If you were given a 10-inch square space and asked to creatively express what “San Jose” meant to you, what would you do? I’m not sure what I would do, either, but I’m glad that about 100 artists took on that challenge. The dynamic range of their results will be on display to start the eighth annual San Jose Day celebration.
The art show at the Noble Gallery, which is Local Color’s home base at 500 S. Almaden Blvd., will take place from 5 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday — that’s 4/08 for area code nerds like me. Many of the artists will be there, and most of the art will be for sale, too.
And that’s just the start of the San Jose Day festivities, which this year will run through Sunday.
Artwork representing San Jose created by about 100 artists will be on display at a show to kick off the eight annual San Jose Day celebration at Noble Gallery in downtown San Jose on April 8, 2024. (Sal Pizarro/Bay Area News Group)
It’s hard to believe nobody came up with the concept for San Jose Day until Haley Cardamon started celebrating her hometown’s culture — and especially its counterculture — in 2017. With its roots in the underground art world of tattoos and graffiti, Cardamon operated San Jose Day as a one-woman show for the first few years before recruiting a team in 2023. This year, she’s handed the reins over to co-directors Jorge “J. Duh” Camacho and Deanna Sisneros.
Camacho, whose murals and apparel designs have helped define the San Jose look, has been creative director of the San Jose Day nonprofit since 2023; Sisneros, meanwhile, knows how to put on a good party. The freelance creative producer serves on the board of the Friends of the Levitt Pavilion San Jose and works as the special events manager for Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County.
Besides the opening art show, here’s what else is going on (you can check for updates at sanjoseday.org):
• Local tattoo artists will be offering special deals and flash tattoo designs to celebrate San Jose all day Wednesday. The participating shops include Blacksuit downtown, Humble Beginnings on The Alameda, Reaper’s Cloak on East Santa Clara Street and Vampire Battle Mansion in Santa Clara.
• Hapa’s Brewing Company at Creekside is hosting a bikes and brews event from 6-9 p.m. Thursday, with vinyl tunes by Flipside Lovers.
• On Friday, there’s a photographer’s walk starting at the famed Foto Express at 304 E. Santa Clara St. and finishing at the Hotel De Anza, the venue for a “fashion show and tell” at 6 p.m.
• The San Jose Day Festival takes place Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with live music, performances, vendors and art at Creekside Socials.
• Events wrap up at 1 p.m. Sunday with an art show and limited beer release (with cans featuring artwork by Jimmy Paints) at Clandestine Brewing at 980 S. First St.
GETTING CREATIVE: April is the month that San Jose’s Office of Cultural Affairs invites residents to show off their creativity through the WeCreate408 campaign. Previous years had daily prompts for creative acts like writing a poem, taking a photograph and the like — but this year there are only weekly prompts. We’re in Week 2, “Tastes Like Home,” which aims to capture the different flavors of San Jose diverse neighborhoods and the people who live there.
Maybe you’ll share a pic of a huge slice of burnt almond cake from Peters Bakery on Alum Rock Avenue, an overflowing sandwich from Mommy’s Banh Mi downtown or a plate of chicken parmigiana from Original Joe’s. Does a Sharkarita count as something that tastes like home in San Jose? Anyway, you get the picture. You can catch up to the prompts and find out what’s coming up at www.wecreate408.org.
HERE COMES HITCH: As far as the Stanford Theatre is concerned, you can’t have enough Alfred Hitchcock in your life. For the fourth year in a row, the Master of Suspense will provide some spring chills for classic film fans at the historic Palo Alto movie palace. This year’s festival kicks off April 17-19 with Cary Grant’s 1959 classic “North By Northwest,” paired with the 1935 thriller “The 39 Steps.”
The seven-week festival manages to pack in all the usual suspects from Hitch’s heyday — “Strangers on a Train” (May 2-3), “Vertigo,” “Rear Window” and “To Catch a Thief” (May 16-17), “Vertigo” and “The Birds” (May 23-24) — but there are some gems from the 1930s and ’40s, too. The festival closes May 30-31 with a bloody good pairing of 1960’s “Psycho” and “Frenzy” from 1972, one of Hitchcock’s last films.
You can get the full schedule at www.stanfordtheatre.org, and if you want to enjoy a few songs before the screaming starts, you can still catch “The Sound of Music” there this weekend.