🎭 Visual art
Chicano Skatepark Celebration and 'Chrome and Candy Dreams'
This month's Barrio Art Crawl festivities are centered on the Chicano Skatepark, celebrating its 10th anniversary of skateboarding and its vibrant, accessible and generation-bridging skate culture beneath the Chicano Park pillars and murals. The free community event will include an art show, live artmaking, hands-on activities, DJs, live music, free food and the much-buzzed-about annual T-shirt release, all free while supplies last. Organizers will also give out free skateboards to youth.
While you're in the park, pop into the adjacent Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center for the opening reception of "Chrome and Candy Dreams: A Rite of Passage," which explores lowrider bike culture and history, with display bikes, photography, archives and contemporary art installations. Curated by Norman Paraiso, Juan "Wicho" Flores and Ariana Arroyo, the exhibit includes work by Chata, Dyse One, Irene Shion, Jacqueline Valenzuela and more. The free reception starts at 1 p.m.
Noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12 | Chicano Park, 1960 National Ave., Barrio Logan | Free | MORE INFO
Bread & Salt Gallery Complex
Every second Saturday is always a big night out at Bread & Salt. The galleries stay open late, often host opening receptions or artist talks — and admission is always free. This month is particularly jam-packed, with openings at four galleries, open studios and more:
- Bryan Ali Sanchez: "Raíces en el Campo" in Bread & Salt's main gallery
- Noé Olivas: "Tierra y Cielo" at Best Practice
- Heather Gwen Martin: "Voyage" at Quint ONE
- Héctor Bázaca: “Lost and Found” at Not an Exit Gallery
- Ava Aviva Avnisan: Impact Artist-in-Residence Open Studios
- Ess Whiteley's "listening materials" still on view at Athenaeum Art Center
- Taller California Press anniversary event and print and zinemaking demos at Athenaeum Art Center
- COMPRESSED Zine and Music Fair in the Brick Room (see below for the full weekend's events)
5-8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12 | Bread & Salt, 1955 Julian Ave., Logan Heights | Free | MORE INFO
'Blood Memory'
A new exhibition of work by Indigenous artists explores the way ancestral knowledge and memory are inherited and preserved — or re-examined — across generations. Works range from fashion to installation, photography and video. Artists include Fox Maxy, Johnny Bear Contreras, Gail Werner, Gerald Clarke, Lewis deSoto, Robert Freeman, Sky Hopinka, Esteban Cabeza de Baca, X, Summer Herrera, Tiffany Wolfe, James Luna, Matthew Valdivia and XoQUE Art in Motion. An interactive digital mural, "Before There Were Borders," is linked and paired with a similar mural in the San Diego Central Library downtown.
Sept. 12, 2026 - Feb. 28, 2027 | California Center for the Arts Escondido, 340 Escondido Blvd., Escondido | Free-$12 | MORE INFO
Mathieu Gregoire: 'Shadows'
One of my favorite installations in recent years was the site-specific “Lines” by Mathieu Gregoire, installed at ICE Gallery in 2023. It featured a strangely unsettling series of black, tether-like sculptural lines suspended from the ceiling and affixed to the floor. In a new exhibition at Woo Studios, Gregoire works with suspended branches, casting eerie, reaching shadows across the walls and floors. An opening reception is scheduled for 6-8 p.m. Thursday, but the exhibition is on view beginning this Saturday.
11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12 through Oct. 24 | Woo Studios, 2122 Main St., Barrio Logan | Free | MORE INFO
'Becoming Heirlooms' opening reception
This striking and thoughtful exhibit recently opened in the Judith Harris Art Gallery, the free, public gallery on the downtown library's iconic top floor. It's curated by Craft Desert's Kerianne Quick and Adam John Manley, and is part of Craft in America's Handwork 2026.
The works explore the significance, hope and even the burden of the concept of heirlooms and inheritance, with a range of conceptual pieces and sculptures by artists Diana Benavídez, Matt Hebert, Michael Hernandez, Soyeon Kim (and her children), Christine Lee, Anna Mayer, Kaiya Rainbolt, Phil Rowland, India Thompson and Georgina Treviño. Thompson's basketwoven, cardboard-style boxes and china tea sets imply a potentially unwanted inheritance. Benavídez's "Relax, Hold Your Breath, Don't Move" is a series of three paper breasts smooshed between bricks, suggesting a mammogram and the way breast cancer can also be passed down. A public reception will take place from 4-6 p.m. Friday. Gallery hours are 1-7 p.m. Tuesday; noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday; and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday; through Nov. 7.
4-6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 11 | Judith Harris Art Gallery, San Diego Central Library, 330 Park Blvd., downtown | Free | MORE INFO
🎭 Theater
'Dear Evan Hansen'
Cygnet Theatre will present this Tony-winning Broadway musical that follows Evan, a high schooler who struggles with anxiety and depression and rewrites his own reality after getting accidentally entangled in a tragedy. The show contains references to suicide and drug use and is directed by Blake McCarty.
Sept. 9 to Oct. 4 | Cygnet Theatre | $24.50-$93 | MORE INFO
'Begin Again'
Now in previews at The Old Globe is a world-premiere musical inspired by the 2013 John Carney film of the same name. Carney is also known for "Once." The musical production of "Begin Again" features music and lyrics by Pat Monahan, lead singer of Train, and book by Jenna Clark Embrey and Molly Beach Murphy. The story traces the relationship between singer-songwriter Gretta and floundering record producer Dan. Each performance kicks off with an open-mic-style set from local singer-songwriters. Previews run through Sept. 16, and the show's main run was recently extended through Oct. 18.
