THOUSAND OAKS, CA - Artists whose works adorned the cover of the magazine of the Automobile Club of Southern California for more than 50 years will be the subject of the first event in the 2011-2012 Scandinavian Lecture Series at California Lutheran University.

Morgan Yates, corporate archivist for the Auto Club, will present “Autos, Archives and Art” at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 23, in the Roth Nelson Room.

Yates, a regular contributor to Westways, will talk about Swedish-American artist Carl Oscar Borg and others who provided cover art for the Auto Club’s monthly member magazine. The cover art program began in 1928 when editor Phil Townsend Hanna ditched the original plain covers featuring the Auto Club logo in favor of original fine art as part of his plan to expand the magazine’s focus to include travel, the arts and regional culture.

Hanna began presenting works from artists widely recognized for their California painting. To begin, he commissioned a series of 12 landscapes including “Grand Canyon” by Borg. In 1931, Hanna asked Borg to paint a series of scenes from California history featuring Junipero Serra, John Fremont and other notable figures. Born in Sweden in 1879, Borg spent time living with Native Americans and is best known for his paintings of Hopi and Navajo Indians, cowboys and California and Grand Canyon landscapes. He taught at the California Art Institute in Los Angeles and the School of Arts in Santa Barbara. Borg died in Santa Barbara in 1947.

The Westways cover program was scaled back in the 1930s and 1940s, revived in the 1950s and ended in 1981, when photography fully displaced other visual arts on the magazine covers. Today, the corporate archives house more than 250 paintings, collages and assemblages representing the diverse and vibrant art scene of early- and mid-20th century Southern California.

Yates, who has co-curated many AAA-sponsored museum exhibitions, will also touch on the role Westways has played as a chronicler of the history, culture and natural landscape of Southern California for more than 100 years.

The Roth Nelson Room is located on Mountclef Boulevard near Memorial Parkway on the Thousand Oaks campus. Following the presentation, a reception will be held at the Scandinavian Center at 26 Faculty Drive, where a collection of Borg’s magazine covers is on display.

The CLU Art Department and the Scandinavian American Cultural & Historical Foundation are sponsoring the free presentation. For more information, contact Anita Londgren at 805-241-1051 or call the Scandinavian Center at 805-241-0391.