GET INVOLVED
Creative City belongs to us all.
San Diegans play a vital role in reaching the goals outlined in the Creative City cultural plan over the next decade. This plan is a flexible framework carried out through actionable strategies. Its success relies on our collective efforts, and Creative City encourages you, the people of San Diego, to help turn this vision into reality.
There are numerous ways to get involved. You can advocate for the plan’s implementation, join local groups, or support artists and organizations that align with its goals. Individuals are encouraged to share information, expand their networks, attend events, and stay connected. Funders, businesses, and organizations are invited to align their priorities and programs with the plan's objectives.
The City will continue to bring San Diegans together and foster connections within the creative sector, facilitating important conversations and collaborations to help realize the plan's goals. Yet, achieving a lasting impact will take all of us. We invite all who share the vision of a dynamic and creative San Diego to maintain the conversation, work together to sustain and grow San Diego’s creative ecosystems and realize the collection vision of Creative City.
Future Creative City updates and events will be listed below.
PUBLIC EVENTS
Discover our Creative City schedule of events.
Creative City public events are free and open to all.
Check back often for updated event information!
City Council Meeting
202 C Street, San Diego, CA 92101
Commission for Arts and Culture Meeting
Friday, November 22 - 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Fleet Science Center
1875 El Prado
San Diego, CA 92101
Economic Development & Governmental Relations Committee Meeting
Wednesday, December 11 - 2:00 p.m.
City Administration Building
City Council Chambers, 12th Floor
202 C Street, San Diego, CA 92101
Creative City Open House
Saturday, September 7 - 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Comic Con Museum
Everyone is welcome and RSVP is appreciated.
Join us for the Creative City open house with remarks from Mayor Todd Gloria and an overview of the draft cultural plan. The remainder of the morning will be organized around informal conversations about the draft recommendations with the cultural planning consulting team to garner input. It's a community event, and we want you to be a part of it.
Economic Development & Governmental Relations Committee Meeting
Wednesday, February 7 - 2:00 p.m.
City Administration Building
City Council Chambers, 12th Floor
202 C Street, San Diego, CA 92101
More opportunities to get involved will be available when the draft cultural plan is released later this year
Commission for Arts and Culture Meeting
Friday, January 26 – 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
City Administration Building
City Council Chambers, 12th Floor
202 C Street, San Diego, CA 92101
After the Commission for Arts and Culture meeting, meet us in the Civic Center Concourse (near the trees) at City Hall to meet Creative City artist Katie Ruiz to learn more about the The PomPom Project installation currently on view.
Creative City Artist Events
Join Creative City artist Yolanda Franklin for the culminating event of her Creative City project called Legacy Renaissance Project. The artist and participants will gather and share legacy stories, uplifting black voices. Attendees can participate in conversations about arts and culture as a tool for understanding and tour the Elks Lodge, a nearly 100-year-old Black-owned establishment, and learn more about its rich history and its connection to “Harlem of the West” the artist has uncovered as part of the project to help build the Southeastern community from the legend ancestors and local living legends to the future bridgers. Refreshments will be available.
Saturday, October 28 - 12 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Clementine McDuff Elks Lodge #598
6 Hensley Street, San Diego, CA 92102
Everyone is welcome
Creative City Workshops
Join Creative City artist Cat Chui Phillips’ fiber art workshops inspired by Kamayan or a Filipino feast where food items are served on banana leaves and without utensils as a communal way to share a meal and build trust and intimacy among the diners. You can contribute to making food for this faux food experience at the workshop. All levels of crochet experience are welcome! The artist will introduce other textile methods to participants so all can contribute to the collaborative community feast and participate in conversations about arts and culture as a tool for understanding of and successfully weaving cultures together in the diverse city of San Diego. Fun for all ages!
Saturday, August 19 - 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Serra Mesa-Kearny Mesa Branch Library
Saturday, August 26 - 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Carmel Mountain Ranch Branch Library
Sunday, August 27 - 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Thumbprint Gallery with D2Go Sushi
Creative City Virtual Forum
Monday, July 24 - 5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Online
Everyone is welcome. Join the forum.
To join by telephone: +1 669 254 5252, +1 415 449 4000 US (US Spanish Line), 833 568 8864 US Toll
When prompted, input Webinar ID: 160 293 7846
Or an H.323/SIP room system: H.323: 161.199.138.10 (US West) or 161.199.136.10 (US East)
Meeting ID: 160 293 7846; SIP: 1602937846@sip.zoomgov.com
Creative City Virtual Flyer - July
Creative City Forum
Tuesday, June 20 - 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Soap Factory
Everyone is welcome and RSVP is appreciated.
American Sign Language, Spanish, and Tagalog interpretation available. Creative City Forum Flyer
Past Pop-Ups
Tueday, July 25 - 5:30 p.m. - 7 p.m.
San Ysidro Branch Library
Everyone is welcome and RSVP appreciated.
Spanish and English interpretation available. View Flyer
Wednesday, July 26 - 5:30 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Bread & Salt
Everyone is welcome and RSVP appreciated.
Spanish interpretation available. View Flyer
Wednesday, July 26 - 5:30 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Mira Mesa Recreation Center
Everyone is welcome and RSVP appreciated.
Mandarin, and Vietnamese interpretation available. View Flyer
Thursday, July 27 - 5:30 p.m. - 7 p.m.
WorldBeat Cultural Center
Everyone is welcome and RSVP appreciated.
