The Lutah Maria Riggs Society was founded in 2013 to celebrate the courage and creative brilliance of the architect for whom the Society is named. Her remarkable work should command an important position in the history of American architecture and yet, until now it has gone largely unrecognized. With the expertise of Lutah archivist and historian Melinda Gandara, the Society has engaged hundreds
of community members to share stories, memories, and places that go into an exciting film about Lutah - our major effort this year. The Society has engaged Kum-Kum Bhavnani, a popular Professor of Sociology at UCSB and an award winning documentary filmmaker (“Nothing Like Chocolate”, “The Shape of Water”), to direct this documentary, which will be submitted to the 2014 Santa Barbara International Film Festival for its premier. Our Society is entirely volunteer and has been enthusiastically supported by many local organizations (Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara, Casa del Herrero, Ganna Walska Lotusland, Pearl Chase Society, and now the Santa Barbara Foundation). We all share an interest in bringing the story of Lutah Maria Riggs to life.
