San Diego’s North County Times published this great summary of the Museum Month opportunity in San Diego this February with discounted admissions to museums of all kinds across the county.

Museum Month, allowing visitors to most museums in the county to receive half-off regular admission prices, began in 1989, and is going stronger then ever. Last year, more than 19,000 visitors took advantage of Museum Month — double the number of visitors only four years ago.

 
While you can find full details online at www.sandiegomuseumcouncil.org, check out this list of museum participants– we love the near universal participation in this promotion for improving access to our cultural treasures at a time when more potential audience members than ever are feeling the pressure to reduce expenditures on entertainment and enrichment.
 

Participating museums and historical sites:

Adobe Chapel Museum

Barona Cultural Center & Museum

Birch Aquarium at Scripps

Bonita Museum & Cultural Center

California Center for the Arts, Museum (Feb. 13-28)

Coronado Museum of History & Art

Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum

Heritage of the Americas Museum

La Jolla Historical Society

LUX Art Institute

Maritime Museum of San Diego

Marston House

MCRD Command Museum

Mingei International Museum

Mingei International Museum North County

Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego – Downtown

Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego – La Jolla (Feb. 21-28)

Museum of Making Music

Museum of Photographic Arts

Oceanside Museum of Art

Old Town San Diego Historic Park

San Diego (Quail) Botanical Gardens

Reuben H. Fleet Science Center

San Diego Air & Space Museum

San Diego Archaeological Center

San Diego Automotive Museum

San Diego Hall of Champions Sports Museum

San Diego Historical Society Museum & Research Archives

San Diego Model Railroad Museum

San Diego Museum of Art

San Diego Museum of Man

San Diego Natural History Museum

Tijuana Estuary Visitors Center

Timken Museum of Art

USS Midway Museum

Veteran’s Museum & Memorial Center

Water Conservation Garden

Whaley House

Women’s History Museum & Education Center

 
Way to go, San Diego museums and cultural institutions!

Are you free from 5-7pm tonight in San Diego? Because both branches of the Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla and downtown are– read more about the monthly MCASD open house on the MCASD website.

What's Happening in January at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego: PROGRAMS Members’ Celebration: Tara Donovan →Thursday, 1/14/10 > 7-9 PM > Downtown MCASD Members are invited to celebrate the Tara Donovan exhibition with a special Members-only reception. Members will get an insider’s look at the exhibition and have the opportunity to discuss the works on view with MCASD Curators. More . . . Open House: Free Third Thursday Evening →Thursday, 1/21/10 > 5-7 PM > La Jolla and Downtown On the third Thursday of every month from 5 to 7 pm, visitors receive FREE admission to the Museum, plus free themed Gallery Guide-led tours beginning at 5 and 6 pm. Teen Workshop: Electrifying Sound Collage with Beatrix*JAR →Saturday, 1/23/10 > 11 AM-1 PM > Downtown Brought to you by MCASD’s Teen Art Council, join Minneapolis-based conceptual electronic duo Beatrix*JAR as they spread the good word of electronic recycling through a hands-on circuit bending workshop. More . . . Artist Talk: Nancy Rubins →Sunday, 1/24/10 > 2 PM > La Jolla In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Contemporary Collectors donor group, and in advance of the opening of the exhibition Pleasure Point: Celebrating 25 Years of Contemporary Collectors, artist Nancy Rubins will give a public lecture discussing her work, including the astounding installation she created for MCASD in 2006. More . . . EXHIBITIONS →FINAL WEEKS! On view through 1/31/10 at MCASD La Jolla Automatic Cities: The Architectural Imaginary in Contemporary Art Featuring an international roster of both established artists and emerging talents, this imaginative new exhibition weaves architectural imagery within contemporary visual art. Museums in Miniature Works by Marcel Duchamp and Joseph Cornell explore the use of collage, assemblage, and staged tableaux as plays on the notion of an exhibition space. →On view through 2/28/10 at MCASD Downtown, Jacobs Building Tara Donovan See the number one exhibition of 2009, according to Union-Tribune art critic Robert Pincus. Tara Donovan’s sculptures and installations transform everyday materials — such as drinking straws and plastic cups — to dazzling effect. STAY IN THE LOOP. Follow us on Twitter @mcasd Become a fan on Facebook @ facebook.com/mcasd