Spanish interpretation available. View Flyer
Saturday, July 29 - 10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Rancho Peñasquitos Branch Library
Everyone is welcome and RSVP appreciated. View Flyer
Saturday, July 29 - 2 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Malcolm X Branch Library
Everyone is welcome and RSVP appreciated.
Spanish and Tagalog interpretation available. View Flyer
Wednesday, June 21 - 5:30 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Light Box Theater
Everyone is welcome and RSVP is appreciated. Pop-up Light Box Flyer
Wednesday, June 21 - 5:30 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Ocean Air Recreation Center
Everyone is welcome and RSVP is appreciated. Pop-up Ocean Air Flyer
Thursday, June 22 - 5:30 p.m. - 7 p.m.
City Heights Performance Annex
Everyone is welcome and RSVP is appreciated.
Spanish, Vietnamese, and Somali interpretation available. Pop-up Performance Annex Flyer
Thursday, June 22 - 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Mission Trails Visitor Center
Everyone is welcome and RSVP appreciated.
Spanish and Tagalog interpretation available.
Other services and interpretation may be requested. See below for details.
Local artists Diana Cervera and Josemar Gonzalez, Yolanda Franklin, Jacole Kitchen, and Cat Chiu Phillips conducted community conversations through targeted outreach activities – making Creative City a truly creative planning process.
Diana Cervera and Josemar Gonzalez are multidisciplinary transborder artists and organizers whose practices include community engagement through cultivating partnerships with cultural leaders and organizations to craft and inform their work. For Creative City, the artists facilitated engagement with culturally specific communities in City Heights. Through a two-part workshop with participants, the artists garnered insights from the perspective of these individuals residing in City Heights, activating them through poetry and storytelling. This work included building connections and creating a narrative, incorporating it into the second workshop and a final collective artistic creation. The stories emerging from the workshops highlight the current state of how creativity plays a part in the diverse communities of San Diego. Additionally, Cervera and Gonzalez conducted in-depth video interviews with cultural community stakeholders, sharing issues, goals, and values central to their work rooted in improving their communities and creativity within the community.
Yolanda Franklin is an actress and artistic director. For Creative City, she created a Legacy Renaissance project to engage Black/African American community in Southeastern and
Black artists in San Diego with their legacy stories – the stories that helped build the community. In multiple sessions, she worked with artists and cultural practitioners to gather and share legacy stories and uplift black voices. The first workshop convened descendants of legacy makers, focusing on their stories and discussing why history is essential and how to incorporate this rich cultural history into the future. The project culminated in conversations about arts and culture as a tool for understanding and touring the Elks Lodge, a nearly 100-year-old Black-owned establishment, and learning more about its rich history and its connection to “Harlem of the West” the artist has uncovered as part of the project to help build the Southeastern community from the legend ancestors and local living legends to the future bridgers.
Jacole Kitchen is a theatre director, producer, casting director, and director of arts engagement whose artistic practice involves serving the military community of San Diego through creative enrichment and therapeutic opportunities. For Creative City, she engaged veterans to talk about the cross-section of the military and the arts, posing questions like what is happening now in the veterans’ community related to the arts. What is working well? What is needed? And how the arts have changed their lives and what they see in the future. Participants worked together to craft short scenes about an artwork, a community story, or other artistic infusion. After the discussion, veterans shared examples of their work, finding community and providing insights.
Cat Chiu Phillips is a local artist and educator who creates installations in public spaces, often using traditional handicraft methods such as crochet, weaving, and embroidery. Her fiber art workshops for Creative City were inspired by Kamayan or Filipino communal feast where food items are served on banana leaves and without utensils as a communal way to share a meal and build trust and intimacy among the diners. Participants contributed to making food for this faux food experience at the workshops. All levels of crochet experience were welcome! The artist introduced other textile methods to participants so all could contribute to the collaborative community feast and participate in conversations about arts and culture as a tool for understanding and successfully weaving cultures together in the diverse city of San Diego.
Katie Ruiz is a Chicana interdisciplinary artist, making work in painting and fiber sculpture. Ruiz collaborated with the Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego and the City to facilitate art-making at Creative City public events throughout San Diego over the summer. Hundreds of Creative City participants helped with The PomPom Project, producing the nearly 2,000 handmade yarn pom poms that now adorn the City’s Civic Center Concourse while sharing their ideas for the city’s first-ever cultural plan. In the Civic Center Concourse context—a site shared by all San Diegans—creating a shared work of art for temporary public display becomes even more impactful. This colorful display becomes a visualization that celebrates our Creative City and its vibrant communities sharing experiences, insight, and practices.
Walking the Wall, Timothy Murdoch. Photo: Stacy Keck Photo; Kal Visuals; Diana Cervera and Josemar Gonzalez project (photo credit Josemar Gonzalez); Yolanda Franklin Legacy Renaissance project; Jacole Kitchen Military Engagement/Vets & Art project; Cat Chui Phillips Kamayan project; Katie Ruiz, PomPom Project; La Jolla Symphony & Chorus.
The City of San Diego is committed to providing an equitable and inclusive environment for all individuals. Consistent with these principles and applicable laws, the City reasonably provides translation, interpretation, alternative formats, disability-related modifications or accommodations. Requests for these services may be made by email to arts@sandiego.gov.
arts@sandiego.gov Traducción e Interpretación | Been Dịch và Thông Dịch | 口笔译服务 | خدمات ترجمه کتبی و ترجمه شفاهی | خدمات الترجمة التحريرية والفوري | خدمات ترجمان مکتوب و شفاهی, 번역 및 통역 서비스, | Serbisyo ng Pagsasalin at Interpretasyon