Why is the towering island of the USS Midway aircraft carrier wrapped up?
To protect San Diego Bay and the environment as the historic aircraft carrier (now a popular tourist destination) receives a new coat of paint! That’s what I was told a couple days ago by a USS Midway Museum employee.
But how strange it appears!
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
What might the future look like? Can science and technology, guided by human compassion, intelligence and imagination, bring forth a better world?
These questions might enter your mind as you peer at works of art created by UC San Diego professor Dr. Pinar Yoldas, now on display in Balboa Park at the Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego.
Pinar Yoldas: Synaptic Sculpture is an exhibition that challenges the world that we presently know. It offers a window to a future that is possible. And some of the ideas are a little weird!
I visited the exhibition last weekend and loved the boundless creativity. Biology, artificial intelligence, psychology, environmental science and more–even mythology–are combined in unique ways by the speculative mind of Dr. Yoldas.
Imagine works of art in your home that grow environmentally beneficial algae! Imagine sitting on enormous molecules while having your mind calmed by an aroma-wafting sensory pendulum! Imagine having your life ruled by a cute kitten AI overlord! (Oh, wait. Would we really want that future?)
The free exhibition definitely stimulates a sense if wonder. It encourages open minds to speculate where all us human types might be headed.
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Several walls inside the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park now feature an exhibit that chronicles the fight for women’s equality, highlighting successes by women in music, entertainment, art, and society at large. The exhibit makes use of informative displays that originally appeared in 2015 at the Women’s Museum of California.
Stories of trailblazers in the popular culture are told. In the 1960s and 70s, Helen Ready, Aretha Franklin, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Carole King and others filled the airwaves with music that related the experience of women and furthered their empowerment. In television, the advancement of women could be followed in shows like That Girl and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. With the 1968 television show Julia,Diahann Carroll become the first African-American leading actor on a sitcom.
As one sign explains: During the resurgence of the larger women’s movement in the 1960s and 70s, women artists, writers, choreographers, actors, filmmakers and playwrights sought to create a new dialogue between the viewer and their art through the inclusion of women’s perspective.
Other displays in the History Center concern the historic struggle for equal rights, including the women’s right to vote, as you can see in my photographs.
A couple years ago the Women’s Museum of California moved their archives and administrative offices from their old museum at Liberty Station into the San Diego History Center. Their presence has been online.
I’m told that in the future, a special gallery inside the History Center will be set aside for Women’s Museum of California exhibits.
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Numerous old photographs and historical documents tell the story of how a few African Americans pioneers first came to Coronado in the late 19th century, and how their numbers would greatly increase beginning in 1944, because of the Federal Housing Project. The island had more than twice the African American population in 1960 than Chula Vista, El Cajon, Escondido, Imperial Beach, Lemon Grove, La Mesa and Vista combined!
The exhibition features stories of families through many generations, telling of their struggles and triumphs.
Some of Coronado’s earliest African American pioneers migrated west looking for opportunity, following Elisha Babcock, who would develop the once-barren island and build the Hotel del Coronado. In its early years, Coronado was considered more accepting of African American residents and visitors than most San Diego neighborhoods.
Members of the segregated United States military would also settle in Coronado–Civil War veterans, Buffalo Soldiers, and veterans of the two World Wars.
The exhibition explains that many African Americans in those early years worked as maids, cooks, nurses, butlers, housekeepers, gardeners, laborers, coachmen and chauffeurs. The pay was low and life could be difficult–many residents of Coronado would persist in supporting segregation for decades. Surprisingly, Coronado’s local schools were integrated from the beginning.
Visitors to the museum will learn how African American graduates from Coronado High School during the Civil Rights Era went on to successful careers and achievements in the arts, military, private business, and government. That success in the community continues to this day.
If you ever find yourself in beautiful Coronado, head to the The Coronado Historical Association‘s free museum and experience An Island Looks Back: Uncovering Coronado’s Hidden African American History.
You will be inspired by the life stories and accomplishments of African Americans who’ve called Coronado home.
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
It’s a museum-like place that the public can tour, whose mission is: Advancing knowledge of the brain and mental health through research, education, and the arts.
I enjoyed a look inside the Brain Observatory recently and much of what I saw was astounding. I was shown about briefly and learned about the unique facility’s history and mission.
The Brain Observatory houses a fully-functional research laboratory. Students and visitors can learn about the brain by utilizing authentic, state-of-the-art scientific equipment and by exploring real data, including samples from a large collection of donated human brains.
Founded in 2005 by Dr. Jacopo Annese, the Brain Observatory began as a brain research lab at UC San Diego. Ph.D. scientists from around the world, including a Nobel Prize winner from the Salk Institute, are on the Advisory Board.
The Brain Observatory uses MRI and microscopy to understand the biological basis of normal brain function and neurological disease. Advanced scientific equipment is also used to educate youth who take part in school programs.
Curious? The public can tour the Brain Observatory by reservation. In addition there are lunchtime lectures. Learn about these great opportunities by clicking here.
Dr. Jacopo Annese enthusiastically talked about his endeavors during my short visit. He has big plans. My own brain tried to assimilate so much information.
Brain Observatory tours and lectures, and the programs for students, are certain to be very stimulating!
A look inside the Brain Observatory in downtown San Diego. This space was last occupied by the SDSU Downtown Gallery.The fascinating Brain Observatory uses scientific equipment to slice brains and conduct microscopic investigation.Education is a focus of the Brain Observatory. Student artwork hangs on one wall.Photos of people who donated their brains to science.
