Culture Report: New Old Art at the Airport

For some time now, the San Diego International Airport has been featuring a beautifully curated art collection. In 2010, we shared an inside tour of the work being showcased back then and later invited former program manager Constance White to talk public art at one of our Meeting of the Minds. Check out her talk here.

This week, current program manager Lauren Lockhart unveiled the airport’s latest year-long exhibition, “Balboa Park & the City: Celebrating the San Diego’s Panama-California Exposition.” The exhibition, which features images, original artwork by San Diego artists as well as collectibles and artifacts from seven different institutions and collectors, is the airport’s largest temporary exhibition to date.

The exhibition serves as part of the Balboa Park Centennial celebration. It will give a glimpse into the history of the city’s most treasured landmark. You can check out the San Diego Airport’s Flickr page which highlights parts of the exhibition. Among the artwork that will be on display are early sketches and drawings of Balboa Park and the historical buildings that surround the area by late Chicano artist Guillermo Acevedo. His son, Mario Acevedo Torero, a prolific artist in his own right, provided the artwork to show the historical significance his father had on our city as an artist and “artivist.”

“I think it’s so timely. My father died in 1988 and he left a valuable collection that I kept undercover,” said Torero, who will share 50 of these rare pieces in the exhibition. Many of these pieces feature houses and structures that no longer exist. He’s currently putting together a book on his father’s artwork and life.

“It absolutely fills me with pride and a reward of a lifetime of working,” he said. “In celebrating the centennial, it’s almost like celebrating my father, who was the artist of the century as far as I’m concerned. My father was probably the first Latino or Chicano artist that got that high level of recognition. It’s quite a reward to see my father being celebrated like this.”

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

Dumpster Art and More Visual Art Stuff

• A bit of dumpster-diving and trash-hoarding has led to a whole lot of artwork by Tom Driscoll. (CityBeat)

• The Little Italy Bottlecraft location is becoming one of the top spots to check out art. (CityBeat)

High-Brow Happy Hour and More Music and Performance Bits

• Happy hour is going a bit more high-brow at White Box Live Arts. (KPBS)

• The hiatus is off: City Ballet Orchestra resumes rehearsals this Sunday for May’s production of “Don Quixote” but as VOSD’s Caty Green found out in a new profile of conductor John Nettles, this isn’t the first time the orchestra has weathered significant financial distress. (

Comical Complaints, Che Cafe’s Continued Struggles and More Culture Nuggets

• The Che Café has been in a long battle for its life. Once again, the iconic venue has been served an eviction notice. Will it be able to escape or postpone closure again? (KPBS)

• The city of San Diego and San Diego Unified Port District are suing the pantalones off Monsanto for polluting our bay and tidelands. (Reader)

• Anyone who’s seen “Parks and Recreation” has laughed about the complaints nutty residents raise to local government representatives – things like too many snails in their yard or water labeled as contaminated being used for iced tea. The Reader shares a few of the choice examples of real-life complaints raised right here in San Diego.

• In the latest installment of my CityBeat column, There She Goz, I talk about the things I’ve learned about myself after going through a divorce. Divorces sure have a way of teaching you stuff, don’t they?

• The Uptown Bike Corridor Project is hitting some snags. (Reader)