SBTHP’s Year of the Dragon Mural in El Presidio de Santa Bárbara State Historic Park by muralist and designer, DJ Javier, celebrates Santa Barbara’s diverse Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities. 2024 marks the Year of the Dragon as part of the twelve-month cycle of the lunar calendar. An important zodiac character in many cultures, the Dragon invokes feelings of hope, strength and unity for the future.  

 

SBTHP’s Year of the Dragon Mural will be on display on the Northwest wall of the historic Jimmy’s Oriental Gardens building in El Presidio de Santa Bárbara State Historic Park for an entire calendar year - through the end of January 2025. In February 2025, the wall will be painted back to its original white.  

  

On February 10, 2024, SBTHP welcomed over 5,000 people to our Year of the Dragon Festival at El Presidio de Santa Bárbara State Historic Park  to unveil SBTHP’s Year of the Dragon Mural and the opening of an immersive, multi-media art exhibition, THE DRAGON, co-curated by SBTHP Board Member Kai Tepper and emerging artist Meiya Sidney. THE DRAGON, that featured artwork by local, multigenerational AAPI artists and demonstrated the resilience of Santa Barbara’s AAPI communities, was on display inside the Presidio Chapel from February 10-21, 2024.  

 

We hope you can join our community to embrace the strength, wisdom, vitality, resilience and hope that the Year of the Dragon represents!  

 

Come check out the mural, and while you’re at El Presidio de Santa Bárbara State Historic Park make sure to explore SBTHP’s Nihonmachi Revisited and Jimmy’s Oriental Gardens exhibits.   

 

Questions? (805) 965-0093 or kevin@sbthp.org