Open Studio: Helena Westra

Thursdays | 11:00 AM — 3:00 PM

Helena Westra is a San Diego–based sculptor and interdisciplinary artist who works with clay, soil, and other natural and found materials to create objects, installations, and performances grounded in land-based practices. Drawing on her mixed ancestry and interests in craft and storytelling, her work considers belonging, ancestral connection, and the cyclical relationship between land and body. Westra’s practice approaches making as a way of holding memory and reimagining what it means to belong. In 2025, she was awarded the Windgate–Lamar Fellowship from the Center for Craft to support international research into ancestral craft traditions across Okinawa, Mallorca, Friesland, and the Philippines, which she will extend into her residency at the Museum.

Visit Westra’s studio in the Museum galleries on Thursdays between 11:00 AM and 3:00 PM to learn more about her process.

During her time in the studio, Westra will be developing a project that will be presented as part of the 2025–26 In Studio Artist Residency exhibition, opening June 5, 2026.

Air-Dry Clay Handbuilding Workshop with Ellie Fonseca

Find your flow through touch and texture in this calming, hands-on workshop. No experience necessary—just bring your curiosity. Materials provided.

About the Instructor

With a passion for ceramics and hands-on creativity, Ellie Fonseca has been guiding students through the art of clay in Orange County and now San Diego. Specializing in hand-building, she brings dedicated experience from teaching workshops for local community and non-profit organizations. Her approach emphasizes mindfulness, sensory awareness, and artistic exploration, ensuring that every participant feels connected to the craft and empowered to create. Through engaging demonstrations and personalized guidance, Ellie Fonseca enjoys fostering a welcoming environment where creativity flourishes and clay transforms into art.  

Join sound healer and movement practitioner Noriko Whitfield for an immersive session exploring the connection between body, mind, and art. Through guided sound meditation and gentle movement, participants will engage in practices that support emotional balance, nervous system regulation, and self-awareness.

With over 16 years of experience in sound therapy and energy healing, Whitfield creates a calming environment that invites reflection and inner stillness. This session is open to all levels. No prior experience is needed. 

Please dress comfortably and bring a yoga mat. A pillow and sweater or blanket are also recommended.

Join us for an opening reception for Lightwall, an interactive installation that explores perception, presence, and the evolving relationship between humans and responsive technologies.

Developed by artist Rita Sus in collaboration with technologist Zach Rattner and students from California State University, Fullerton, Lightwall integrates kinetic sculpture, custom electronics, and artificial intelligence to create an environment that responds in real time to visitors’ movement and sound. As audiences engage with the installation, shifting light patterns and rotating prisms generate continuously changing visual conditions, positioning the viewer as an active participant in the work.

The opening reception offers an opportunity to experience Lightwall firsthand and to engage with a project that reflects the Museum’s commitment to presenting contemporary art at the intersection of art, technology, and education.

This event is free and open to the public.

Join us for an after-hours exhibition celebration that brings Designing the Infinite: Virtual Worldbuilding in Art & Gaming and Kayla Mattes’s solo exhibition, Reboot > Reweave > Repeat, to life through sound, light, and play. The evening will feature live DJ sets, a bar and light bites, and immersive moments throughout the galleries.

Designing the Infinite brings together contemporary artists working across digital media, gaming, and immersive environments to examine how virtual worlds function as sites for storytelling, experimentation, and collective imagination. Presented alongside this exhibition, Kayla Mattes’s work explores the visual language of the internet through handwoven textiles that translate digital imagery into tactile form, bridging craft and contemporary digital culture.

The evening also coincides with an open studio for Artist-in-Residence Farshid Bazmandegan. Visitors are invited to visit the artist’s studio to view works in progress and learn more about an ongoing project that engages themes of memory and displacement. Bazmandegan’s residency work will continue to develop toward its presentation in the Museum’s 2025–26 Artist-in-Residence exhibition.

This event is free and open to the public.

Cover image: JODI, Untitled Street Legal (still), 2004, video. Courtesy of Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York.

Open Studio: Farshid Bazmandegan

Saturday, January 10, 2026 | 5:00 PM — 7:00 PM

Location: CH Visual Art Studio (In the Administration building across from the Museum)

The California Center for the Arts Museum invites the public to a culminating open studio with Farshid Bazmandegan, marking the conclusion of his 2025—26 artist residency. This open studio offers visitors an opportunity to engage with Bazmandegan’s research, materials, and work in progress, providing insight into an evolving practice shaped by memory and displacement.

