2023 Art Alive set to bloom at San Diego Museum of Art

A floral arrangement sits next to a sculpture that inspired it

Nearly 100 floral arrangements themed to paintings in the museum’s collection will be on display March 31 through April 2

San Diego Union-Tribune

March 25, 2023 12:16 PM PT

The San Diego Museum of Art will bloom with life next weekend when the annual Art Alive celebration takes place inside its galleries.

From March 31 through April 2, the museum will host some of its biggest fundraisers of the year: Art Alive — a public exhibition featuring fresh floral displays inspired by artwork in the museum’s collection — and the annual Bloom Bash on March 31.

A flower display next to a painting at the San Diego Museum of Art.

First up in Art Alive. This year’s event will feature nearly 100 floral arrangements set up next to artworks on the walls. This year’s theme is “Modern Women,” spotlighting works of art by female artists, including Sonia Delaunay, Françoise Gilot, and key abstract expressionists Lee Krasner and Elaine de Kooning. Their works will be the inspiration for displays created from flowers, greenery and other natural materials by some of the region’s top floral designers.

Art Alive will also feature original creations by artists Amanda Witucki, Laurie Shapiro and Natalie Gill. Gill is a California floral artist who is designing this year’s signature floral centerpiece in the museum’s two-story rotunda.

Tickets to Art Alive will be sold by timed entry. Ticket holders will have free access to the museum’s Garden of Activities. The all-ages, hands-on art projects and presentations will take place March 31-April 2 in the museum’s outdoor sculpture garden.

As a prelude to Art Alive, the museum is also hosting a black-tie Art Alive 2023 Premiere Dinner at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. Tickets to the dinner are $3,000.

The Bloom Bash fundraising gala outside the San Diego Museum of Art.

Bloom Blash will take place on the evening of March 31. The outdoor party in the Plaza de Panama will include live performances, dancing, tastings from 30 local restaurants, a Ferris wheel, art installations and free admission to Art Alive.

“We are thrilled to celebrate art and culture with the San Diego community and beyond,” Roxana Velásquez, the museum’s executive director and CEO, said in a statement. “It is quite special to be able to juxtapose classic works of art with the innovation and beauty that modern floral artists bring to life. It is our hope through this collaboration of art forms, all our guests can gain a new sense of appreciation and wonder for nature and art combined.”

Art Alive

When: noon to 5 p.m. March 31; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. April 1 and 2

Timed-entry tickets: $40 adults; $5 ages 7 to 17; free for children 6 and under

Garden of Activities

When: noon to 4 p.m. April 1 and 2

Admission: Free with Art Alive admission

Bloom Bash

When: 7 p.m. to midnight March 31

Tickets: $300

Where: San Diego Museum of Art, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park

Online: sdmart.org

Events Art

Pam Kragen

Pam Kragen is the arts and entertainment editor, as well as the chief theater, dining and opera critic, for the San Diego Union-Tribune. She joined the Union-Tribune staff in October 2012 after 27 years at the North County Times, where she served as the Arts & Features Editor, as well as the paper’s longtime arts writer and theater and opera critic. She is the co-founder of the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from San Diego State University and completed fellowships in theater criticism at the University of Southern California and opera-classical music criticism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. And in 2022, she was chosen as one of the fellows in the prestigious National Critics Institute, run by the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterf, Conn.