Exhibitions
Upcoming Exhibitions
A Practical Guide to Modest Magic
March 16, 2024 – May 26, 2024
A Practical Guide to Modest Magic takes the art assignment as its point of departure, with written instructions that ask college and university student participants to respond to find magic in the everyday. Written by regional artists and educators, assignments feature cross-border collaborations, explore banality, make use of unconventional spaces, envision the future, seek more functional design, prioritize placemaking, or encourage inclusive choreography. Each assignment serves as a catalyst for artistic exploration and seeks to build empathy through collectively recognizing and appreciating the magic inherent in our everyday lives and practices.
Helen and Newton Harrison: California Work
September 21, 2024 – January 19, 2025
As part of the Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time: Art and Science Collide, California Center for the Arts, Escondido presents Helen and Newton Harrison: California Work, a retrospective exhibition about the work of husband-and-wife team of Helen Mayer and Newton Harrison, who were among the earliest and most notable ecological artists. Founding members of the Visual Arts Department at UC San Diego, Helen and Newton were local San Diego artists for nearly four decades, where they developed their pioneering concepts of Ecological Art.
Helen and Newton Harrison: California Work is the first exhibition to focus on their California work, including nearly 20 projects produced between the late 1960s and 2000s. Responding to growing environmental awareness, the Harrisons pushed conceptual art in new directions, from their efforts to make topsoil—endangered in many places—to their transformation of a Pasadena debris basin into a recreational area. The couple agreed that they would only take on projects that benefited the ecosystem. California Work revisits the Harrisons’ groundbreaking ecological concepts through re-staged performance artworks, drawings, paintings, photography, collages, maps, archival documentation of large-scale installations, and unrealized proposals for real-world ecological solutions.
About the Museum
The Center Museum seeks to provide North County San Diego with access to relevant, thought-provoking, and wide-ranging exhibitions that highlight contemporary artists and artworks.
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For questions, contact museum@artcenter.org
