Tag: diversity

SD Art Prize 2022 Exhibition at the Central Library.

The four recipients of the 2022 San Diego Art Prize–Alida Cervantes, Angélica Escoto, Carlos Castro Arias and Cognate Collective–now have pieces of their visual artwork on display in the 9th floor Art Gallery at downtown’s Central Library.

The four artists explore aspects of our region’s history and culture. Of course, today’s border culture has been greatly cross-pollinated by thousands of residents flowing daily to and from the United States and Mexico.

As you might expect in a contemporary exhibition of this type, there is infusion of political bias. But it’s a variety of viewpoints what makes free expression in art interesting and provocative.

I was fascinated to see how art that condemns the history of colonization is displayed next to art that celebrates the fusion and evolution of cultures. On either side of the San Diego/Tijuana border crossing, many of today’s traditions have influences that can be traced back to old Spain.

Walk among the gallery pieces and perhaps you’ll see the world in new and complex ways.

The exhibition opened over the weekend. It will continue through the end of 2022.

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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

A festive summer Sunday in Balboa Park!

Summertime? A sunny Sunday? San Diego’s always amazing Balboa Park?

Combine these three to discover lots of fun, festive stuff!

Come with me. Let’s walk around Balboa Park this afternoon, taking in various cool sights…

Performers on and off stage in Balboa Park at the 35th Philippine Cultural Arts Festival.

A big outdoor audience enjoys Filipino culture in Balboa Park.

Kids dance on outdoor stage at the SAMAHAN Filipino American Performing Arts and Education Center’s annual festival in Balboa Park.

Filipino food was plentiful at the 35th Philippine Cultural Arts Festival, in San Diego’s Balboa Park.

Walking around Balboa Park at the Plaza de Panama.

Super cool guys promote the San Diego Loyal soccer team. They’ve got a home game coming up on August 24th versus Oakland. The team is currently in second place!

An amazing film about Balboa Park plays in the auditorium at the San Diego History Center.

A beautiful summer day near the Japanese Tea Pavilion.

Visitors walk toward the Exhibit Hall at the Japanese Friendship Garden. There’s a new exhibition concerning Japanese dolls that I will blog about soon.

People sit in the shade of the Spreckels Organ Pavilion colonnade during the Sunday two o’clock concert.

Colorful rented umbrellas provide more shade for the pavilion benches.

Organist Amanda Mole plays a musical piece on the Spreckels Organ. It’s a preview of her Monday night performance for the 34th San Diego International Organ Festival.

A variety of lowriders were parked between the Spreckels Organ Pavilion and the Plaza de Panama.

Taking photos near flowers at one end of the Balboa Park Lily Pond.

A Spanish speaking church group sings joyfully along El Prado, hoping to attract passersby.

Dancers in folk costume perform for the House of Panama lawn program at the International Cottages.

Cultural lawn programs can be enjoyed almost every weekend in Balboa Park during summer months!

If you’d like to see more colorful photographs from today’s House of Panama lawn program, click here!

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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!

Sculpture by Francisco Zúñiga at UC San Diego.

Yucateca Sentada is a beautiful bronze sculpture slightly off the beaten path at UC San Diego. It can be discovered by observant students passing down the Ridge Walk through Thurgood Marshall College, by the Administration Building. A walkway leads west to a bench that faces the life-size sculpture. (It isn’t far from Sojourner Truth, another bronze sculpture beside the Ridge Walk.)

Yucateca Sentada (Seated Woman of the Yucatan) was created by renowned Costa Rican-born Mexican artist Francisco Zúñiga in 1976. It was donated to UC San Diego in 1983 by Elsa Dekking and UCSD physics professor Keith Brueckner. That was back when Marshall College was called Third College.

Here’s a photo taken right after its installation, with Chancellor Richard C. Atkinson providing a few words. There’s also an article in the October 3, 1983 issue of The UCSD Guardian concerning the dedication. You can read that here on page 7.

