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August 2008

Eleanor Antin: Historical Takes — 19 Jul - 2 Nov 2008; not Mon San Diego Museum of Art Historical Takes at the San Diego Museum of Art celebrates feminist artist Eleanor Antin. The exhibit is the first to focus on Antin's recent series of large-scale tableaux photographs based on Greek and Roman history and mythology.

Eleanor Antin, The Triumph of Pan (after Poussin) from the Roman Allegories series, Chromogenic print, 60 ½ x 72 ½ in., 2004. Copyright Eleanor Antin. Image courtesy San Diego Museum of Art

San Diego Zoo — Daily San Diego Zoo Located in beautiful Balboa Park, the 100-acre San Diego Zoo was founded in 1916 with an original collection of 50 animals. Now, less than a century later, it cares for more than 4,000 animals from 800 different species, while its plant collection includes more than 6,500 species - making it one of the finest zoos in the world.

Giant Panda at San Diego Zoo

Hotel del Coronado — Daily Hotel del Coronado With a spectacular beachfront location on Coronado Island in San Diego, the Hotel del Coronado is one of America's most beautiful beach resorts. The hotel was built in 1888 and offers visitors modern luxury in an enchanting Victorian atmosphere. Facilties include eight restaurants and a state-of-the-art spa. There are seasonal activity programmes for children and teenagers.

A view of the Hotel del Coronado

San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum — Daily San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum The San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum is located onboard the USS Midway, the longest-serving aircraft carrier in U.S. Navy history. The ship's 47 years of service stretches from the end of World War II until the liberation of Kuwait in 1991. A self-guided audio tour takes visitors through 40 exhibits and 21 restored aircraft, with access to all areas including the flight deck and the island superstructure. There are also interactive exhibits and flight simulators as well as story-telling from Midway veterans.

The mighty USS Midway steams on

Balboa Park — Daily Balboa Park Balboa Park is world-famous and home to 15 museums, arts and international culture associations and the popular San Diego Zoo. This makes it one of the nation's largest cultural and entertainment complexes, visited by over 12 million people each year.

Balboa Park at Twilight and the California Tower of the Museum of Man. Photo by Joanne DiBona, courtesy of Balboa Park

SeaWorld — Daily SeaWorld A gigantic adventure marine park, SeaWorld San Diego provides fantastic family entertainment. It offers sea lion and killer whale shows, close-ups with dolphins, penguins and sharks, screamingly good rides and water coasters.

Shamu & Baby Shamu

Mission San Diego de Alcala — Daily Mission San Diego de Alcala The Mission San Diego de Alcala was founded in 1769 and was the first church in California. The present building was completed in 1813. Originally the Mission and the Spanish fort were located on the hill above Old Town San Diego, but the Mission soon moved to its present location, five miles up the San Diego River. Today it is head of an active Catholic Parish in the Diocese of San Diego.

Mission San Diego de Alcala

Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego — Daily; not Wed Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego is a leading institution with a permanent collection of more than 3000 works created after 1950. The collection is particulary strong in Minimalism and Pop art, conceptual art, installations, Latin American art and works from California and the Tijuana region. The museum has another branch in nearby La Jolla and is also set to expand, with new gallery space directly opposite the existing site due to open in 2007.

Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla

San Diego Renaissance Faire — 2 - 3 Aug 2008 (annual)
Balboa Park

Knights, jesters and craftsmen await you at the annual San Diego Renaissance Faire. Held at the Renaissance village of St Margarets at Cliffe, on Morley Field in Balboa Park, the festival features eight stages of entertainment, including belly dancing performances.

Encanto Street Fair and Cultural Arts Festival — 17 Aug 2008 (annual)
San Diego

The annual multicultural Encanto Street Fair, held along three blocks on Imperial Avenue between 65th and 68th Streets, highlights San Diego's diverse ethnic population with food, music, art and entertainment.

Festival of Sail — 20 - 24 Aug 2008 (annual)
Maritime Museum of San Diego

The annual Festival of Sail at the Maritime Museum of San Diego features more than 20 tall ships and other extraordinary vessels from around the world, and kicks off with a majestic aquatic parade in San Diego Bay.

