The price of the exhibition is included in regular Mission fees, which are $5.00 for adults, $1.00 for children aged 6 to 17, and free for children under 5 years old. The exhibition will be open from 9:30 to 5:00 Monday through Saturday, and 10:30 to 5:00 on Sunday.

Few artistic legacies are more interesting than that of Joseph Jacinto Mora (1876-1947). Mora’s artistic gifts include drawing, painting, illustration, cartooning, sculpture, photography, mapmaking, and writing. The diversity and consistently high quality of Mora’s work constitute an amazing accomplishment for one person. Curator Peter Hiller has selected art that focuses on Mora’s interest in the Missions of California as depicted in pencil and ink drawings, watercolors from his sketchbooks and illustrations on Mora’s famous maps. One of the highlights of the exhibit will be the opportunity to see the Mission's original Espinosa leather shield from the 1769 Portola Expedition which Mora previously owned and used as subject matter in several of his mission related art pieces that will also be on display.

This is the fourth Mora exhibition Hiller has curated, each focusing on different aspects of Mora’s expansive artistic career.

Jo Mora was born in Uruguay on October 22, 1876, moved to the eastern United States when he was one year old and then, after attending schools in both New Jersey and Massachusetts, studied art with his father and at the Art Students League of New York, Chase School of Art in New York and Cowles Art School in Boston. He soon after worked as an illustrator and cartoonist for the Boston Traveler and Boston Herald, before spending the rest of his adult life living and working in the western United States, primarily in California where he raised his family and where the majority of his artistic endeavors were completed.

In addition to Mora’s work at the mission, highlights of his sculptural work in other parts of California include a bronze fountain at the Phelan Estate Villa Montalvo in Saratoga, a carved pediment on the now Ritz Carlton Hotel in San Francisco and the Doughboy Memorial at the Marin Center in San Rafael.

Several additional examples of Mora's sculptural work can be found in other parts of Monterey County. Carmel-By-The-Sea is home to two other Mora pieces, his second tribute to Father Serra, the craved wooden statue of Serra in the Carmel Woods, and, in the El Paseo Courtyard at 7th and Dolores, a painted sculpture of two early California figures. The Salinas Courthouse is adorned with numerous decorative elements in plaster, concrete and bronze all depicting various elements of California history and all created by Jo Mora. In King City, the exterior of the high school auditorium gives viewers an opportunity to study various aspects of culture as seen through Mora's vision.

To schedule an interview with Peter Hiller, please call Wendy Brickman at (831) 633-4444 or email Brickman@brickmanmarketing.com.

Photos are available upon request.