During the residency, Bazmandegan has been developing a new body of work rooted in a childhood memory of a painting of a black horse that once hung in his family home in Iran. Through sculpture and digital media, he explores fantasy as a method for navigating exile and imagining return. The works on view during the open studio represent an active phase of inquiry rather than a finished presentation.

Bazmandegan will continue to develop this project over the coming year, with the completed body of work to be presented as part of the 2025–26 In Studio Artist Residency exhibition, opening June 5, 2026.

Air-Dry Clay Handbuilding Workshop with Ellie Fonseca

Find your flow through touch and texture in this calming, hands-on workshop. No experience necessary—just bring your curiosity. Materials provided.

About the Instructor

With a passion for ceramics and hands-on creativity, Ellie Fonseca has been guiding students through the art of clay in Orange County and now San Diego. Specializing in hand-building, she brings dedicated experience from teaching workshops for local community and non-profit organizations. Her approach emphasizes mindfulness, sensory awareness, and artistic exploration, ensuring that every participant feels connected to the craft and empowered to create. Through engaging demonstrations and personalized guidance, Ellie Fonseca enjoys fostering a welcoming environment where creativity flourishes and clay transforms into art.  

Join sound healer and movement practitioner Noriko Whitfield for an immersive session exploring the connection between body, mind, and art. Through guided sound meditation and gentle movement, participants will engage in practices that support emotional balance, nervous system regulation, and self-awareness.

With over 16 years of experience in sound therapy and energy healing, Whitfield creates a calming environment that invites reflection and inner stillness. This session is open to all levels. No prior experience is needed. 

Please dress comfortably and bring a yoga mat. A pillow and sweater or blanket are also recommended.

Air-Dry Clay Handbuilding Workshop with Ellie Fonseca

Find your flow through touch and texture in this calming, hands-on workshop. No experience necessary—just bring your curiosity. Materials provided.

About the Instructor

With a passion for ceramics and hands-on creativity, Ellie Fonseca has been guiding students through the art of clay in Orange County and now San Diego. Specializing in hand-building, she brings dedicated experience from teaching workshops for local community and non-profit organizations. Her approach emphasizes mindfulness, sensory awareness, and artistic exploration, ensuring that every participant feels connected to the craft and empowered to create. Through engaging demonstrations and personalized guidance, Ellie Fonseca enjoys fostering a welcoming environment where creativity flourishes and clay transforms into art.  

Join sound healer and movement practitioner Noriko Whitfield for an immersive session exploring the connection between body, mind, and art. Through guided sound meditation and gentle movement, participants will engage in practices that support emotional balance, nervous system regulation, and self-awareness.

With over 16 years of experience in sound therapy and energy healing, Whitfield creates a calming environment that invites reflection and inner stillness. This session is open to all levels. No prior experience is needed. 

Please dress comfortably and bring a yoga mat. A pillow and sweater or blanket are also recommended.

Join acclaimed designer and artist Louis Verdad for an in-depth conversation about his practice and recent installations. Verdad will discuss his powerful sculptural work, Tonántzin, featured in XICANA! San Diego, exploring its themes of ancestry, spirituality, and feminine strength.

This talk offers a unique opportunity to hear directly from Verdad about his creative process, influences, and the ways he bridges couture, cultural iconography, and storytelling in his work. Audience Q&A to follow.

This event is free.

As part of the California Center for the Arts, Escondido’s annual Día de los Muertos Festival, the Museum will open its doors for free admission to the galleries starting at 4:00pm with last entry at 8:00pm.

Highlights at the Museum this year will include:

• Free admission to the exhibitions, XICANA! San Diego and Dave Eassa: Head Above the Clouds

• Live music in the galleries

• Annual altar installation in the galleries

• Muerte de todos candle-making workshop in the Museum Courtyard

Muerte de todos Candle-making Workshop

During Día de los Muertos, candles are placed on ofrendas, or altars, to guide the spirits of the departed back to the world of the living. They are believed to illuminate the path for the souls back to their homes and loved ones, and symbolize hope and faith.

In honor of the 30th anniversary of artist Eloy Tarcisio’s site-specific installation, Muerte de todos: ofrenda de participación, the Museum will complement this year’s presentation of our most popular collection artwork with a candle-making workshop to contribute to personal ofrendas in Muerte de todos.

Personalize your traditional soy wax votive candle by sealing a handwritten message for your loved one into the wax. No experience required. Materials are provided. All ages are welcome with the assistance of an adult. 