When I first saw this beautiful piece, so radiant with elemental humanity and silent dignity, I thought it might be a work of famed San Diego artist Donal Hord. It’s similar to two works I’ve seen by Hord, Spring Stirring and Aztec.

Then I realized I’d seen another very fine sculpture by Francisco Zúñiga in San Diego. His Mother and Daughter Seated can be found near the front entrance of the San Diego Museum of Art.

I photographed Mother and Daughter Seated back in 2016, as it and various other sculptures were being installed in Balboa Park’s outdoor Plaza de Panama. You can enjoy those photos here.

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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!

Peanuts and The Armstrong Project at Comic-Con!

Every Comic-Con, it seems, Peanuts has a heart-warming activation in the Gaslamp outside the San Diego Convention Center.

For 2022, their special offsite supports The Armstrong Project. You can find it by simply walking with the Comic-Con crowds along Martin Luther King Jr. Promenade.

Peanuts fans know that Franklin Armstrong was one of many beloved characters created by Charles Schulz. Visitors to the activation will find displays explaining how the idea of introducing Franklin came about. They’ll also learn how others were inspired by the new character . . . including a future cartoonist also named Armstrong.

I recommend visiting. Read the thoughtful displays and become inspired, yourself.

Here’s a sample…

A Los Angeles school teacher, Harriet Glickman, wrote Schulz shortly after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.. She believed Peanuts could provide a positive message about race. Franklin Armstrong was introduced to the comic strip in 1968.

Franklin has many friends and helps them in class. The comic strip stood against segregation. Franklin is an active, confident kid who is quietly conscientious.

Charlie Brown first meets Franklin at the beach.

Peanuts Worldwide has launched endowments to Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The Armstrong Project is named after both Franklin Armstrong and cartoonist Robb Armstrong, creator of the strip Jump Start, who was inspired by the character Franklin.

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

Street Legacy urban art exhibit in Escondido.

If you like excellent examples of urban art, you need to visit the museum exhibit now showing at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.

Street Legacy: SoCal Style Masters features artwork representing diverse subcultures found in Southern California.

Artists have filled the museum galleries with paintings, murals, sculptures and other works inspired by graffiti, street art, skateboarding, surfing, tattoos, lowriders and more. In many works you’ll see the pride of heritage. Many pieces are bold and sensual.

If you travel around San Diego, you’ll probably recognize some of the local street artists. Each has a unique style. I’ve photographed much of their fine mural work during my walks through the city. I generally, however, do not photograph vandalism.

Visitors to the exhibition might be taken aback by images of guns and implied gang violence, and one piece depicting police officers as pigs. The artwork reflects the viewpoint of many on the streets. These images exist side-by-side with images promoting peace and love.

Together we live in a complex, often difficult world with differing personal experiences and perspectives.

Street Legacy: SoCal Style Masters runs through August 28, 2022.

Get Out the Kitchen, Carly Ealey and Chris Konecki, 2022. Aerosol.

Mighty Fine ’69, Vanessa Torrez, 2021. Oil on canvas.

City of 9 Lives, Mike Rios, 2022. Acrylic.

Are We There Yet?, Persue, 2021. Acrylic.

Mad Surfer, Robbie Conal, 2014. Mixed media.

La Mujer Dormida, Cisco Santiago. 100% custom motorcycle, garage-built from scratch.

Catrin y Siren, OG Abel, 2015. Acrylic.

Watching Time Fly, Mr B Baby, 2022. Acrylic and airbrush on wood.

Tribal Ahuevo Wobbles, Ricardo Islas, 2022. Acrylic on wood.

Dawning of a New Age, MEAR ONE, 2012. Oil on canvas.

Various works on display by Shepard Fairey.

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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

Black history celebrated on San Diego’s Market Street.

John Franklin Ritchey. First Black player for the San Diego Padres.

A series of street lamp banners celebrating Black History in San Diego can be observed on Market Street, between Sixth Avenue and Tenth Avenue. Depicted are eight notable pioneers of downtown!

