Vanguard Culture

Da Vinci’s First Flight
2025-02-01 - 2026-02-01
The world has long been captivated by Leonardo da Vinci’s remarkable inventions and insatiable curiosity. Now, this fascination takes flight in a groundbreaking exhibition titled Da Vinci’s First Flight, presented by the Artisans of Florence, on behalf of the Museum of Leonardo da Vinci.
Set to make its world premiere at the San Diego Air & Space Museum in February 2025, this immersive experience invites visitors to explore the incredible story of Zoroastro of Peretola, the young apprentice who may have been the first test pilot for one of Da Vinci’s legendary flying machines.
February 1, 2025 – February 2026
San Diego Air & Space Museum
2001 Pan American Plaza
San Diego, CA 92101

Stories that Connect Us: Selections from the OMA Collection
2025-02-08 - 2025-08-31
The growing collection of over 300 works of art at Oceanside Museum of Art reflects the museum’s devotion to preserving the art and stories of Southern California artists. The Stories that Connect Us: Selections from the OMA Collection, is a sampling of works from 35 artists ranging in style from portraiture to abstraction that highlights the diverse genres of art OMA has presented over the past 28 years. This exhibition explores narratives surrounding the development of the museums exhibitions and the relationships they have formed with artists and collectors. Many of the featured artists such as James Hubbell, Ethel Greene, Italo Scanga, Roland Reiss, Jen Trute, and William Glen Crooks and have had groundbreaking exhibitions at OMA. Additional artists, such as John Baldessari, Richard Allen Morris, Gail Roberts and Robin Bright, examine the special focus OMA has on collecting prominent artists from San Diego and the important role the museum plays in the artistic growth and education of regional art.
EXHIBITION CELEBRATION
Saturday, March 1, 2025
5:00-7:00pm
Oceanside Museum of Art
704 Pier View Way
Oceanside, CA 92054

Doctor Who Worlds of Wonder: Where Science Meets Fiction
2025-03-15 - 2026-03-14
It’s time for Whovians to dust off their sonic screwdrivers because San Diego’s Comic-Con Museum, located inside historic Balboa Park, has announced that tickets for the highly anticipated U.S. premiere of the Doctor Who Worlds of Wonder: Where Science Meets Fiction exhibit are on sale now. Tickets allow guests to explore the entire museum—and for Doctor Who fans of all generations to be the first to see this exhibit in the U.S., which opens March 15, 2025—and can be purchased at comic-con.org/museum.
The exhibit features an extensive array of original props and sets, and a unique collection of behind-the-scenes resource materials from the world’s longest-running science fiction show. This multi-sensory exhibit invites visitors to experience the Doctor’s adventures, come face to face with a selection of iconic characters, and explore some of the worlds visited on screen, all while learning about the real-life science behind the show’s memorable moments. A wealth of scientific “wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey” topics like the concept of time travel, artificial intelligence, DNA manipulation, and cloning can be explored throughout the exhibit.
Highlights of the exhibit include:

A Time Vortex Corridor and TARDIS Tech Room where visitors can examine the technological capabilities of the Doctor’s gadgets and gizmos, including a collection of authentic sonic screwdrivers

The Monster Vault that houses the Doctor’s most terrifying alien adversaries, including the Cybermen and the Weeping Angels (Plus a simulator that allows visitors to change their voice to sound like a Dalek!)

Exclusive Doctor Who Worlds of Wonder merchandise, exclusive to Comic-Con Museum

Comic-Con Museum
2131 Pan American Plaza
San Diego, CA, 92101

Fashioning an Icon: Virgin of Guadalupe Imagery in Textile Design
2025-04-05 - 2025-09-07
Inspired by her long history of depiction on textiles, these works explore the Virgin of Guadalupe’s endurance as an iconic cultural symbol fashioned through creative expression.