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Visitors to the Timken Museum of Art in San Diego have the rare opportunity to observe conservators working to restore and preserve a fine art masterpiece!
Two expert conservators have been working on François Boucher’s gorgeous Lovers in a Park (1758) in one of the museum galleries, and the public is invited to watch and ask questions on Fridays from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm.
When I swung by the Timken during my Balboa Park walk last weekend, I noted the conservation effort was in Week 18–nearing its end. So you might want to drop by very soon.
Visitors stand at a safe distance from the nearly 8 foot tall French Rococo painting. For almost seven decades Lovers in a Park has been displayed, and with time it has become somewhat discolored.
A sign explains how surface grime has been removed, old varnish has been removed, and there has been a deep grime removal. All the old overpaint has been removed, and a synthetic resin protective varnish has been applied. The current phase of work is inpainting–where colors are matched and areas of paint loss are filled with conservation pigments.
Read more about the Timken Museum of Art’s conservation program here.
On the opposite wall, a large graphic divides the painting into quarters, demonstrating how the canvas was carefully examined before conservation efforts using visible light, ultraviolet light, infrared reflectography, and X-radiography.
Anyone interested in art really should check out this special “interactive” exhibition. You’ll probably learn a lot!
You can read about the Timken’s current exhibitions by clicking here.
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Black History Month is being celebrated at the San Diego History Center throughout the month of February. Special displays honor African American artists, families, trailblazers and champions in San Diego. And there are fun educational activities for young people, too!
Did you know that Audrey “Mickey” Patterson-Tyler was the first Black woman to win an Olympic medal? And that she in her later years lived in National City? I didn’t know.
Did you know that quilts played an unexpected role in Black History? Harriet Tubman used quilts to display secret codes along the Underground Railroad, guiding slaves to freedom. Kids exploring the exhibit can color or add stickers to their own special paper Story Quilt.
As I read various signs, I was reminded how the San Diego History Center partnered with the San Diego African American Museum of Fine Arts six years ago, to feature the work of local Black artists. I blogged about that event here.
There’s so much in the exhibition to absorb: historical photographs, biographies, a display about local struggles for civil rights, and a display concerning Martin Luther King Jr. and his visit to San Diego.
Want to check it out? The San Diego History Center is located in the heart of Balboa Park, Admission is free!
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
This beautiful Anti Slavery Quilt is in the collection of the Women’s Museum of California. The quilt is now on display at the San Diego History Center, in celebration of Black History Month.
I was surprised to learn yesterday that the Women’s Museum, located for many years at Liberty Station, moved. It now makes the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park its home!
The quilt is by D’Andrea Davis Mitchell. A nearby sign explains how in the 1970s quilting experienced a revival and became considered work of both craft and art. Inspired artists have used quilting to challenge perceptions of gender roles and the African-American experience in US history.
The Anti Slavery Quilt is part of a larger exhibition inside the San Diego History Center that can be viewed all this month.
My next blog post will show a bit more of what you’ll experience should you walk through the History Center’s door in February!
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Walk along the north side of the Oceanside Civic Center and you might spy the door of the Oceanside Historical Society. The unobtrusive glass door is a portal to Oceanside’s past!
Inside Oceanside’s small history center you’ll find dozens of old photographs on several walls. A glass display case contains historical artifacts. One corner of the room is occupied by a model of Oceanside’s famous Top Gun House. Just inside the front door, stairs wind upward and end mysteriously at a wall.
The space occupied by the history center was originally the home of Oceanside’s police department. Those stairs that end in a wall once climbed to a jail on the second floor. Where the jail was located is now part of Fire Station 1, which occupies the same building. The building was designed by famed architect Irving Gill, who apparently didn’t take into account that drunks and belligerents headed for jail would be ascending those steep, winding stairs! And there was a skylight in the jail, too, very convenient for escape!
During my visit earlier this week, I learned the nearby Oceanside Museum of Art will be expanding into both the fire station and history center, and the latter two will be relocated to Civic Center Drive.
Kristi Hawthorne, Director of the Oceanside Historical Society, also told me a little about the police and firefighter artifacts in the display case, including material confiscated from bootleggers during Prohibition. She maintains a great blog called Histories and Mysteries, where you’ll discover all sort of fascinating photos and little known stories from Oceanside’s history.
She explained that the society maintains a huge archive of historical photographs, and is presently digitizing tens of thousands of documents.
I also learned the Oceanside Historical Society leads downtown history walks!
The free walks are held the second Saturday of each month, April through September. If you’d like to participate, check out this web page. (You can also download a guide for a self-guided tour.)
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Kids can have a ton more fun at the San Diego History Center, thanks to Girl Scout Audrey Weishaar!
For the past couple weekends, tables full of activities have greeted visitors to the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park. It’s Audrey’s Gold Award project, which is titled History: Where We Come From & How We Got Here. As a sign explains, the Gold Award is the highest award one can earn in Girl Scouts, and the main point of it is to benefit your community.
I saw a bunch of kids running about the museum, no doubt drawn by this awesome project. At the tables they can talk to Audrey, collect stickers, get a booklet about San Diego and California History (with connect-the-dot and coloring pages!), and use clues to solve a mystery. There are even several fun tongue twisters to try!
Want to have a fun, educational experience with the kids? Audrey will be smiling at her table inside the San Diego History Center for one more weekend: January 20 and 21, 11 am – 3 pm.
It’s free!
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Cool San Diego Sights! 