San Diego Arts&Culture
Entertainment that has value.

Dance | Festivals | Film | Galleries | Museums | Music | Theatre

San Diego's vibrant arts & culture scene teems with lively performances, thought-provoking exhibitions, and engaging historic sites and monuments. From the 16 museums located just within Balboa Park, two Tony® Award-winning theatres, historic sites, public art, music, dance, film, galleries, missions and a multitude of other cultural offerings, there's always something in San Diego to engage your senses and enrich your mind.

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• 02/01 - 02/29 - San Diego Museum Month: Half-Off Admission
• 02/21 - Mardi Gras in the Gaslamp Quarter
• 03/31 - San Diego County Women's Hall of Fame
• 02/29 - 03/04 - Rich Little - Jimmy Stewart and Friends
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A Photo Friendly Tour of Balboa Park

Balboa Park is one of the most widely photographed destinations in San Diego, and for good reason: It’s simply stunning! Created in 1868 as a 1,200 acre overlook of the ambitious project that relocated San Diego’s business and political center to its current location, the lush landscaped beauty, with its art and cultural institutions and green-space, is the largest urban cultural park in the United States and...

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Positively Passionate: Arts and Culture in San Diego

It may surprise you to know that there are over 30 museums in San Diego, and that only one of them is dedicated to surfing. Here's just a brief look at why this city by the beach is earning a reputation as a vibrant, culturally rich and culture-loving destination. With 15 museums and 9 theatres and performing arts centers, Balboa Park is San Diego's cultural heart. "The Smithsonian of the West," this beautiful park...

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Experience the arts and culture of sunny San Diego on your self-guided ARTventure!

San Diego’s culture scene is rich in colors, flavors, and sounds. See breathtaking waterfront views and one of a kind artwork from a 1898 Berkeley steam ferry, imagine the sounds of military recruits of the past while enjoying artisan chocolates and dance at NTC Promenade, see how art and innovation can transform a neighborhood, taste the original craft beer of North Park after a show at a historic theater, see...

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Paradise Found: Mapping San Diego

What do Cook, Melville and Gauguin have in common? They are all coming to San Diego this year (well, not really) for a unique floating exhibition aboard the Maritime Museum of San Diego’s Berkeley. “Cook, Melville and Gauguin: Three Voyages to Paradise” celebrates the adventurous spirit of discovery and the search of paradise. 2011 © The Kelton Foundation To help celebrate, San Diego Art +...

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Performing Arts in Spring

Spring brings exciting, innovative and classic performing arts productions to San Diego Balboa Theatre After a five-year, $26.5 million renovation and restoration, the historic Balboa Theatre in downtown San Diego re-opened in January 2008 after 20 years of darkness. The 83-year-old theatre is once again hosting a diverse line-up of performances to entertain guests; it will also be the home for the Mainly Mozart...

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Arts Month San Diego September 2011

Leaders from numerous arts organizations in San Diego joined together to launch of Arts Month San Diego, September 2011. Arts Month San Diego will unite a broad array of the city's arts and performance entities under one marketing umbrella. A diverse cross-section of arts and culture programs will be showcased throughout the month with participating galleries, artist-run initiatives, public art museums, performing...

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Like the stars above, the excitement is endless.

You could choose one thrilling outdoor experience each summer weekend, and still not cover them all. So make your summer plans now and you won't miss out. You'll find great values everywhere, and many events free-of-charge. This truly is "Entertainment that has value." Carlsbad TGIF Jazz in the Parks: FREE The concerts, started in 1986, have truly become a part of the community's life. Join the fun every Friday...

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Old Town San Diego Historical Sites and Museums

Visit original and reconstructed buildings that illustrate the ambiance of 1800’s San Diego in Old Town. Old Town San Diego is considered the "birthplace" of California, and today the historic buildings and museums allow you to "go back in time" and visit California's history firsthand. Visitor Center   619-220-5422  Hours: 10am-4pm October-March; 10am-5pm April-September A look at San...

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Ancient Egypt

The culture of ancient Egypt holds a universal appeal and fascination for adults and children alike. The Museum of Man is fortunate to have one of the most important ancient Egyptian collections in the United States. This is due to the rare gift of over 400 objects from the Egyptian Exploration Society and the generosity of Ellen Browning Scripps in the 1920s and 1930s. These artifacts are from the ancient city of...

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Footsteps Through Time

The Museum's West Wing houses our fabulous anthropology exhibit, Footsteps Through Time: Four Million Years of Human Evolution. The permanent exhibit - covering 7,000 square feet and featuring five galleries and more than a hundred touchable replicas of early humans, primates, and futuristic cyborgs (part human, part machine) - officially opened to the public on February 9, 2002. This compelling exhibit is the only...

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New Exhibition, Skulls, Opens at the San Diego Natura

The exhibit design staff at the San Diego Natural History Museum has created a new exhibition in October 2011. Skulls features close to 200 animal skulls that had previously been housed in the collections of the Museum's research department, the Biodiversity Research Center for the Californias. Skulls will be included with General Admission to the Museum and free for Museum members. "Everybody loves skulls," said...

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Sea Rex 3D

Sea Rex 3D: Journey to a Prehistoric World is now showing at the San Diego Natural History Museum Visitors will experience a wondrous adventure as they join Julie, an imaginative young woman, as she takes a unique voyage through time and space. The film explores an amazing underwater universe inhabited by larger-than-life creatures which ruled the seas millennia before dinosaurs conquered the Earth and even...

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Reuben H. Fleet Science Center: Origins in Space

What do race cars and the International Space Station have in common? Want to know the secret to improving your tennis game? Discover these connections and explore how NASA missions and research affect our everyday lives. This new photographic exhibition looks at the scientific accomplishments and technological spin-offs that have resulted from NASA missions. For instance, did you know that NASA research in...

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Mission San Diego de Alcala

San Diego de Alcala, the first of the great California Missions, marks the birthplace of Christianity in the far West. It is California's first church. This remarkable and significant historical shrine provides an understanding and appreciation of the beginning of Catholicism in this corner of the world, so remote from the Mother Country of Spain and yet so similar. Today the Mission, which was founded in 1769,...

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Avocado Nirvana In San Diego

They say it isn’t easy being green. Happily, avocado lovers who visit San Diego will find that’s just not true. Leading the nation in production, California is the largest grower of domestic avocados and home to about 90% of the nation's crop. San Diego County, which produces 60% of all California avocados, is the acknowledged avocado capital of the nation. Avocados are in season here year-round and fans of...

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What's New

The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla has a new exhibition, Mexico: Expected/Unexpected, which presents over 100 artworks selected from the Isabel and Agustín Coppel Collection, one of Mexico’s most comprehensive contemporary art collections. From the poetic to the political, the exhibition showcases the key figures of the Mexican contemporary art scene. Runs through May 15, 2011.