KPBS Midday Edition

San Diego's Top Weekend Arts Events: From Flower Art To Flower Crowns

By Maureen Cavanaugh / KPBS Midday Edition Co-Host, Nina Garin / Arts Calendar Editor and Producer

Published April 12, 2019 at 8:51 AM PDT

This story was published more than 5 years ago.

A photo of San Diego Museum of Art's Rotunda covered in flowers during Art Alive.

San Diego's Top Weekend Arts Events: From Flower Art To Flower Crowns

This weekend is all about flowers, whether it’s the floral arrangements at Art Alive or the flower crowns at Coachella. Plus NPR’s radio program “From the Top” is in town for a live taping.

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This weekend is all about flowers, whether it’s the floral arrangements at Art Alive or the flower crowns at Coachella. Plus NPR’s radio program "From the Top" is in town for a live taping.

Art Alive

Visual Arts, Museums

Spring in San Diego is synonymous with Art Alive, a fundraiser that fills the San Diego Museum of Art with thousands of plants and flowers.

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At this annual event, florists create elaborate arrangements inspired by paintings, sculptures and objects in the museum’s permanent collection. Admission serves as a donation to the museum, plus grants access to the exhibit and events like the kid-friendly Garden of Activities.

Art Alive kicks off on Friday night with Bloom Bash, a chic 21-and-over party with live music, food, cocktails, dancing and even a Ferris wheel.

Details: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday. San Diego Museum of Art, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park. $5 to $25; find tickets to Art Alive.

A flower arrangement part of the Art Alive exhibit at the San Diego Museum of Art is pictured in this undated photo.

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A flower arrangement part of the Art Alive exhibit at the San Diego Museum of Art is pictured in this undated photo.

Courtesy of the San Diego Museum of Art

A flower arrangement part of the Art Alive exhibit at the San Diego Museum of Art is pictured in this undated photo.

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A flower arrangement part of the Art Alive exhibit at the San Diego Museum of Art is pictured in this undated photo.

Courtesy of the San Diego Museum of Art

A display part of the Art Alive exhibit at the San Diego Museum of Art is pictured in this undated photo.

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A display part of the Art Alive exhibit at the San Diego Museum of Art is pictured in this undated photo.

Courtesy of the San Diego Museum of Art

A display part of the Art Alive exhibit at the San Diego Museum of Art is pictured in this undated photo.

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A display part of the Art Alive exhibit at the San Diego Museum of Art is pictured in this undated photo.

Courtesy of the San Diego Museum of Art

A display part of the Art Alive exhibit at the San Diego Museum of Art is pictured in this undated photo.

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A display part of the Art Alive exhibit at the San Diego Museum of Art is pictured in this undated photo.

Courtesy of the San Diego Museum of Art

People attending the Bloom Brush party in Balboa Park are pictured in this undated photo.

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People attending the Bloom Brush party in Balboa Park are pictured in this undated photo.

Courtesy of the San Diego Museum of Art

"From the Top"

Music

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"From the Top" is a weekly music show on NPR that spotlights young, classically-trained musicians. This weekend the La Jolla Music Society's newly opened Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center will host a live taping of the show in its Baker-Baum Concert Hall.

The show will spotlight musicians from the San Diego Youth Symphony Chamber Orchestra. The group will perform selections by Chopin and Kabalevsky’s Comedian’s Suite.

The La Jolla taping will be hosted by violinist Vijay Gupta, a MacArthur “genius” Fellow who brings classical music to homeless and poverty-stricken areas.

Details: 6 p.m. Saturday. Baker-Baum Concert Hall at The Conrad, 7600 Fay Ave., La Jolla. $28 to $68; find tickets to "From the Top."

Coachella

Music, Visual Arts

Get ready for your Instagram feed to be filled with photos of pink sunsets, flower crowns and stylish people because the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival kicks off this weekend.

About 20% of the music festival attendees come from San Diego. This year there will be high-profile sets by Ariana Grande, Childish Gambino, Janelle Monáe, Tame Impala, Weezer and many more.

Tickets for the first weekend are sold out, but you can still find passes for Coachella’s second weekend - April 19 through 21. And don’t forget, you can stay home and watch the concerts without crowds or sunburns on YouTube’s Coachella channel.

Details: Friday through Sunday, Empire Polo Club, Indio. $429 to $999; find tickets to Coachella's second weekend.

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Maureen Cavanaugh

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Maureen Cavanaugh has been a familiar voice for KPBS listeners for more than 15 years, serving in a variety of capacities including announcer, host, and producer. As host of KPBS Midday Edition, Maureen has interviewed a wide range of notables, such as comedienne Sandra Bernhardt, actor John Lequizamo, author Chuck Palahniuk, composer Marvin Hamlisch, artist Robert Irwin, and designer Zandra Rhodes. But of all the interviews Maureen has conducted, her most special was with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. Before joining KPBS in 1997, she worked as a news anchor for KSDO and KOGO News Radio in San Diego. While working for commercial radio stations in San Diego and in Salt Lake City, Utah, Maureen reported on both hard news and lifestyle features. Maureen has received three "Golden Mike" awards from the Radio and TV News Association of Southern California for economic reporting and breaking news. She has also received a "Best of Show" and “Best Radio Newscast” awards from the San Diego Press Club and the "Flo" Award from Public Radio Program Directors Association for Best Public Radio Announcer in a large market. Maureen is a native of Queens, New York, but after more than 20 years in San Diego she feels she qualifies as a real Southern Californian.

What do you want to hear host Jade Hindmon talk about on Midday?

Nina Garin

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Nina Garin previously produced and edited the KPBS/Arts calendar. She also wrotes the weekly KPBS/Arts Newsletter and produced arts segments for Midday Edition. Before joining KPBS, Nina worked for nearly 20 years as an arts and entertainment reporter at The San Diego Union-Tribune. Along with covering the local arts community, she created the "Top Weekend Events" online calendar, profiled influential San Diegans for the "One-on-One" series, and reported live from Comic-Con, New York Fashion Week, and the Academy Awards. Nina is a native San Diegan, raised in Chula Vista and Tijuana, who was exposed to local arts at an early age. As a child, she tagged along to her mother's photography classes, taught by the late Michael Schnorr. She went to elementary school blocks away from Balboa Park and visited all the museums at least twice. While earning her English degree at San Diego State University, she participated in poetry readings and covered local music for The Daily Aztec. Nina has two daughters who study ballet, piano, and musical theater. She spends her free time pinning hair buns and perfecting stage makeup. Her husband, Matthew, is also a writer.

See stories by Nina Garin