San Diego weekend arts events: $5 Mingei night, 'Clothes Story,' 'CLUE' and more

Visual art

Mingei International Museum: Five After Five
Access all the exhibits at the Mingei (including the final weekend of "Fashioning an Icon: Virgin of Guadalupe Imagery in Textile Design") for just $5 during extended hours, 5 to 8 p.m. Friday. Also on view are the exhibits "Across the Spooniverse," "Student Craft 2025: Icons," "Historic Footprints: Native American Ledger Drawings from Fort Marion" and "Layered Narratives: Quilted Stories of Gender and Race at the 1876 Centennial."

Arts & Culture

Worn, painted, reimagined: The power and complexity of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Julia Dixon Evans

Anthony Wallace

Listen • 33:44

Don't miss the armadillo-themed folk art (what is not to love?) exhibit "Tuck and Roll: The Art of Armadillos" on the always-free first floor. The gift shop and restaurant, ARTIFACT, will also be open. Plus, youth under 17 are always free.

5-8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 5 | Mingei International Museum, 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park | Free-$5 | MORE INFO

Courtesy of Mesa College Art Gallery

'Clothes Story'
To kick off the school year, the San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery and museum studies program open the exhibit "Clothes Story," curated by Kenneth Green, an Atlanta-based designer. The fashion selections in the exhibit trace the history of style, clothing, dressmaking and — inevitably — women's aesthetics, work and place in history. For art gallery special event nights, parking is free in staff spaces in Mesa College Lot 1.

Reception: 4-7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6. On view through Oct. 16 | Mesa College Art Gallery, 7250 Mesa College Drive, Linda Vista | Free | MORE INFO

'Resistance in Motion: Art, Activism, and Belonging'
A new exhibit at City College's art gallery celebrates the art of resistance, collecting protest signs, zines, videos and more from artists, activists and community workers from diverse backgrounds. The opening reception is scheduled for 5 p.m. Sept. 18.

Sept. 4 - Oct. 23 | City Gallery at City College, AH 314, 1508 C St., downtown | Free | MORE INFO

2025 Oceanside Plein Air Festival
Every year, Oceanside Museum of Art hosts a festival of plein air art — a process of painting a canvas outdoors, in front of the subject, from start to finish, sans studio. The weeklong festival kicks off Saturday with an all-day painting event with vendors, followed by an evening "Paint Out" event at the historic seaside Robert's Cottages. Events continue daily through Sept. 13.

Sept. 6-13 | Oceanside Museum of Art, 701 Pier View Way, Oceanside | Free-$115 | MORE INFO

MallART workshops: Printing with the Sun
Luisa Martínez and Ana Villalpando will lead families, artists and mallgoers in basic 2D and 3D cyanotype printmaking using found objects, photosensitive paper and sunlight.

10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Sept. 6 | Chula Vista Center Mall, 555 Broadway, Suite 1021, Chula Vista | Free | MORE INFO

Homegrown ArtBeat
For a one-night only event, artists, performers and musicians will come together to celebrate the region's cultural scene, with visual art exhibits, live painting by Concetta Antico and Scarlett Baily, musical performances by Edmund Cosico and Joe Dreamz, clay artmaking with Karen Cadiero-Kaplan and lots more.

5-7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6 | Union Hall Gallery, 2323 Broadway, Suite 201, Golden Hill | $46.19 | MORE INFO

RETNA: 'Love Letter | Carta de Amor'
Globally acclaimed street artist RETNA opens a new exhibit at Madison Gallery with large-scale paintings and installation works exploring themes of love and loss. While the opening reception with the artist is scheduled for 6 to 9 p.m. Sept. 20, the exhibit opened this week.

Courtesy of Madison Gallery

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, Sept. 3-Oct. 11 | Madison Gallery, 320 S. Cedros Ave., Suite 200, Solana Beach | Free | MORE INFO

Books

'Desire, Calling'
Verbatim Books will host a reading with four LGBTQ+ writers followed by a full-on dance party on the bookstore floor. Writers include Mac Crane, Carly DeMento, Evelyn Gill and Keetje Kuipers. The free, all-ages event is a fundraiser for TransFamily Support Services, a nonprofit resource center for transgender and nonbinary youth and their families.

7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6 | Verbatim Books, 3793 30th St., North Park | Free | MORE INFO

Pages in the Park
Sponsored by Poets & Writers, San Diego County Library, Reading Rhythms San Diego and County of San Diego Parks and Recreation, the afternoon includes a park ranger storytime, plus readings from Paola Capó-García, San Diego's poet laureate, and Margarita Pintado Burgos — along with plenty of unstructured time to sit under a tree and read. Bring blankets or lawn chairs.

2-5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7 | Heritage Park, 2454 Heritage Park Row, Old Town | Free | MORE INFO

Theater

'CLUE: A Walking Mystery' 
A mix of murder mystery, scavenger hunt and interactive theater, ArtPower's "CLUE: A Walking Mystery" guides groups on foot through the art-filled campus of UC San Diego to solve a case in groups of 20.

Through Sept. 28. Dates and times vary | UC San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla | $22-$40 | MORE INFO

'Spring Awakening'
Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater's 2006 rock musical won eight Tony Awards and a Grammy. Based on an 1891 play by German playwright Frank Wedekind, the story follows teenagers as they face the joys, desires, heartbreaks and pain of coming of age. Directed at Oceanside Theatre Company by Gerilyn Brault.

Through Sept. 14 | Brooks Theater, 217 N. Coast Highway, Oceanside | $40 | MORE INFO

Small Town Murder Live!
Comedians and podcasters James Pietragallo and Jimmie Whisman will bring their true crime comedy podcast, Small Town Murder, to the Observatory for a live show.

8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6 | Observatory, 2891 University Ave., North Park | $67+ | MORE INFO

Film

'Yintah'
El Salon Theatre in San Ysidro and Mexico City-based documentary nonprofit Ambulante present a screening of the powerful documentary "Yintah," which explores a decade in Canada’s ancestral Wet'suwet'en territory as Indigenous leaders strive to reoccupy their land in the face of gas pipeline developments. Special binational community fact: The group will also screen the film in Mexico City the same evening.

6 p.m. doors / 6:30 p.m. showtime Thursday, Sept. 4 | El Salon Theatre, 114 W. Hall Ave., San Ysidro | Free | MORE INFO

Music

1st Sunday Concert with the Kahlil Childs Quartet
Local jazz saxophone prodigy Kahlil Childs brings his quartet to a free performance at the Encinitas Library, performing original compositions. Childs studies with Charles McPherson and has been part of the beloved Young Lions Jazz Conservatory helmed by Gilbert Castellanos.

2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7 | Encinitas Library, 540 Cornish Drive, Encinitas | Free | MORE INFO

Autumn Concert Series: Jeremy Kurtz-Harris
Take a late lunch and catch a free concert at the Coronado Library featuring solos from a somewhat unlikely instrument, the double bass. San Diego Symphony principal bassist Jeremy Kurtz-Harris will perform a repertoire to show off the melodic possibilities of the double bass, inspired by folk and world music.

1 p.m. Friday, Sept. 5 | Coronado Public Library, 640 Orange Ave., Coronado | Free | MORE INFO