{"id":16035,"date":"2019-03-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.metroactive.com\/best-of-silicon-valley\/2019\/Art-and-Culture.html"},"modified":"2022-09-19T12:17:04","modified_gmt":"2022-09-19T19:17:04","slug":"art-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metrosiliconvalley.com\/art-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Art & Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Introduction<\/a> | Food & Drink<\/a> | Music & Nightlife<\/a> | Goods & Services<\/a> | Art & Culture<\/a>
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Cinequest 2019. Photo by Greg Ramar<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

OVERALL <\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Museum<\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Jose Museum of Art<\/b>
110 S Market St, San Jose<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art<\/b>
560 S First St, San Jose<\/i>
MACLA
510 S First St, San Jose<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Holiday Celebration<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christmas in the Park <\/b>
Plaza de Cesar Chavez, San Jose<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fantasy of Lights, Vasona Lake County Park<\/b>
333 Blossom Hill Rd, Los Gatos<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obon Festival<\/b>
Japantown, N 5th St, San Jose<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Film Festival<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cinequest<\/b>
cinequest.org<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Jose Short Film Festival<\/b>
sjsff.com<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silicon Valley African Film Festival<\/b>
svaff.org<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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School of Visual Philosophy. Photo by Nick Veronin<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Best Place to Learn an Iron Age Trade
School of Visual Philosophy<\/b>
1065 The Alameda, San Jose<\/i>
In an ecosystem where new and shiny products are constantly hatching with zippy and expensively conceived monikers like Fitbit or Slack, a name like the School of Visual Philosophy falls on the ear as positively 19th-century. And yet, the SVP fits as snugly into 2019 as any other Silicon Valley startup. It’s a bit like a WeWork for artists. The school rents out 32 small studios to painters, printmakers, sculptors and other visual artists, as well as larger spaces to a couple of small companies. And perhaps most aspirationally, the SVP is a school that provides instruction in a number of decidedly old-school art forms such as woodworking, bronze casting, painting and printmaking. And even in the midst of the world’s most prominent high-tech corridor, this new arts school is offering training in a technology that can be traced back to the iron age: blacksmithing. Yori and Dana Seeger, the husband-and-wife duo who run the School of Visual Philosophy, have built a place not just for skilled artists (the talented folks who rent studio spaces)\u0097but for those who want to create something away from their keyboards and glowing monitors and put their backs into a passion project. Many enrolled in their analog classes have day jobs as engineers, and one of the school’s most popular draws is its bladesmithing class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Historical Collection<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum <\/b>
1660 Park Ave, San Jose<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Computer History Museum<\/b>
1401 N Shoreline Blvd, Mountain View<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Campbell Historical Museum <\/b>
51 N Central Ave, Campbell<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Dance Company<\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Jose Dance Theatre <\/b>
1756 Junction Ave, San Jose <\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Los Gatos Ballet <\/b>
630 University Ave, Los Gatos<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dance Attack<\/b>
Los Gatos & Sunnyvale<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Free Film School
Celluloid Dreams <\/b>
90.5 KSJS-FM, Mondays 5pm<\/i>
Twenty-three years after they began programming at SJSU’s radio station, the cabal of Peter Canavese, Larry Jakubecz, Dennis Kwiatkowski and Tim Sika continue to provide thoughtful yet vivid commentary on the film scene. They’ve given help to innumerable local filmmakers. The collaborators have interviewed scads of directors and stars on the air, including Brie Larson, Julie Andrews, Martin Sheen and Francis Ford Coppola. Canavese (of the website grouchoreviews.com) provides learned commentary on the side. If you can’t pick up something about the state of the art, its history, the culture and the technique of film from Celluloid Dreams, you simply aren’t listening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Theater Company<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City Lights Theater Company<\/b>
529 S 2nd St, San Jose<\/i>
TIE<\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Jose Stage Company<\/b>
490 S 1st St, San Jose<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

El Teatro Campesino<\/b>
705 4th St, San Juan Bautista<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tabard Theatre Company<\/b>
29 N San Pedro St, San Jose<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Musical Theater Company<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broadway San Jose <\/b>
255 S Almaden Blvd, San Jose<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CMT San Jose<\/b>
271 S Market St San Jose<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Bay Musical Theatre <\/b>
13777 Fruitvale Ave, Saratoga<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Escape Room<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Psychotronix Film Festival <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Best Place to Hotwire a Time Machine
Psychotronix Film Festival <\/b>
7pm March 30, Room 5015, Foothill College<\/i>