Please note that supplies are limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Other Places art fair (OPaf) is heading south for the first time. The inaugural OPaf South, co-presented with Harvest & Gather, will transform the California Center for the Arts, Escondido into a day-long meeting ground for artists, ideas, and neighbors on Saturday, October 25, 2025, from 11 AM to 6 PM. Admission is free, with a suggested $5 donation to sustain future programming.

Since 2017, OPaf has championed unconventional and underrepresented artists, artist-run spaces, and art programming that resists the constraints of the traditional art world. OPaf South extends this ethos to new terrain, creating an inclusive, outdoor–indoor platform for artists of all backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses.

This first edition will feature over thirty booths and installations from local, regional, and international participants, as well as performances, readings, talks, and the OPaf Workshop Tent—a community-powered space for interactive projects and skill-sharing. It will also feature an 他の場所 popup, hosting works by Japanese artists and galleries, bringing cross-cultural perspectives into the mix.

Participants 2025

Slowclub / Frankie Martin and Pumpernickel Palace / A History of Frogs / Yard Pedro / bed crumb show* / Gene's Dispensary / Emily and Walker / siege upon fortified fetus / K.I.T.E. Project & Project PAINT / Two Rooms / Taller California / Thresholds / Human Scale – Experimental Prints / Escolar / QuorumQuorum / Streetside Flag History / Locker 123 / Nefarious Contemporary / Unmade / Erick Perez / A tus ordenes / Harvest & Gather / Tigercrow Collective / Living Skin / Le Shed ...and more TBA.

OPaf has been featured in ArtForum, LA Weekly, KCRW, and Hyperallergic, recognized for its artist-centered approach and grassroots energy. OPaf South carries this spirit into a new community, inviting the public to step into a space where art and connection grow side by side.

A calendar of OPaf South–related events will be posted at opaf.info.

Support for OPaf South provided by: California Center for the Arts, Escondido.

Light Among Shadows: The Night of the Dead in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán

Organized by photographers Salvador Angel Solórzano Barrera and David López Ortiz

Opening reception: Friday, October 24, 2025, 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM | Free Entry

On view: October 24 - November 2, 2025

In Mexican tradition, death does not represent an end, but a transition, a continuity that connects generations through remembrance and celebration. This photography exhibition invites us to immerse ourselves in one of Mexico's most profoundly spiritual rituals: the Night of the Dead, as experienced in the region of Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.

Through over 20 images captured with sensitivity and respect, this exhibition reveals the ritual beauty of a night where the light of candles guides souls and the fragrance of cempasúchil traces invisible paths between the living and the dead. The photographs, taken in communities such as Janitzio, Tzintzuntzan, Ihuatzio, and Santa Fe de la Laguna, document not only the visual elements of the tradition but also the collective soul of those who keep it alive.

Generous support for this exhibition is provided by Bordando Nuestras Raíces.

Air-Dry Clay Handbuilding Workshop with Ellie Fonseca

Find your flow through touch and texture in this calming, hands-on workshop. No experience necessary—just bring your curiosity. Materials provided.

About the Instructor

With a passion for ceramics and hands-on creativity, Ellie Fonseca has been guiding students through the art of clay in Orange County and now San Diego. Specializing in hand-building, she brings dedicated experience from teaching workshops for local community and non-profit organizations. Her approach emphasizes mindfulness, sensory awareness, and artistic exploration, ensuring that every participant feels connected to the craft and empowered to create. Through engaging demonstrations and personalized guidance, Ellie Fonseca enjoys fostering a welcoming environment where creativity flourishes and clay transforms into art.  

Join sound healer and movement practitioner Noriko Whitfield for an immersive session exploring the connection between body, mind, and art. Through guided sound meditation and gentle movement, participants will engage in practices that support emotional balance, nervous system regulation, and self-awareness.

With over 16 years of experience in sound therapy and energy healing, Whitfield creates a calming environment that invites reflection and inner stillness. This session is open to all levels. No prior experience is needed. 

Please dress comfortably and bring a yoga mat. A pillow and sweater or blanket are also recommended.

Every second Saturday of the month, the Museum offers pay-what-you-can admission for all. Visitors are invited to explore the galleries and participate in free drop-in art activities, artist-led workshops, talks, art demonstrations, and/or tours throughout the galleries and the Community Art Lab.

Join us between 11:00am and 2:00pm for a trinket tray making experience!
Participants will learn how to design and decorate their own unique trinket trays using air-dry clay

No prior experience needed. All materials provided.

