As I began watching this final episode of Huell’s California Mission series I expected something completely different. When I first saw the title “Art of the Missions,” I had imagined a tour of some surviving pieces of religious art — paintings of the Virgin, stained glass windows, tile mosaics. But even though I had it completely wrong, this turned out to be a really wonderful episode and a fitting way to end the series. And to finish off the topic of the missions, this Friday I’ll share a few pictures of another fourth-grade class working on their own mission model — back in 1980!

Over the years countless artists have depicted the California Missions in drawings, paintings, etchings and photographs. Huell visits the Huntington Library, which has one of the largest collections of Mission art in the world. We’ll also visit Luis Tur, who has made 19 of the 21 Mission models using nothing but pieces of junk.

(Click on the linked image below to see the video.)