Ilene Segalove: An Artist Caring For Our Future

As we prepare to celebrate Earth Day, in person once again after two years of Covid restrictions, it is noteworthy that the legacy donor featured this month is among the many people who were touched by the terrible Santa Barbara oil spill of 1969.

Ilene Segalove was born and raised in Los Angeles. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) and a Master of Arts Communication from Loyola University. In 1990, UCSB recognized her with the Distinguished Alumni of the Year award. It was while Ilene was a student at UCSB that the infamous 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill happened. She volunteered for the cleanup and has vivid memories of holding oiled birds in her hands, trying to clean them and save their lives.

Following graduation, Ilene went on to craft a highly accomplished career as an artist and innovator, integrating video, photography, and other media into her work. She is also a gifted and insightful writer, having written and published numerous books and articles.

The influence of Ilene's work is illustrated by the fact that she was invited to teach at a number of universities, among them UC Irvine, UCSB, and Harvard; she has also been a guest artist at many prestigious institutions. Ilene's work is in the collections of some of our country's premier art museums and her personal papers are in the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution. In addition, Ilene was, for many years, a commentator on NPR.

Ilene's experience of the oil spill came full circle a few years ago, when she met Marc McGinnis, one of the iconic early environmental leaders in Santa Barbara, and collaborated with him in editing his stirring personal memoir, “In Love with Earth.” Working with Marc not only reconnected her with those heart-rending memories, but it also made her realize more fully the extent of the current global environmental crisis. She is profoundly concerned and passionate about the need to take climate action-recently asking, “Do we need to be on hell's door to mobilize?”

Ilene herself acts on her beliefs and has designated her entire estate to be distributed among a group of nonprofits, with Community Environmental Council being one of the top beneficiaries of her generosity. CEC is deeply grateful for her unwavering commitment to and investment in its work-shining examples of what is needed to overcome the severe challenges we face.