San Diego’s nonprofit Vanguard Culture announced Monday evening that it is spearheading the launch of San Diego Arts Pass, a three-day passport that will offer residents and tourists access to free and discounted events produced by more 40 San Diego County and Northern Baja cultural organizations, including museums, theaters, classical music presenters, dance companies, galleries, film festivals, comedy clubs and much more. It’s slated to launch in summer 2027.
Inspired by programs like New York City’s Culture Pass and the National Art Pass in the United Kingdom, the San Diego Art Pass will offer purchasers reduced-price or free access to programming from organizations that include the San Diego Symphony, The Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego Opera, La Jolla Music Society, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego Ballet, Fashion Week San Diego, the San Diego Latino Film Festival, UC San Diego ArtPower, San Diego Museum of Art and dozens more.
Susanna Peredo Swap, the founder and executive director of Vanguard Culture, is leading the creation of the San Diego Arts Pass, which will launch in summer 2027. (Kathryn Caudle)
Susanna Peredo Swap, the founder and executive director of 10-year-old Vanguard Culture, said the seeds for the program were planted last summer, after dozens of San Diego County arts and culture organizations were rocked by the unexpected cancellation of federal grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Swap said that there was a clear spirit of collaboration among leaders of local cultural organizations to support and cross-promote each other while also finding new avenues for income.
After six months of interviews with local arts and culture administrators, as well as research on how arts passes work in other cities worldwide, Swap said the Vanguard Culture team developed the framework for San Diego Arts Pass, which will be fine-tuned over the next eight or nine months. She’s now at work bringing in local tourism organizations which will help sell the passes in exchange for a commission.
Swap said the cost of a three-day pass will be about $90, and a seven-day pass would cost about $175. The discounts the passes offers will be available to multiple people in the buyer’s traveling party or family. Swap said she’s asking member organizations to offer a “good, chunky discount” of 25% or 50% off or buy-one-get-one-free deals.
The first-year sales goal will be 7,500 passes, which would generate $10,000 in passive revenue for each member organization, even if no passholder takes advantage of an institution’s offering.
Swap said she expected small arts organizations to be interested in signing up, but was pleasantly surprised when most of the county’s largest arts organizations enthusiastically hopped on board, as well.
“I thought it would be hard to convince the big guys to share revenue when they’re so much bigger. But look at what we just lived through. They understand the value of patrons. More art patrons is good for everyone. A rising tide lifts all boats,” Swap said.
San Diego Symphony is one of the dozens of San Diego County arts organization signed up to participate in the San Diego Arts Pass program. (Todd Rosenberg)
Swap has deep roots in San Diego’s cultural arts scene. She worked in the marketing department at the Old Globe and later curated the visual art program at San Diego International Airport. She launched Vanguard Culture in 2016, then incorporated it as a nonprofit. The organization hosts arts journalism and event information on its website, and it produces its own cultural events.
One of the organization’s most signicant moments occurred in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down all performing arts and cultural organizations countywide. To help keep the community activated and in touch, Swap began hosting Zoom meetings where executive directors of arts organizations could collaborate on ideas and resource-sharing.
As COVID restrictions lifted, Swap’s Zoom meetings evolved into an annual in-person meeting of executive directors each August.
Last August’s meeting focused on the recent withdrawal of NEA grants, the ICE raids that were impacting cultural groups that serve immigrant populations and the existential threat that many organizations were facing.
“It was a very tender moment in the room,” Swap recalled of that meeting. “But we weren’t just venting. We were seeking action. The room was filled with the executive directors of 40 arts institutions and it was a moment when we were all vulnerable. We thought, can we agree that no one’s coming to save us? What if we created something completely new that would become a source of revenue for us?”
The San Diego Arts Pass will differ from some existing passes in San Diego, like Balboa Park Explorer, in that it will offer access to a much larger number of cultural institutions in a wider geographic area. It will also focus solely on cultural programming, rather than theme park tickets, recreational activities and sports events.
There will also be a push in expanding awareness of the region’s indigenous cultural organizations and the wide variety of arts and cultural venues in Tijuana and Northern Baja California, including Art Scene Baja, the Eyaay Ahuun Foundation and Southern California Native Tourism.
Swap said San Diego Arts Pass will make a soft launch next spring to coincide with the Ted2027 conference taking place in San Diego in March. It’s expected to draw as many as 2,000 attendees. Then the pass will go fully live sometime next summer.
For a list of organizations that have signed to up to be partners in San Diego Arts Pass, visit sandiegoartspass.com.