Dave Eassa: Head Above the Clouds

Opening reception: Friday, October 3, 2025, 6:00 - 8:00 PM | Free entry

Head Above the Clouds is an immersive exhibition that explores love, loss, and the radical act of dreaming. Through large-scale paintings, sculptures, and collaborative installations, Dave Eassa constructs a dreamscape shaped by memory, love, and imagination. Drawing from personal and familial archives, Eassa transforms the gallery into a space for reflection and connection, where life-sized portraits become monuments, clouds anchor the ground, and suspended sails carry the dreams of youth and community voices. At once intimate and communal, Head Above the Clouds invites us to reimagine what’s possible when we dream together.

Dave Eassa (b. 1991, Ellicott City, MD) is a visual artist, curator, and cultural organizer based in San Diego, CA. Working across painting, sculpture, and socially engaged practice, his work explores personal and collective memory, love, and the possibilities of community. He has exhibited nationally and internationally, with solo exhibitions at Cody Gallery (VA), The Shed Space (MD), and Sistered (ME), and group exhibitions at Marianne Boesky Gallery (NY), LVL3 (Chicago), and Signal (NY). Eassa’s work has been featured in New American Paintings, The Washington Post, and BmoreArt, and is held in collections including the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation. A 2015 Open Society Institute Fellow, Eassa founded Free Space, a pioneering arts program in Maryland’s prison system. He has held senior roles at the Baltimore Museum of Art, where he led initiatives such as the BMA Lexington Market satellite and co-curated Histories Collide: Jackie Milad x Fred Wilson x Nekisha Durrett. A Salzburg Global Fellow and recipient of numerous public art and artist awards, Eassa continues to build projects that merge aesthetics with equity, and community with care.

XICANA! Block Party

Saturday, September 27, 2025 | 11 AM – 3 PM | Free Entry

Celebrate art, culture, and community at our all-ages XICANA! Block Party, a free day of lowriders, art, music, and creativity inspired by the exhibition XICANA! San Diego.

Event Highlights:

• Lowrider Car Show presented by Lady Lowrider Car Club and Galindo’s Bikes & Parts, with trophies for standout rides (11am - 3pm)

• Free admission to all Museum exhibitions during the event (11am - 5pm)

• Create Your Own Lowrider Workshop in the Museum’s Art Lab with artist Jacqueline Valenzuela (12pm - 3pm)

• A Marqueta XICANA featuring local vendors in the Museum Courtyard (11am - 3pm)

• Collaborative mural painting with artist Gloria Favela Rocha (12pm - 3pm)

• Plus food trucks, music, and more!

This community-led event is part of XICANA! San Diego, curated by Dulce Stein, organized in collaboration with ESMoA, and presented by City Heights Community Development Corporation. On view June 21 – November 2, 2025.

Join us for a powerful afternoon of storytelling, reflection, and community as we celebrate the voices of the Somos Xicanas Anthology—envisioned and edited by literary luminary Luz Schweig, published by Riot of Roses Publishing House, and now a finalist for the International Latino Book Awards in two categories.

Grounded in the conviction that “We will not be silent. We will continue to resist with our stories, our medicine, our presence,” this gathering brings together a dynamic representation of writers whose work embodies resilience, healing, and collective memory.

Featured Readers

• Dr. Martha Rivas

• Sonia Gutierrez

• Gaby Moreno

• Inez Gonzalez Perezchica

• Natalia Rivas

• Brenda Vaca

We will also be joined by Dulce Stein, curator of the exhibition XICANA! San Diego, who will share insight into her curatorial vision. The event will open with a prayer and blessing offered by Dr. Angélica M. Yañez.

About the Exhibition

This program is presented in conjunction with XICANA! San Diego, curated by Dulce Stein, organized in collaboration with ESMoA. SOMOS XICANAS is presented by Riot of Roses Publishing House. The exhibition is on view June 21 – November 2, 2025, at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, Museum.

Be part of a live recording of The Offerings of Copal Podcast for a special “Pass the Mic” episode. Guest artists from the XICANA! exhibition will respond to bold and reflective questions about what it means to be Chicana—today, in this place, in this body. The mic will move, the truths will unfold. Come listen, witness, and honor the multiplicity of voice.

"There is no one Chicana experience. But every voice adds to the fire."

This program is free.

How can exhibition design support emotional connection, healing, and shared experience? Join artist Dave Eassa and the curatorial team at the California Center for the Arts Museum for an intimate preview of Head Above the Clouds, opening to the public in early October.

This special program provides a behind-the-scenes look at the human-centered design strategies that shape the exhibition, from seating sculptures to participatory elements that invite visitors to become co-authors. The conversation will explore how layout, color, scale, and materials were intentionally used to evoke tenderness, grief, joy, and connection.

