Balboa Park Beat

From basements to servers: Museum of Photographic Arts uses new technologies to preserve and present photography

If you have ever taken an introductory art history class, you’ve probably had to develop a response to the question “What is art?” For Scott Davis, a more pressing question is “Where is art?”

Davis is the director of exhibitions and design at the Museum of Photographic Arts (MoPA) in Balboa Park. Since last fall, he has been working with the Balboa Park Online Collaborative to digitize the estimated 7,000 collection objects at MoPA. Staff and interns have been photographing the collection and researching the biographical information about each of the photographers to create a comprehensive electronic database.

Davis said that the project has helped him to have a better sense of all the images MoPA has and how they could fit together in upcoming exhibitions. 

“Instead of physically moving objects, we can lay out the thumbnails next to each other to look at placement,” said Davis, adding that he already has 2,500 thumbnails on file. Staff at MoPA have started to use the digitized images in different ways, such as inserting them into informational flyers that visitors can pick up to learn more about each photograph.

MoPA has also created a channel on YouTube for podcasts that feature personal reflections about some of the photographs on display. With an iPhone, Droid, or other smartphone of choice, a visitor can go to the YouTube link posted next to a photograph to hear another person's thoughts and interpretations about the artwork.

For example, a photograph of Burmese refugees offers a link to YouTube for a 2-minute reflection from Andrew Rae, a MoPA staff member who once lived and worked in a refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border.

“It’s not an audio version of a wall label,” Davis explained. “It’s more like a Yelp review.”

Bob Breitbard, founder of the San Diego Hall of Champions sports museum, dies at the age of 91

Bob Breitbard, the founder of the San Diego Hall of Champions sports museum, passed away on Monday, May 17, 2010, at the age of 91. He was involved in the local sports scene for more than 50 years as a player, coach, team owner, builder and benefactor of institutions and organizations that have helped make San Diego a big-league sports capital that appreciates its history and honors its own.Visit the Hall of Champions site for more photos, full biography and more.

Diamond Dash: Find the Bling in Balboa Park

Like solving puzzles? Like diamond rings? A $15,000 Hearts on Fire diamond ring will be hidden somewhere in or near Balboa Park, and this Sunday, the race is on to find it! And Keep it! And playing is totally FREE! The Charles Koll Diamond Dash is a high-tech, park-wide treasure hunt where all of the clues will be delivered via text message. Spots are limited and teams of two must win a spot to participate. The San Diego Natural History Museum is hosting the Diamond Dash after-party as part of the opening weekend of the All That Glitters exhibition.

Register here for your spot to play. 

Inside the new All That Glitters exhibition, visitors can discover how the Earth's processes and landscapes produce dazzling gemstones and precious metals--even right here in San Diego County, one of the most famous gem-producing regions in the worlds.

The exhibition (installed at the San Diego Natural History Museum until at least 2012) will showcase a stunning selection of spectacular natural mineral crystals, exquisite jewelry, and works of art, and several interactive features and touchable pieces. Objects on display include stunning objects on loan from major U.S. museums including the Smithsonian, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Newark Museum of Decorating Art.

A few standout pieces include:

• Eye-popping gems and jewelry from important private collections by world-renowned designers including Tiffany & Co., Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Bulgar
• A life-size recreation of a local gem pocket, displaying California’s native gem wealth: tourmalines, topaz, garnets, and more
• “Star of Bombay,” a remarkable 182-carat blue star sapphire; one of the world's great star sapphires, famously given to silent-film actress Mary Pickford from her husband, actor Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.
• Treasures from around the world: rubies and diamonds, emeralds and aquamarines, opals and jade
• The Aurora Butterfly of Peace with 240 loose, real diamonds of rare and unusual colors made into a butterfly design, with a total weight of 166.94 carats

San Diego Air & Space Museum Launches 64K Archival Photos on Flickr.com with BPOC

Balboa Park, San Diego––The Balboa Park Online Collaborative (BPOC) is proud to announce that the San Diego Air and Space Museu has published over 64 thousand images from their vast archives on FlickR.com, making the SDASM the owner of one of the largest online collections of aviation images in the world.

“We have already seen impressive engagement from the public interacting with the images on Flickr, and it’s really just the tip of the iceberg when you consider the fact that the San Diego Air & Space Museum counts over two million images in its library collection,” said BPOC Director Rich Cherry. “ I applaud the museum for being proactive in this arena and jumping on board with us for such an ambitious project.”

Granting public access to the collection online with Flickr.com allows anyone from researchers and school students to aviation enthusiasts, veterans and the general public to view, tag and comment on the images, thereby adding valuable content and context to the collection. SDASM plans to have over 100,000 images digitized and posted online by the end of the year, including foreign and domestic military and civilian aircraft, the Flying Tigers, the Ryan Aeronautical Archive and the entire Pacific Southwest Airline (PSA) archive.

“We are very excited about getting this special collection online. This has been a goal of ours for a long time, and it is fulfilling to finally see it come to fruition,” said Jim Kidrick, President and CEO of the San Diego Air & Space Museum. “Sharing this incredibly unique image archive with the world is really what the mission of the museum is all about!”

After working for ten years to digitize archival images one by one, the SDASM archival team of Alan Renga and Katrina Pescador were able to step up those efforts with a new highly specialized rapid capture station, purchased by BPOC as part of its greater mission to implement new technology, training and web development programs throughout Balboa Park. The rapid capture imaging station is built around a high end DSLR Canon 5D camera rather than a flat bed scanner, which most museums have used for digitization work in the past. In the new, fully portable setup, the camera is attached to a copy stand, which stabilizes the camera and eliminates the need to adjust the exposure. An attached laptop then automatically processes the images. Since the camera is locked in place, archivists can quickly change out images, digitizing upwards of 700 images per day in some case.

