“There’s nothing happening in San Diego.”
“There’s so much going on all the time and I don’t know what to pay attention to.”
I’ve heard these somewhat contradictory sentiments uttered all the time since I began covering the local arts scene in September.
The niche boundaries are strong here: Theater people know about theater stuff. Visual art people know about visual stuff. Dancers go to each other’s dance performances. The museum staff know when the other museums are open for free admission. Indie bands share guitarists and thus check out each other’s shows.
The same goes for neighborhoods: North Park residents know all about Ray at Night, and Solana Beach dwellers are all over the third-Thursday night stroll through Cedros District.
So I’m very, very excited to announce that we’re doing something to cross-pollinate:
Join us June 1, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. for a glimpse at some of the most exciting happenings in the county’s arts and culture scene.
Six gurus will illuminate these local arts topics and share what’s making them stick in a visual, rapid-fire presentation style called pecha-kucha. They’ll have 20 slides, displayed for 20 seconds each, to share their topic. (Death to sprawling, boring lectures!) That means each presenter will be up and down in less than seven minutes, giving you plenty of time to grab a drink and compare notes with engaged, stimulating people from neighborhoods and niches all across the county.
You’ll be able to jog your memory even after the presentations happen live: We’re excited to film the short talks and share them online, thanks to our partners from the Media Arts Center San Diego. And our friends at Sezio designed the poster you see above and will be spreading the word high and low to capture a good cross-section of arts- and culture-curious people in town.
I’m thrilled these six presenters are going to enlighten us:
• Jennifer Luce, architect at Luce et Studio: The burgeoning contemporary furniture design scene in San Diego.
• Jay Porter, restaurateur of The Linkery and El Take It Easy: Art installations in Tijuana’s Colonial Federal neighborhood.
• Evan Schumacher, co-founder of InstantEncore.com: How Art of Elan is making local classical music hip.
• Ben Strauss-Malcolm, gallery director at Quint Contemporary Art: Murals by internationally renowned artists spring up in La Jolla.
• Seema Sueko, founder and artistic director of Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company: A field guide to the local theater ecosystem.
• David Flores, community design and development at Casa Familiar: A new, renovated space for art in San Ysidro.
Please join us at the amazing Kettner Daylight Studio on June 1.
Poster designed by Chadwick Gantes.
I am the arts editor for VOSD. You can reach me directly at kelly.bennett@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.325.0531. Or you can keep up with me on Twitter @kellyrbennett or on Facebook.