If you’d like to learn about many of our city’s Black pioneers, entrepreneurs, sports heroes and others who’ve contributed to our city’s rich history, here’s a good page to visit!

To see a timeline of Black history in San Diego, check this page out!

Sylura Barron. Civic leader and women’s rights activist.
Jasper Davis. Second Black police officer in San Diego.
Blossom Lorraine Van Lowe. First Black teacher in San Diego.
Dr. Robert Matthews. Educator and civil rights activist.
Rebecca Craft. Founder of Black Women’s Civic League.
George A. Ramsey. Entrepreneur and business owner.
Dr. Jack Kimbrough. President of NAACP, San Diego, 1947.

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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!

Culture, spirituality at UC San Diego Powwow.

The UC San Diego 2022 Powwow began late this morning with Bird Singers from the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians.

As people slowly arrived at Marshall College Field, the singers sang ancient stories of the world’s creation. Traditional dancers and shaken gourd rattles moved in rhythm with the words.

In the San Diego sunshine, the culture and history of the Kumeyaay was alive, passing from heart to heart, from generation to generation.

One of the bird singers explained how culture and spirituality live together hand in hand. The singing takes much time and sacrifice. It is for the people. It brought him and others happiness, enriching life in many ways.

Bringing this beautiful music to our world helps many to thrive in this day and time.

I listened. Took some photos. I stretched my legs and ate some Kumeyaay fry bread with powdered sugar and drizzled honey. Yum!

Bird Singers were followed by Gourd Dancers.

After a little while, I felt the urge to move forward through this amazing world, and I walked again down my path.

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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

An epic mural is coming to life in City Heights!

An epic, 263-foot mural in City Heights keeps slowly coming to life!

Unity in the Community, by artist Sake, is a work in progress that promises to be one of San Diego’s most amazing public artworks once completed.

I walked along the south end of Teralta Neighborhood Park today and discovered more human faces have taken form since my last visit in January. Work on the enormous mural has been going on for a year or so.

If you’d like to see photographs of San Diego graffiti artist Sake painting the mural, and of the long mural in various stages of completion, click here.

Here is some of that new life I spotted today…

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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!

Poetry transcends perception at Liberty Station.

One seldom observes public art that features poetry. It’s even more rare when the poems are composed by people who are frequently ignored.

Transcending Perception is public art that debuted in Liberty Station back in October, 2020. I hadn’t seen this installation until last weekend, when I walked down a pathway on the east side of THE LOT movie theater.

The images of Transcending Perception, according to the nearby information sign, “were created in a series of workshops that combined theater, poetry, and photography with the intention of ‘returning the gaze’ on both current and historical representations of those who are often excluded or misrepresented in the dominant media…”

This artwork was created by Josemar Gonzalez/Diana Cervera/The AjA Project.

Should you visit Liberty Station in Point Loma, you might want to read these potent words and consider what they mean and why they were written.

We all lead unique lives, with our own experiences and assumptions. It’s enlightening to put yourself in another’s shoes.

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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

Fun at Linda Vista Multi-Cultural Fair and Parade!

What an outstanding community event! Today I experienced the 37th Annual Linda Vista Multi-Cultural Fair and Parade, and I gathered lots of photos!

I’d never before attended this annual event, and was blown away by the diversity, colorful entertainment, and all the smiles!

Numerous community organizations had set up canopies along on Linda Vista Road, and were greeting neighbors walking past. I was interested to learn there are plans to create a community garden. I saw many friendly people working to improve the lives of Linda Vista residents.

As I walked around, I smelled lots of yummy food. I saw kids super excited to go on rides in a fun zone. For several minutes I paused to watch and photograph a variety of cultural dances at the two festival stages.

Just before the parade began at 11 o’clock, I headed a bit north up Linda Vista Road to view the spectacle away from most of the crowd.

Personally, I liked the many roller skaters and their fun, musical routine. Linda Vista is home to Skateworld San Diego, and roller skating is a unique part of the community’s identity!

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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!