The Row in Pictures What a find it is--close to 500 never-before published photographs of Cannery Row, circa 1957 and ''58. Snapped by Annapolis, MD, photographer J. Robert Lewis, and laid aside for 40 years, they will be the subject of a major exhibit next fall at Monterey''s Maritime Museum. A sneak preview opens Dec. 9 at the Community Bank of Central California at Lighthouse and Hoffman in Monterey.

"It''s terrific stuff," exults local historian Michael Hemp, author of Cannery Row: The History of Old Ocean View Avenue, who says the photos fill in a large documentary gap in the Row''s history. "We know more about the Row in 1937 than 1957. This is Cannery Row at its absolute nadir, in all its stark, naked beauty. The photographs have a Dorothea Lange pathos."

Here''s Kalisa''s, just opened, with a striped awning over the doorway. Here''s a ballet class inside what is now The Sardine Factory. Here are the broken-down fishermen''s shacks, kids kicking along the railroad tracks, canneries and art galleries long gone. Here, also, are the men and women who lived and worked along the Row in its most desolate years--people Hemp says the Monterey History and Art Association would like local visitors to identify during the brief preview show. When the show comes down next year, the 500 images will be juried down to a manageable number, which will go on display next Thanksgiving at the Maritime Museum, prior to a national tour.

Sunset Center Facelift

Carmel''s Sunset Center will be closed by early 2001 as work gets underway on the historic building''s nearly $17 million renovation. Project highlights unveiled Tuesday at an open house include a new lobby, wheelchair access, a widened proscenium arch (really an entire rebuilding of the stage and backstage areas) and a promised improvement in the auditorium''s notoriously evil acoustics. The city of Carmel has earmarked $5 million for the project, with a local nonprofit group of arts supporters committing itself to raising the rest. Project manager Bill Camille says the design will be completed, "if all goes well," by the end of 2000; construction should take about 18 months, with a mid-2002 completion date envisioned.

Seaside/CSUMB Mural

Students from Seaside High will be at CSU Monterey Bay Friday, painting large murals side-by-side with students from the university''s Institute for Visual and Public Art "Pro Seminar" class. This is the first such collaborative effort with Seaside, says instructor Stephanie Johnson. CSUMB student Teresa Silvia, who will take part in the mural creation, says the class deals with "how to become a responsible public artist, how to be cooperative, not exploitative, making art a communal statement rather than just an artist''s personal statement." The Seaside High juniors and seniors will spend all day on campus, learning about the university''s offerings in the arts as well as making the murals, which they hope to displayed at their school afterwards.

Medicine Woman Show

First we had John Lennon''s sketches. Then Prince Charles'' watercolors. Now, the latest in what has become a trend of people-famous-in-one-field putting on one-person art shows, actress Jane Seymour will be displaying two dozen watercolors, acrylics and sketches at Designer''s Loft in Pacific Grove. The much-Emmyed and Golden Globed Seymour became a household name as the star of CBS'', "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman." Now that the series has been cancelled, Seymour has time for her art. Three of her paintings were auctioned for charity at NYC''s Guggenheim Museum; one netted $20,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. "My first love was watercolors because I thought they would be the easiest, and certainly while filming, I knew they would be the least messy and something that I could take with me," Seymour says. Her pictures will be on display Dec. 5-31.

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