Claremont Lewis Museum of Art

08/22/2026

Remembering Dee Marcellus Cole: we're sad to learn of the passing of beloved artist and community member Dee Marcellus Cole. We're honored to have sculptures by Dee represented in our permanent collection and to have presented the exhibition "Dee Marcellus Cole and Carnival Seekers" in 2017. Dee's vibrant and fanciful sculptures are a direct output of her exuberant and celebratory personality.

Members of the art community recently gathered for a procession in her honor, including music by the dA Center for the Arts' Mini Mariachis and lots of smiles and laughter.

08/19/2026

Is Plein air painting the newest Gen Z trend? Claremont has a long tradition of painting en plein air from Millard Sheets, Phil D**e and the workshops of Milford Zornes to Richard Martinez and Jerry Owen.

Paint groups are popping up in parks. Art schools are seeing a surge in applications. The rise of A.I. has people turning to more traditional art forms

08/18/2026

FestivArts is just around the corner!

Show your work and meet other artists from in and around the Inland Empire at the 2026 FestivArts Claremont Art Festival.

The deadline is coming soon on August 24th. If selected, the fee to participate a $50.

Get all the details, including city requirements for vendors, and apply today at:

https://clmoa.org/festivarts-submissionguidelines/

08/18/2026

This Friday Night Live at the Depot! Join us from 6-9pm.

Bobby Rennie is a classically trained pianist.
After listening to the Beatles in his teenage years, he decided to dive deeper into the piano. He has learned popular songs from the 1950’s to the present day.

Bobby released his first original album in 2019 and his most recent album in 2023. A new album is in the works and is expected to release next year.

08/18/2026

Thanks to everyone who came out to honor the legacy of Dr. Samella Lewis at the opening reception of Samella! Black as Lacquer and Iron last weekend. The exhibition illuminates the extraordinary life and profound influence of Dr. Lewis, a trailblazing art history professor at Scripps College, mentor, author, activist, museologist, philanthropist, and artist.

Curator Francine Farr, one of her Scripps students, welcomed Lewis’s son Claude Lewis, photographer Harmon Outlaw, and many fans and associates from the Los Angeles area. Guests enjoyed a pleasant evening on the Depot plaza listening to the sounds of Homero Chavez y Una Noche. The exhibition, sponsored by Gould Asset Management LLC with co-sponsors Dana and Kirk Delman and Suzanne Muchnic, and remain on view through November 15.

08/18/2026

Thanks to Janice Hoffman for participating in Free 4 All and for sharing her joyful thoughts in this Claremont Courier article.

Janice Hoffman's “My Gratitude Necklace,” created from family keepsakes, was among more than 230 works displayed at Claremont Lewis Museum of Art's annual Free 4 All on August 1. Photo/courtesy of Janice Hoffman

08/15/2026

OPEN TODAY!

5 Days of Samella Lewis

Dr. Lewis, the art historian, wove together new and old media and narratives to speak truth to power in building community and addressing the struggle for equality for Blacks, Asians, diasporans, and indigenous peoples. A world leader of public education, cultural preservation, institution-building, and unassuming continuous artmaking, she became the first tenured African American professor at Scripps College in 1969 and retired in 1984.

Image: Samella Lewis, Untitled (Back of Woman), 1942, charcoal on paper. Estate of Samella Lewis Courtesy of Louis Stern Fine Arts, Photograph by Gene Ogami.

08/14/2026

5 Days of Samella Lewis

In Black Sun and related abstract prints, Lewis manipulated negative space and heavily incised, gestural linework. The deep black inks contrast sharply against raw paper to convey weight, resilience, and quiet power without relying on narrative illustration.

Works like Black Sun depart from her purely figurative depictions of laborers, civil rights activists, and community scenes to explore mood, symbolic cosmic elements, and emotional abstraction. The central Motif of a dark or oppressive sun recurs in several of her figurative prints from the late 1960s (such as Field, 1968), where a heavy, intense sun acts as both a physical source of brutal heat and a symbolic emblem of struggle, endurance, and transformation under environmental and social hardship.

Samella Lewis, Black Sun, 1970/2001 Ed. 3/10, linoleum cut. Estate of Samella Lewis Courtesy of Louis Stern Fine Arts, Photograph by Christian Nguyen

08/13/2026

5 Days of Samella Lewis

The beginning of her academic tenure came at a time when few Black individuals, let alone Black women, were members of the Scripps faculty.

Having collided in the past with institutions of higher education and museums about their explicit overemphasis on European art and minimization of Black artists, Lewis created a sea change in Scripps’ art history curriculum. Under her leadership, coursework embraced non-Western perspectives in art, including those from Africa, the Caribbean, and Asia.

Image: Samella Lewis, Untitled (Profile of a Man), 1950, gouache and watercolor on paper. Estate of Samella Lewis, Courtesy of Louis Stern Fine Arts

Photograph by Christian Nguyen