Through Oct. 18 | The Old Globe, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park | $66+ | MORE INFO
🎵 Music
Haydn Voyages: Music at the Maritime
Local chamber ensemble the Hausmann Quartet returns to the deck of the historic Berkeley ship at the Maritime Museum. This performance, "Ancestors & Ghosts," spotlights one of Haydn's later quartets, Op. 71, No. 1. The group will also perform a 1983 work by Alfred Schnittke and Beethoven's "Grosse Fuge."
2:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13 | Maritime Museum of San Diego, 1492 N. Harbor Dr., downtown | $12-$70 | MORE INFO
Ari & Cecil Alexander
Jazz and "post-bop" duo (and married couple) Ari and Cecil Alexander pair vocalist Ari's emotive and incredibly agile vocals with Cecil's intricate stylings on guitar.
8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13 | Dizzy's, 1717 Morena Blvd., Bay Park/Morena | $20 cash | MORE INFO
The New Pornographers with The Bug Club
Canadian rockers The New Pornographers released their 10th album this spring, "The Former Site Of," which Pitchfork gave a respectable score of 7.8. They'll perform at the Belly Up alongside Welsh indie band The Bug Club.
Note: Band member Neko Case is reportedly not performing on this tour.
8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13 | Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave., Solana Beach | $49.80-$82.55 | MORE INFO
📚 Books and more
'COMPRESSED' Zine and Music Fair
Independent internet radio station Particle FM and Burn All Books will join forces once more for COMPRESSED, an all-ages, free zine, music, art, community and food festival. For two days, they'll fill Bread & Salt's Brick Room with art and sounds from dozens and dozens of artists, zinemakers, small presses, vendors and musicians. COMPRESSED is a great opportunity to find new favorite local artists, musicians and writers, buy affordable handmade art or start a collection, and support the local community. It's also a great place to learn some extremely niche skills, with workshops throughout the day including diary comics, electronics repair, making your own TV show, "analog methods of evading surveillance & repression," nature collages and resilience and (my favorite) "Break up with your boyfriend and buy a drum kit."
10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 12-13 | Bread & Salt, 1955 Julian Ave., Logan Heights | Free | MORE INFO
Desire, Calling No. 2: Demree McGhee, karo ska, Jennifer Espinoza and Jenna Flenner
This LGBTQ+ reading, fundraiser and dance party returns to Verbatim Books for its second iteration Saturday night. Poetry and prose readings will kick off the evening, featuring 2026 Lambda Literary Award winner Demree McGhee and karo ska, both reading prose, alongside poets Jennifer Espinoza and Jenna Flenner. Following the readings, the bookstore will transform into a dance floor. The event is a fundraiser for Trans Family Support Services.
7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12 | Verbatim Books, 3793 30th St., North Park | Free | MORE INFO
Kumeyaay Comics by the Kumeyaay Visual Storytelling Project
An immersive exhibition based on the graphic novels "Our Past, Present, and Future" and "Beyond Gaming" from the Kumeyaay Visual Storytelling Project is set to open at the Museum of Us. The books were collaboratively created by a team of Kumeyaay scholars, including Ethan Banegas, Michael Connolly Miskwish, Lorraine Orosco and Stanley Rodriguez, and illustrated by John Swogger. We talked to Banegas about the project and California history for an episode of The Finest podcast. Note that admission to the museum grants you a year-long membership.
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily beginning Sept. 12 | Museum of Us, 1350 El Prado, Balboa Park | $16.95-$19.95 | MORE INFO
💃 Dance
Asian American Dance Festival Mainstage Showcase
The second Asian American Dance Festival (AADF) celebrates local Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and their dance and movement artists and artistry through a series of showcases and community events through early October. This weekend's event is a Mainstage Showcase on Sept. 12 at City College's Saville Theatre featuring festival co-organizer Dr. grace shinhae jun along with Adie San Diego, Aisha Reddick, Kimie Parker and Odessa Mae Uno.
7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12 | Saville Theatre at City College, 14th St. and C St., downtown | MORE INFO
🌳 Festivals and more
Sidro Saturdays
Hosted by Casa Familiar and The Front Arte y Cultura, Sidro Saturdays is a block party and arts showcase, with music, food vendors, local artists, makers, a resource fair and more from the border region, including artist PANCA, Isotopías Press, Norte Sur Coffee and performances from Femina Fatal and Rhonda Glez.
Noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12 | El Salon Theatre, 114 W. Hall Ave., San Ysidro | Free | MORE INFO
Chikle Mural Community Celebration
Enrique "Chikle" Lugo, known to his many students as Mr. Chikle, will unveil a new mural in the walkway between The Lot and the Dorothea Laub Dance Place building in Liberty Station, the result of a summer of painting. Chikle's mural is inspired by traditional tattoo styles and border culture, with vivid, bold images peppering the entire arched walkway. To commemorate the finished product, Chikle will host a community celebration on Sunday, with music and lowriders.
Noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13 | 2620-2650 Truxtun Rd., Liberty Station | Free | MORE INFO
Alley Cat Art Festival
In downtown El Cajon, art lovers can tour the murals in the Arts Alley and an art fair with artists, artisans and vendors sharing handcrafted items, photography, jewelry and more. The vendor fair will also include food, drinks and live music. The event is a fundraiser to help restore the existing murals and fund future works of public art in El Cajon.
10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12 | Main St. at Magnolia Ave., El Cajon | Free | MORE INFO
For more arts events and ongoing happenings, visit our community calendar.
