Culture Report: The County’s Unexpected Art Hub

The County Operations Center has strangely become the place to see awesome public art in San Diego. Thirty-one works by acclaimed San Diego artists, including Christopher Puzio, Joyce Cutler-Shaw, Marie Najera and Philipp Scholz Rittermann, can be found across 47 acres of the Kearny Mesa government building. This is a godsend after the slashing the Port of San Diego’s public arts programs took early this year.

Gail Goldman is the public-art consultant hired by the county to piece together the vast and impressive collection. It has taken three years to build, but what visitors find is a stunning collection of some of the best works San Diego has produced. She tells CityBeat she believes “people are pleasantly thrilled by the caliber of the artwork.”

New pieces by Jun Kaneko and Jay Johnson will be unveiled at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 3, at the recently built Registrar of Voters building within the County Operations Center.

You’re reading the Culture Report, Voice of San Diego’s weekly collection of the region’s cultural news.

Creating an Arts Who’s Who

• Art Pulse’s brand new arts and culture events page, Snorkl, is looking to roll out an artist directory that would serve as a database of San Diego-based artists similar to LinkedIn. Local artists would upload images, past, present and future exhibition information and video for site visitors to browse. Neat!

• New York-based artist Melora Kuhn began a residency at Lux Art Institute in Encinitas. She’ll be in studio through Dec. 7 working on new pieces, and exhibiting past works that investigate the human experience through Dec. 28. (U-T)

• Creepshot or art? An Instagrammer who goes by Quiet Observer photographs patrons at Influx Café without their knowledge, then shares on social media. Is this an invasion of privacy? (CityBeat)

• Don’t miss Tijuana artist Toni Larios’ exhibition of illustrations and portraits, “Faces,” at Disclosed unLocation Gallery from 5 to 9 p.m.  Friday, Nov. 29.

• Did you miss the latest Conversations on Beauty panel at Mingei International Museum? Don’t fret, art lovers! You can catch San Diego arts leaders talking about the local art scene on YouTube.

• Sixes and Sevens Artist Collective formed in back in Oct. to give emerging, largely Chula Vista-based artists struggling to find opportunities some much needed support. They will have their first-ever group exhibition, Pilgrims and Natives, from 6 to 10 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 26.

• The Goods Show is back in North Park on Black Friday. Pick up cool art from local artists and craftsmen at Queen Bee’s Cultural Center from noon to 8 p.m. Proceeds go to A.R.T.S.  (A Reason to Survive)

All That Jazz and Freaky Theater

• The San Diego Jazz Fest brings some of the best jazz musicians from around the world to the Town & Country Resort from Nov. 27 through Dec. 1. Now in its 34th year, this festival brings a wide variety of styles: traditional jazz, Dixieland, ragtime, swing and rockabilly.

• La Jolla Playhouse brings freaks to the stage for “Side Show.” Two former Oscar winners are the brains behind this kooky musical, which revolves around the true story of conjoined twins and circus-freak-show performers Violet and Daisy Hilton. The intense stage make-up sounds fascinating. (U-T)