Oh, to be a chrononaut… to explore different time realms, punch dinosaurs and save Ol’ Honest Abe. (“Don’t go to Ford’s Theater tonight, Mr. President\u0097I saw Our American Cousin already, and it stinks!” “Tarnation, Mrs. Lincoln loves John Wilkes Booth. She’ll be mad.” “Indeed she will, but that’s another story!”). Sadly, time travel and universe-ending paradoxes are still relegated to the realm of science fiction. However, anyone seeking to burrow into the past can show up for the semi-annual Psychotronix Film Festival at Foothill College. The next one is slated for March 30, when KFJC’s Robert Emmett hosts “The vinyl of video”\u0097evocative 16mm reels capturing the matchless strangeness of yore in now-forbidden commercials, primordial music videos featuring long dead sex kittens, and other strange beguilements that the citizens of the past once enjoyed. Don’t judge them too harshly, and try not to step on any butterflies this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beat the Lock<\/b>
San Jose & Santa Clara<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Castle<\/b>
1967 O’Toole Wy, San Jose<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Escape Game 911<\/b>
20 Harold Ave, Santa Clara<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PENINSULA <\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Local Festival<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mountain View Art & Wine Festival<\/b>
Mountain View<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Los Altos Art & Wine Festival<\/b>
Los Altos<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palo Alto Festival of the Arts<\/b>
Palo Alto<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WEST VALLEY<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Local Festival<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oktoberfest<\/b>
Campbell<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boogie<\/b>
Campbell <\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Music in the Park <\/b>
Los Gatos<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Terminator Salvation<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Best Way Visit Post-Apocalyptic L.A. on Your Lunch Break
Terminator Salvation <\/b>
Century 20, Oakridge, 925 Blossom Hill Rd, San Jose<\/i>
Downtown L.A., which used to have a reputation for flophouses and wino bars, is really coming along, with museums, chic high-end restaurants, hotels and an army of metal murder machines with red-eyed chrome skulls for faces. Terminator Salvation: Fight for the Future takes you\u0097via a VR headset and motion sensing accessories\u0097on a time- and space-breaching journey to the City of Angels, sometime after Skynet became self-aware and took care of the cluttering meatbag humans who were failing to spark joy. After getting suited up and going through a five-minute drill, you and as many as three companions are temporarily disguised as killer droids, the better to infiltrate a hive of these cybernet demons. In between blasting the monsters to pieces, be sure to take in the many sights, including half-blown up buildings, tottering water towers and bullet riddled cars. You’ll see why people say, “I Love L.A.!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CENTRAL VALLEY<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Local Festival<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Santa Clara Art and Wine<\/b>
Santa Clara<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunnyvale Art and Wine<\/b>
Sunnyvale<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cherry Blossom Festival<\/b>
Cupertino<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SAN JOSE\/SOUTH VALLEY<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Local Festival<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gilroy Garlic Festival <\/b>
Gilroy<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Jose Obon Festival<\/b>
San Jose <\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Jose Jazz Festival<\/b>
San Jose<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Place to Get Outside Your Comfort Zone
3Below Theaters & Lounge <\/b>
288 S 2nd St, San Jose<\/i>
San Jose’s only regularly scheduled downtown theater features some seriously downtown programming. Take, for instance, the new documentary on Robert Mapplethorpe currently screening, or the upcoming punk rock-based drama, Her Smell, with the amazing
Elisabeth Moss, who went all the way into David Lynch-like horror in Us. Coming soon is Molly Shannon’s take on the life and secret love of Emily Dickinson. 3Below’s brave picks have so far included the morbid, but in a good way, To Dust and the searing Lebanese drama Capernaum. 3Below is what an independent cinema ought to be. It’s risky, eclectic and surprising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FREMONT & MILPITAS<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Local Festival<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fremont Festival of the Arts<\/b>
Fremont<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Milpitas Backyard Boogie <\/b>
Milpitas<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Celebrate Milpitas <\/b>
Milpitas<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Torch-Bearing Dance Organization
New Ballet School<\/b>
40 N 1st St, San Jose<\/i>
After Silicon Valley Ballet threw in the tutu in the summer of 2016, Dalia Rawson, director of the ballet’s training school, didn’t despair. She saw an opportunity. Pulling together a team culled from the ashes of SV Ballet, she launched a new professional ballet training program with a focus on dancer health and child development. The New Ballet School was born. Since then, Rawson has grown the school and through the organization’s Studio Company, she’s worked to bring ballet into the 21st century. Her experiments have included beginning productions with tutorials that catch the audience up on the visual language of ballet, and providing a digital accompaniment\u0097a livecast\u0097to performances, which allows patrons to listen to real-time commentary about the performance they are watching on their personal handsets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Introduction<\/a> | Food & Drink<\/a> | Music & Nightlife<\/a> | Goods & Services<\/a> | Art & Culture<\/a>
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Here in the South Bay we have home-grown mixologists, shaking up innovative cocktails and mad-genius hop-heads, brewing all shades and flavors of craft beer. There are entrepreneurial hair stylists and internationally recognized tattoo artists, who look to the local population as their walking canvases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14575,"featured_media":16036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[1919],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n