOLD OUT!
A Conversation with Jennifer Wolf
A Conversation with Stephen Edwards
A Conversation with Stephen Edwards
2019 Spotlight Artists
A Conversation with Jennifer Wolf: SOLD OUT!
A Conversation with Jennifer WolfSunday, August 24, 2025, 3:30 to 5:00 pmAn artistic explorer of remarkable depth, Jennifer Wolf is also a scholar, a scientific composer of color, and a talented documentarian. The richness of Jennifer's experiences is vividly...
A Conversation with Stephen Edwards
A Conversation with Stephen EdwardsSunday, October 5, 2025 3:00 to 4:30 pm Sponsored by Ojai Studio ArtistsSunday, October 5, 2025, from 3:00PM–4:30PM The way Stephen Dee Edwards captures life’s essence with glass is nothing short of miraculous. His study of life...
A Conversation with Kim Schoenstadt
A Conversation with Kim SchoenstadtSunday, February 23 - 3 to 4:30 p.m.Kim Schoenstadt’s international site-specific installations are inspired by the intersections of architecture, sculpture, color, line, history, culture and concepts based around overlapping...
A Conversation with Linda Ekstrom
A Conversation with Linda EkstromSunday, November 17, 2019 – 3 to 4:30 p.m. Linda Ekstrom’s work is anchored in the book as a cultural and symbolic object. Through her altered books and other mixed media works, she seeks to uncover and articulate a profound...
A Conversation with Hilary Brace
A Conversation with Hilary Brace Sunday, October 13, 2019 – 3 to 4:30 p.m. Hilary Brace creates other-worldly meteorological landscapes that envelop the viewer. The ethereal, expertly drafted work conjures all the senses. One might, at first, perceive them as...
A Conversation with Mick Reinman
A Conversation with Mick ReinmanSunday, September 29, 2019 - 3 to 4:30 p.m.Mick Reinman has been described as a painter’s painter. His powerfully colored compositions build on the human figure and landscape in its most basic and architectonic form. He attended...
A Conversation with Ichiro Irie
A Conversation with Ichiro IrieSunday, August 18, 2019 - 3 to 4:30 p.m.Ichiro Irie is a multidisciplinary artist, as well as curator, gallery owner and professor at Oxnard College. Born in Japan and reared in Westside LA, he originally studied film and communications...
A Conversation with Omar D’Leon
A Conversation with Omar D'LeonSunday, July 21, 2019 - 3 to 4:30 p.m.Omar d'León is from Managua, Nicaragua and is regarded as one of the most renowned Nicaraguan painters and poets. He studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Nicaragua under his mentor...
A Conversation with Carlos Grasso
A Conversation with Carlos GrassoSunday, June 16, 2019 – 3 to 4:30 p.m.Carlos Grasso studied both visual arts and music as a child while growing up in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He worked as a professional flautist and graphic designer before moving to Southern...
A Conversation with Peggy Pownall
A Conversation with Peggy PownallSunday, May 19, 2019 – 3 to 4:30 p.m.Peggy Pownall is a mixed media painter working as an Artist-In-Residence at Studio Channel Islands in Camarillo since 2008. She received her B.A. from Pepperdine University and has undertaken...
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