MCASD warmly invites you to join us for a winter Members’ Celebration in honor of the exhibition, Tara Donovan. Thursday, January 14 > 7-9 PM MCASD Downtown, Jacobs Building This exclusive, Members-only event will allow viewers an intimate look at this popular exhibition. Explore the galleries and see the works that San Diego Union-Tribune art critic Robert Pincus hailed as “mystifying and wonderful.” Enjoy a drink, live music, and the opportunity to discuss the works on view with MCASD curators. Gallery space is limited; RSVP required. RSVP by Tuesday, January 12 to 858 454 3541 x120 or members@mcasd.org.

Earlier this month, one of my favorite artists featured recently at MCASD, Richard Wright, was awarded the Turner Prize, Great Britain’s best-known art award.
 
Known for painting “intricate, large-scale patterns” directly on walls and ceilings, Wright is a meticulous craftsman who uses very traditional methods to create very modern abstract images.
 

To make his untitled wall painting for the Turner prize exhibition, Wright employed the painstaking techniques of Renaissance fresco-makers – drawing a cartoon on paper and then transferring it to the wall in what he called “an incredibly medieval way” by pouncing – piercing the cartoon with holes and rubbing chalk through it to create “the ghost of a work” on the wall. The image was then painted with size (adhesive) and covered with gold leaf.

 
Because I use many of the same methods in my not-anywhere-as-innovative mural work, this appeals to me ina kindred spirits kind of way, as well as his insistence on working at such large scale.
 

Turner Prize winner Richard Wright

 
Another aspect of Wright’s work that resonates with me is his “insistence that his work be destroyed after the exhibitions end.”
 
Working as I have in theater and film and performing in public chalk painting festivals, many of the things I have painted and laboured over have been immediately destroyed after their designed user experience ends. Similarly, many of my private commissioned murals and custom finishes will never be seen by the greater public, nor would they make much sense outside the context of the home the were designed for.
 
When questioned about this, particularly at chalk festivals, people ask me if I am bothered by the “loss” of the work, to which I usually reply that it makes sense to me as most of my work is “lost” to me upon completion.
 

Wright said he sometimes felt a sense of loss at the destruction of his work.

“It is sad but it’s also a relief,” he said. “Other people make things that don’t survive. If you are a dustman or a reporter you do something that is consumed and passes.”

 
I find this point of view as refreshing as Wright’s work (featured in San Diego most recently in 2007), putting in perspective the “precious-ness” that many artists feel about their work.
 

“I am interested in the fragility of the moment of engagement – in heightening that moment,” he said. To see a work knowing that it will not last, he said, “emphasizes that moment of its existence”.

 
Since this is very close to how I answer the question “Why are you an artist?”, I feel even more affinity for Wright and his work upon reading about his award. Congratulations from San Diego, Richard Wright!
 
As usual I am indebted to ArtDaily.org for some of the details in this article. You can read their original post about Wright here, written by AP reporter Jill Lawless.
 
My other source for quotes and the image above is the always outstanding Guardian UK.Thir article on Wright was written by Charlotte Higgins, and features some great video as well as an excellent photo slideshow on Wright you can see here.

I’ve noted before that the San Diego News Network has developed a solid art & culture reporting practice for San Diego. This week’s review of the “Automatic Cities” show at MCASD La Jolla establishes them further as a thoughtful critical voice on what’s happening in San Diego art.

SDNN contributor Larry Herzog is a Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in City Planning at San Diego State University and brings a provocative twist to the “art” review by probing at the deeper issues raised in the show from a broader-tham-the-art-world perspective. Nice editorial choice and great article, check it out:

“Automatic Cities: The Architectural Imaginary in Contemporary Art” is a dazzling display of fantastic urban scenes and forms culled from deep in the psyches of 13 invited artists and one artist collective. On view through January 31 in La Jolla at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the exhibition indirectly forces us to face up to the reality of our failed American urban environment.