The preview will conclude with a Q&A.

Dave Eassa (b. 1991, Ellicott City, MD) is a visual artist, curator, and cultural organizer based in San Diego, CA. Working across painting, sculpture, and socially engaged practice, his work explores personal and collective memory, love, and the possibilities of community. He has exhibited nationally and internationally, with solo exhibitions at Cody Gallery (VA), The Shed Space (MD), and Sistered (ME), and group exhibitions at Marianne Boesky Gallery (NY), LVL3 (Chicago), and Signal (NY). Eassa’s work has been featured in New American Paintings, The Washington Post, and BmoreArt, and is held in collections including the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation. A 2015 Open Society Institute Fellow, Eassa founded Free Space, a pioneering arts program in Maryland’s prison system. He has held senior roles at the Baltimore Museum of Art, where he led initiatives such as the BMA Lexington Market satellite and co-curated Histories Collide: Jackie Milad x Fred Wilson x Nekisha Durrett. A Salzburg Global Fellow and recipient of numerous public art and artist awards, Eassa continues to build projects that merge aesthetics with equity, and community with care.

Air-Dry Clay Handbuilding Workshop with Ellie Fonseca

Find your flow through touch and texture in this calming, hands-on workshop. No experience necessary—just bring your curiosity. Materials provided.

About the Instructor

With a passion for ceramics and hands-on creativity, Ellie Fonseca has been guiding students through the art of clay in Orange County and now San Diego. Specializing in hand-building, she brings dedicated experience from teaching workshops for local community and non-profit organizations. Her approach emphasizes mindfulness, sensory awareness, and artistic exploration, ensuring that every participant feels connected to the craft and empowered to create. Through engaging demonstrations and personalized guidance, Ellie Fonseca enjoys fostering a welcoming environment where creativity flourishes and clay transforms into art.  

Join sound healer and movement practitioner Noriko Whitfield for an immersive session exploring the connection between body, mind, and art. Through guided sound meditation and gentle movement, participants will engage in practices that support emotional balance, nervous system regulation, and self-awareness.

With over 16 years of experience in sound therapy and energy healing, Whitfield creates a calming environment that invites reflection and inner stillness. This session is open to all levels. No prior experience is needed. 

Please dress comfortably and bring a yoga mat. A pillow and sweater or blanket are also recommended.

Every second Saturday of the month, the Museum offers pay-what-you-can admission for all. Visitors are invited to explore the galleries and participate in free drop-in art activities, artist-led workshops, talks, art demonstrations, and/or tours throughout the galleries and the Community Art Lab.

Join us between 11:00am and 2:00pm for a paper flower making experience! Participants will learn how to create native California flowers from crepe paper.

No prior experience needed. All materials provided.

Artists Tekpatl Patricia and Cihua Mazatl Jessica invite you into a plática on ancestral guidance—how the presence of our ancestors shapes creative practice, ritual, and healing. This conversation is grounded in lived experience and intergenerational memory.

Followed by a guided meditation with Tekpatl Patricia and drumming by Cihua Mazatl. Including a hands-on oil pastels workshop, exploring connection, guidance, and ancestral connection.

"We are never creating alone. Our ancestors whisper in every gesture."

Seating is limited. This program is free. RSVP HERE.

Chicana Art in Context

Hosted by Tekpatl Patricia Cruz and Cihua Mazatl

Join us for an intimate plática with the San Diego guest artists featured in the XICANA! exhibition. These artists will reflect on their personal experiences exhibiting in this historic show and speak to the complexities of identity, belonging, and what it means to create as Chicana mujeres in today’s world. Expect an evening of storytelling, truth-telling, and shared vision.

"Art is where we archive our existence."

This program is free.

Critical Plática & Ekphrastic Poetry with Dr. Martha Rivas

Arte y Artesanía: Cuando el Arte Sana

*Please note: This event has been rescheduled from August 16 to the new date of October 18, 2025.

Experience an afternoon of storytelling rooted in the healing power of art and ancestral craft. Led by Dr. Martha Rivas, this Critical Plática centers on Arte y Artesanía, exploring how handmade traditions, creative expression, and cultural memory become tools for personal and collective healing. The program features San Diego-based artesanas Sara ChulaMaiz (jewelry maker), Stephanie Ceniceros (artesana, poet, and writer), and Sombra Libertad (ceremonial skirt maker), who will share their practices and stories in dialogue with original artworks from the XICANA! San Diego exhibition. 

This program is free.