Fashioning an Icon: Virgin of Guadalupe Imagery in Textile Design celebrates her representation on clothing and adornment. Objects range from traditional garments created by over 70 artists from Mexico, to a selection of local artistic interpretations of la Virgen. Inspired by her long history of depiction on textiles, these works explore the Virgin of Guadalupe’s endurance as an iconic cultural symbol fashioned through creative expression.
April 5 – September 7, 2025

INTIKA: Men in Textiles
2025-05-10 - 2025-10-04
Image: Genaro Morena

The INTIKA exhibition highlights the rich and evolving tradition of male textile artists, from the master weavers of Taquile, Peru, to contemporary creators redefining the medium. On view are diverse works that incorporate unconventional materials, sculpture, and installation art. The show explores the role of textiles in storytelling, healing, politics, and gender identity across cultures. Recognized by UNESCO, Taquile’s textile legacy anchors the exhibit’s historical context. Curated by Armando Garcia-Orso and Natalie Gonzalez.
Curated by Armando Garcia-Orso, VMOTA Curatorial and Education Manager
in collaboration with Natalie Gonzalez of Oceanside Museum of Art
May 10 – October 4, 2025
Visions Museum of Textile Art
2825 Dewey Road, Suite 100
San Diego, CA 92106

Embracing the Mystery
2025-06-14 - 2025-08-17
Embracing the Mystery is a juried exhibition curated by students in the Professional Practices class at Palomar College. The exhibition delves into the unsettling and unknown aspects of life, exploring existential questions such as: What is the past? What is the future? What is consciousness? What are dreams? As Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us, “The present moment is the only moment available to us, and it is the door to all moments.” Life is a mystery; the only tangible reality is the ever-changing present.
The exhibition presents a collection of two-dimensional works — including photography, video, painting, and drawing — by forty-two artists. The artists explore both internal and external landscapes, reflecting on themes such as isolation, exploration, entrapment, love, and the human body. Works like Lina Al’s Self Love and Jim Eighmey’s Rio Frio Caves, Belize exemplify the diverse subject matter.
June 14 – August 17, 2025
CA Center for the Arts Escondido
340 N. Escondido Blvd.
Escondido, CA 92025

XICANA! San Diego
2025-06-21 - 2025-11-02
XICANA! San Diego explores the powerful intersections of art, activism, and cultural identity through the lens of over one hundred Chicana artists from across Southern California. Curated by Dulce Stein and organized by ESMoA in collaboration with the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, this exhibition will celebrate resilience, identity, and vision through work in all media, including painting, textiles, photography, sculpture, performance, film, and poetry.
See the preview HERE.
June 21 – November 2, 2025
CA Center for the Arts Escondido
340 N. Escondido Blvd.
Escondido, CA 92025

25 years of The Hapa Project
2025-07-04 - 2026-07-05
Artist and author Kip Fulbeck started The Hapa Project in 2001, photographing over 1,200 individuals who identified as multiracial, including their handwritten response to the question, “What are you?”
hapa.me – 25 years of The Hapa Project features Fulbeck’s photographic portraits as he revisits the cultural and artistic significance of the work, its impact on the participants, and the changing awareness of multiracial identity in the United States. Nearly 25 years later, Fulbeck has re-photographed 130 of the original participants and asked them to write new personal statements, exploring how our self-definitions and perspectives change over time.
A selection of portraits from The Hapa Project were first featured at the Museum of Us in the exhibition Race: Are We So Different? In this expanded exhibition, visitors are invited to reflect on what it means to be you.
The Museum of Us invites visitors to participate in The Hapa Project through an interactive element in the exhibition. On select dates, visitors can have their portraits taken on a polaroid camera in the exhibit and write their own personal statement responding to the question, “What are you?” Portraits will then be displayed in the exhibit.
Friday and Saturday, July 4-5, at 11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. and 3-4 p.m.
The Museum of Us
1350 El Prado
San Diego, CA 92101