Georgia O'Keeffe and the Women of the Stieglitz Circle — 24 May - 28 Sep 2008; not Mon
San Diego Museum of Art

Georgia O'Keeffe was a major figure in American art from the 1920s onwards. This exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art features paintings, drawings and photographs by the artist and other female Modernists who influenced her.

San Diego Padres - Major League Baseball — 31 Mar - 28 Sep 2008 (annual)
PETCO Park

PETCO Park is home to the San Diego Padres Major League Baseball team and stages regular games from March to September.

Visible Places: Works on Paper by Women — 5 Jul - 9 Nov 2008; not Mon
San Diego Museum of Art

With works from the early-to-mid 20th century, Visible Places at the San Diego Museum of Art celebrates female artists and their contributions. The multi-medium display features artists like Isabel Bishop and also highlights the dual roles women have played.

Memory is your image of perfection — 3 Aug - 30 Nov 2008; not Wed
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

From Eleanor Antin to Yvonne Venegas, Memory is your image of perfection at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego features work by female artists who, from a feminist perspective, utilise the ambiguity of photography and film to explore individual subjectivity.

HUMAN/NATURE: Artists Respond To A Changing Planet — 17 Aug 2008 - 1 Feb 2009; not Wed
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

Deforestation, melting ice-caps and a depleting ozone layer; many environmental issues plague the world today. The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego welcomes Artists Respond to a Changing Planet, a collaborative project exploring relationships between fragile natural environments and humans.

Black Womanhood: Images, Icons, and Ideologies of the African Body — 31 Jan 2008 - 26 Apr 2009; not Mon
San Diego Museum of Art

From over-sexualised dames to docile mammies, notions of Black womanhood have been created and contorted for centuries. San Diego Museum of Art's multi-medium exhibit explores the relationship between historic and contemporary representations of black womanhood in African and Western arts.

Nancy Rubins: Pleasure Point — Daily; not Wed
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

On permanent display at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Pleasure Point is an accumulation of rowboats, canoes, jet skis and surfboards suspended above the west side of the museum's La Jolla facility, created by Los-Angeles based sculptor Nancy Rubins.

The Artful Soul — Daily; not Sun
The Artful Soul

Funky Artful Soul in La Jolla, San Diego, has a wide selection of distinctive jewellery, handbags, pottery and other gifts by some of the hottest up-and-coming designers. They feature many one-of-a-kind pieces, and at very reasonable prices.

The Wine Bank — Daily
The Wine Bank

If you're looking for that limited release cabernet sauvignon or that hopelessly rare cognac, you just might find it at the Wine Bank, in the Gaslamp Quarter. They offer a huge range of wines, liqueurs and spirits, and the basement vaults host tasting events on weekend nights.

Muttropolis — Daily
Muttropolis

Okay, so your dog's going out and she hasn't got a thing to wear... Muttropolis is La Jolla's headquarters for doggie fashion, kitty collars, toys and more. They even host doggie "socials" where your pet can meet and mingle with other canines.

Nunu's — Daily
Nunu's

Nunu's in Hillcrest isn't your average dive bar. The lines for one are a dead giveaway that this place is special. The cocktails are another sign: they're made with care and oh so tasty. The crowd's lively (another departure from the traditional dive) and diverse (and less numerous on weeknights), as is the music on the jukebox. You'll want to get there early to snag a red vinyl booth - the perfect spot for observing the locals rubbing elbows with the scenesters.

The Field — Daily
The Field

The Field is as authentic an Irish pub gets outside of Ireland: shipped piece by piece from the old country to San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter. Visit for live music, shepherds pie, an honest pint of Guinness and Irish whiskey. There are live performances most Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Thin — Thu, Fri, and Sat only
Thin

San Diego venue Thin describes itself as a "hyper-contemporary environment engineered for drinks," and once inside you'll know what they mean. Trippy lighting, colourful, sculptural walls and tables, and DJ-driven music set the tone for the 'environment'. As for the drinks, they're architectural, iridescent, and very likely new to you. The crowd is hip, chic, and quite possibly engineered for cool.

Museum of Photographic Arts — Daily; not Mon
Museum of Photographic Arts

Founded in 1983 and housed in the Casa De Balboa building in San Diego, the Museum of Photographic Arts utilises both its permanent collection and temporary exhibitions to conserve and explore the versatility of the medium.