The SDASM is one of several cultural institutions within Balboa Park currently working with BPOC to digitize archival images, video, audio and publish their collection data online. The Museum of Photographic Arts, the San Diego Hall of Champions and the San Diego History Center (formerly the San Diego Historical Society) all plan to launch similar online collections in the coming months.

Mother's Day, Space Day and The Prom: Weekend events around Balboa Park and San Diego

Click on the link below to hear our editor Erin Chambers Smith on These Days on KPBS 89.5 talking about what to do this weekend in Balboa Park and around San Diego for Mother's Day. It was a fun show, with Derrik Chin also on talking about some great local music and a vintage high school prom event at the throw-back hot spot The Pearl in Point Loma. TGIF!

Balboa Park's The Prado Gets Noticed by SF Chronicle

The San Francisco Chronicle's food writer denotes The Prado as a "culinary surprise" in a recent article on the food scene in San Diego. Great photo of the gorgeous interior, and a quote from Lesley Cohn at the end:

"... A row of warships lies anchored in indigo waters to my right, the San Diego skyline sparkles in the sun to my left, and straight ahead, a dolphin leaps out of the water at the command of Navy SEALs. It's an impressive panorama, but I'm having a hard time keeping my eyes off my plate..."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/30/CM3F1CRRRN.DTL#ixzz0mcrO1Kka

Balboa Park Goes Hollywood, Gets Airtime from KTLA

Check out this fab feature on our lovely Balboa Park by the KTLA roving reporter Gayle Anderson:

 

A Job in the Park: Balboa Park Museums are Hiring!

Since our last post about job openings in the park went viral (and racked up the most page views in Balboa Park Beat history) we thought we'd make it a regular feature. So here are this week's featured job openings within the park:

• Administrative Assistant -- San Diego Zoo
• Curator of Exhibitions -- San Diego Air & Space Museum
• Database Manager -- San Diego Natural History Museum
• Spanish-language Cultural Writer (paid internship) -- Balboa Park Online Collaborative
• Curator of Photography -- Museum of Photographic Arts

UPDATE: Plaza de Panama Goes Public: City of San Diego Talks Restoration

Update (4/21/10): Stacey LoMedico (Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of San Diego) sent us a copy of the slides from her presentation to the public yesterday. Download Balboa Park Committee 2-4-10 Presentation Final[1].

Ever since the City of San Diego announced its plans to restore the Plaza de Panama roundabout back to a public mall (sans cars and parking spaces), dozens of questions and concerns have emerged from local citizens: Why? How much will it cost? When? Who is in charge? What are the goals? How will it be funded? How long will it take? How can I participate?

In an effort to increase awareness about the project's scope and goals, City of San Diego Park & Recreation Director Stacey LoMedico will narrate a slide presentation on the city’s plans to convert the ‘heart’ of Balboa Park from a parking lot to a public open space this week. View a copy of the official memorandum that outlines the proposal.

Event Details:

Balboa Park Club, 5:00pm, Tuesday April 20, 2010. FREE to the public

Speaker: City of San Diego Park & Recreation Director Stacey LoMedico

Guest Blog Post: Summer Nights in Balboa Park

Performances, exhibits, lectures, films, and special musical interludes fill summer evenings in Balboa Park this year. Many more nighttime events will be available on the Balboa Park website throughout the season.

• Twilight in the Park kicks-off a free concert series on June 15 with  Stars on the Water. Twilight’s live music under the stars has been delighting visitors to the Park for 30 years, and programs range from military bands and Dixieland jazz to big band swing and Latin salsa. Concerts run through August 26, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings from 6:15 to 7:15 p.m. on the stage of the majestic Spreckels Organ Pavilion. Twilight Schedule
• The 23^rd year of the International Summer Organ Festival begins Monday, June 21. The concerts are at 7:30 p.m. every Monday evening through August 30 on world’s largest outdoor pipe organ in Spreckels Organ Pavilion. Internationally renowned concert and theater organists accompany elegant vocal works, jazz, and a silent movie on August 23. Summer Organ Festival Schedule
• The San Diego Museum of Art’s Screen on the Green returns on July 9 with an assortment of films. Dates are select Friday nights and include: July 9, July 23,  August 6 and August 20. Screen on the Green movies begin at 8:00 p.m. on the East lawn and movies are free to the public. 7/9 Reed Mexico Insurgente, (not rated); 7/23, Jason and the Argonauts; 8/6, The King of Masks; 8/20 Moulin Rouge (1952). www.TheSanDiegoMuseumofArt.org
• The Old Globe’s popular 2010 Summer Shakespeare Festival presents three plays performed in rotation beginning June 12 and running through September 26. Two Shakespeare productions: King Lear and Taming of the Shrews, along with Alan Bennett’s celebrated classic The Madness of King George are performed under the stars in the outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre. www.theoldglobe.org
• Nighttime Zoo, the San Diego Zoo’s summer adventure, kicks off June 26 and runs through September 6.  Summer hours are 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. www.sandiegozoo.org
• StarlightTheatre presents musicals favorites for warm summer nights. SUDS: The Rocking 60s Musical begins the season on June 17; The Pajama Game opens on July 15; and everyone’s favorite matchmaker Hello, Dolly!  returns on August 19–all with Starlight’s unique flight-path stop-action format. www.starlighttheatre.org  www.starlighttheatre.org

               

       -- Debbie Petruzzelli, Public Relations Manager for Balboapark.org