ACCESS
2025-07-05 - 2025-08-15
Possibility II by Gabrielle Berens
Access is a group exhibition featuring materially and conceptually diverse works by multidisciplinary artists Carolina Danu, Yena Kim, Nanzi Muro, Gabrielle Berens and Philip Brun Del Re.
This exhibition presents the possibilities of visual arts studies in higher education. Danu, Kim, Muro, Berens, and Brun Del Re all current or recently graduated MFA students, strongly believe in the need for diversity in the arts.
Through printmaking, textiles, ceramics, digital graphics and illustrations, paintings, and woven sculpture, the selected works celebrate the evolving practices of these emerging artists and will serve to inspire the possibilities of material expression. The title of the exhibition, Access, represents access to arts education, access to facilities, access to community, as well as access to expression through a variety of media and materials.

On view: July 5 – August 15, 2025
Bonita Historical Society
4355 Bonita Road
Bonita, CA 91902

Conversations in Art: Dignity
2025-07-11 - 2026-01-04
Conversations in Art is an initiative that invites local artists to engage in meaningful dialogue with works from our permanent collection and on loan to the Museum. This first installment centers on the theme of Dignity—what it means, how we recognize it, and how art allows us to reflect on it in ourselves and others. Artists Hugo Crosthwaite, Anthony Sigala, Cat Chiu Phillips, and Shinpei Takeda with The AjA Project have created new works inspired by pieces in the Museum collection.
Through inclusive, interactive elements, visitors are encouraged to engage personally and share their own perspectives, helping shape a collective understanding of dignity.
Featured: Anthony Sigala, Boleros (detail), 2025. Acrylic on canvas. Private collection. Courtesy of the artist. © Anthony Sigala.
July 11, 2025–January 4, 2026
MOPA @ SDMA
1649 El Prado, San Diego, CA 92101
Across from the Lily Pond

Infinite Rivers
2025-07-12 - 2025-09-13
Casa Familiar presents Infinite Rivers, an exhibition honoring ancestral craftsmanship and evolving artisanal traditions across generations. Featuring Indigenous artists from the Kumeyaay, Zapotec, Huichol, and other communities, as well as artists from San Diego, Tijuana, Lebanon, and Colombia. Curated by Francisco Eme, the show runs July 12–Sept. 13, 2025, at The FRONT Gallery in San Ysidro. Opening reception: July 12, 5–7 PM, with a special appearance by Colombian artist and musician Andrea Echeverri.
Opening reception: July 12 from 5 to 7 pm,
The FRONT Gallery in San Ysidro
147W San Ysidro Blvd
San Ysidro, 92173

FABULOUS FIBER
2025-07-27 - 2025-11-02
FABULOUS FIBER is an immersive exhibition that celebrates the boundless creativity of textile art. Showcasing a range of techniques from quilting and crochet to tufting and embroidery, the show reimagines traditional fiber crafts in bold, contemporary ways. With richly textured and sculptural works, the exhibition offers a tactile antidote to our screen-driven world. Each piece tells a unique story, inviting viewers into a vibrant, sensory experience. A must-see for lovers of craft, color, and innovation. Curated by Kate Stern.
July 26–November 2, 2025

Oceanside Museum of Art
704 Pier View Way
Oceanside, CA 92054

A Body of Work
2025-07-31 - 2025-09-06
A Body of Work explores the dancer’s body as both the instrument and the archive of their art. Through movement, the body creates the dance—and through muscle memory, it stores it. The body becomes both the medium and the message.
This photographic project is the result of three years of dedicated work with over 20 dancers from across San Diego County. These artists represent a rich diversity of ages, ethnicities, body types, genders, and dance styles—including Hip Hop, Ballet, Modern Dance, and Flamenco.
Photographed at close range and under controlled lighting, the images present the body in ways that are at once intimately familiar and curiously abstract. The goal is to invite viewers to see the human form anew—stripped of cultural assumptions and commercial distortions. A Body of Work seeks to restore a sense of wonder and innocence to the most familiar of all objects: our own bodies.
July 31 to September 6, 2025
Reception: Saturday, August 9th 4-6pm

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