At a time when city building has screeched to a halt in the midst of a raging recession, visitors to MCA may pause to consider the visual condition of southern California.

Bleak images come to mind: monotonous American suburbs, spread across the great bulldozed flatlands, curving subdivisions neatly lined with bloated McMansions, pastel shaded, stucco condominium complexes dotted with “for sale” signs, and strip malls anchored by mega stores and chain outlets. Endless and repetitive blots of mind-numbing sameness bounding from region to region, like an infectious disease….

Read it all: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-12-10/things-to-do/automatic-cities-at-mcasd-prompts-question-is-the-american-cityscape-insane#ixzz0ZOWpbvn3

So you are planning a vacation with your teens and want to be sure they do more than lay on the beach and text their friends back home.
Consider an arts and culture tour of San Diego designed with teens in mind.
 
Most all San Diego arts organizations have special programs designed for ages 11-17. To make it more fun, hop on the Old Town Trolley and make the tour itself an adventure. When the ride is as fun as the destination, your teens are sure to stop tweeting and start exploring.
 
Kid-friendly arts and culture venues throughout Balboa Park and Downtown are accessible by the Trolley. Get started in front of ARTS TIX at Horton Plaza and check out that evening’s half-price Theater, Music and Dance tickets.
 

Arts & Culture Venues for Teens Visiting San Diego

Reuben H. Fleet Science Center/IMAX Theater- features more than 100 interactive science exhibits in five galleries, as well as major traveling exhibitions.

• San Diego Model Railroad Museum – featuring the largest indoor model railroad display in the world.
• San Diego Natural History Museum – exhibits for the naturalist or environmentalist in your family. Learn about the diversity of Southern California and Baja California
• Read more great art stuff for teens in San Diego here.

 
Also, several museums have specialized programs designed for that hard to please age. The San Diego Museum of Art has the Teen Art Café, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego teen programs are designed by teens themselves and the New Children’s Museum Teen Studio is only open to ages 11 and older.

A nighttime option is to invite your teens to “see themselves” on stage by attending performances by the ultra-talented youth from the San Diego Youth Symphony, Eveoke Dance Theater, J*Company, or San Diego Junior Theater.
 
Check the full article at SanDiego.org for links to addresses, phone numbers, opening hours, and of course, links to the websites of these (and more) San Diego arts & culture destinations.

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MEMBERS-ONLY HOLIDAY SALE Saturday, December 5 > 11 AM to 5 PM MCASD La Jolla X Store MCASD Members: Don’t miss this exclusive holiday sale created just for you! For one day only, Members can avoid the mall crowds and save 40% off one regularly priced item and 15% off all additional purchases! Additional sale merchandise will be offered at up to 50% off. Enjoy a complimentary cup of coffee or tea while you browse the X Store’s selection of modern and contemporary art books; innovative and unique design objects for the home and office; children’s toys and books; and contemporary jewelry and apparel. Give the Gift of Membership Looking to share your love of art? Give a gift that inspires, educates, and keeps on giving all year long. MCASD Membership gives your friends and loved ones a year of memorable experiences through extraordinary exhibitions and dynamic events, plus discounts at the X Store and Museum Cafe. Receive a complimentary tote bag with your Membership purchase. Join at the Contributor level or higher and also receive a $25 dining certificate to the Museum Cafe. For more information or to purchase a gift membership, call 858 454 3541 x172 or visit www.mcasd.org/join. (Members must show a valid membership card to receive discounts.) Pictured above: Ghost Antler Coat Hook by Erich Ginder; complimentary X logo tote bag, free with gift Membership purchase.

www.mcasd.org | 858 454 3541 EXHIBITIONS / PROGRAMS / JOIN/GIVE / VISIT