About Lux

Lux Art Institute is redefining the museum experience to make art more accessible and personally meaningful. At Lux, you don’t just see finished works of art; you see the artistic process firsthand, engaging with internationally recognized artists in a working studio environment.

• Support artists in the development of new projects through a residency program, and share their discoveries with scholars, art patrons and a regional and national audience.

• Educate and engage the community to foster an appreciation of the living artist and creative process.

• Exhibit finished works from Lux residencies alongside the artist’s other works and those of others who have influenced them.

• Develop relationships with similar institutions to produce publications that interpret the work created in the residency program.

In 1998, a group of San Diego area art patrons and philanthropists joined with Reesey Shaw, the founding director of the California Center for the Arts Museum, to discuss how they might encourage a better understanding of visual art. They agreed that what was needed was something more than a museum—a place where visitors would be directly exposed to the artistic process in a way that was demystified and immediately engaging.

The vision began to take shape when Ramona Sahm joined the board as president and donated one million dollars in seed money. The founders named the new endeavor Lux, Latin for “light,” and began working to build a facility that would bring international artists to Southern California to realize commissioned works on site and in the public eye.

After choosing a scenic setting in coastal Encinitas as the home for Lux, the founders learned that the site was once named Lux Canyon, after the Lux family, who had settled the area at the turn of the century. They knew it was meant to be.

Even as Lux worked to build its permanent facility, the institute’s vision began to take shape as a “museum without walls.” A series of permanent installations around the Lux grounds offered visitors a sense of the uncommon art experience to come. And in 2000, Lux initiated its educational outreach initiative with the Valise Project.

In 2007, the institute’s first permanent structure, the Artist Pavilion, opened to the public and welcomed its first resident artist.

A place to create, experience and live art, the Lux Artist Pavilion combines a residence, studio and exhibition space. This integrated facility offers resident artists a flexible space for working during their stay, and allows visitors to see artists at work in the studio.

The first of two buildings on the Lux campus, the Artist Pavilion also houses the institute’s administrative offices. A planned second pavilion will include extensive gallery space, additional classrooms and a plaza featuring a series of gardens climbing between the two buildings.

Discreetly nestled into the hillside above the San Elijo Lagoon, the facility reflects the open relationship Lux fosters between artist and environment.

Designed by architect Renzo Zecchetto, the Artist Pavilion incorporates a variety of water- and energy-saving strategies to reduce its impact on the local environment, qualifying it as one of only a few LEED-certified “green” buildings in San Diego County.

Where art meets nature

The perfect backdrop for artistic exploration and appreciation, Lux Art Institute is located on a four-acre parcel overlooking the San Elijo Lagoon, and is surrounded by a wildlife preserve that stretches two miles to the Pacific Ocean.

Lux is committed to maintaining the native habitat at the campus. As part of the building process, Lux teamed with local landscape designers to install an array of rare native plants throughout the site. Visitors to Lux can tour the native gardens and explore the many benefits of planting native species.

The site extends the Lux art experience outside the walls of the facility. Since its inception, Lux has commissioned on-site installations that continue to be a key feature of the institute's campus.

This combination of original artwork and native habitat results in a setting that is both aesthetically stimulating and ecologically sustainable.

The Lux site incorporates a selection of installations originally commissioned as a “museum without walls” while the permanent facility was still being planned.

Home is a grouping of brick furniture completed in 2001 by Turkish artist Ali Acerol. The chairs, stools and ottomans of the piece confront us with the paradox of hardened construction materials shaped and worn down to a texture that resembles fine lace and soft padding.

Garden of Apple Delights, a triangular orchard on the Lux hillside, was designed by Los Angeles landscape painter Astrid Preston. Since being planted in 2003, the fifteen Anna Apple trees—the only apple trees that will grow in California’s coastal climate—have regularly borne fruit and now adorn the pathway to the Lux entrance.

Bird Hub, a series of three sculptures stationed in and around the San Elijo Lagoon, was created by Los Angeles artist Daniel Wheeler. In 2001, Lux commissioned Wheeler to create a site-specific sculptural installation at the lagoon, and after he experienced the area as an avian airport, Bird Hub was born. Tower is a 12-foot tall pole equipped with two pairs of binoculars—one placed 5 feet high for humans, and another poised at 12 feet for a bird’s eye view. Tower was originally installed along the nature trail at the lagoon, but was reinstalled at Lux Art Institute in 2008, at the northeast corner of the Artist Pavilion.

Mother Maple, a sculpture by New York artist Robert Lobe, is located near the top of Lux’s granite trail and depicts the trunk of a tree, a branch, and a large boulder. To sculpt it, Lobe used an adaptation of the ancient process of repoussé, a technique in which metal is hammered, usually from the inside, to create designs or forms. Made in 1988, Mother Maple measures an impressive 120” high by 123” wide by 108” deep, weighs 500 pounds, and is on loan to the Institute through October 17, 2010.

Learn more about Lux. Check back here for the lastest videos about: our artists, programs, and environment.