{"id":185436,"date":"2025-09-27T14:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T14:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/185436\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T14:01:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T14:01:08","slug":"stephanie-dinkins-ai-driven-data-trust-transforms-san-joses-ica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/185436\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephanie Dinkins’ AI-driven “Data Trust” transforms San Jose’s ICA"},"content":{"rendered":"

The visitors at the Institute of Contemporary Art last Friday can say they were there when one of the most innovative installations in the city\u2019s history was unveiled. It\u2019s Data Trust, a project by Brooklyn-based artist Stephanie Dinkins that has transformed the downtown San Jose gallery into an immersive, AI-driven environment.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about land and history and storytelling and technology, but it\u2019s really about people. Dinkins, who was named one of Time\u2019s Most Influential People in AI, interviewed people in African American communities in the Bay Area to get the oral histories that the project\u2019s artificial intelligence uses to generate immersive projections on 14-foot walls \u2014 images the move and evolve.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s participatory, too, as visitors can tell their own stories into one of several red telephones \u2014 yes, real old-school telephones \u2014 and then they, too, become part of the digital tapestry.<\/p>\n

\"ArtistArtist Stephanie Dinkins speaks at the opening “Data Trust,” her immersive art installation, at the San Jose ICA on Friday, Sept. 19, 2025. (Photo by Keith McCullom)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dinkins attended the launch of Data Trust, which was supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation\u2019s Hewlett 50 Arts Commissions and drew more than 250 people. The mesmerized crowd included artists and academics from San Jose State, Santa Clara University, UC Berkeley and Stanford, along with some of the project interviewees and both San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and Stephen Caines, who serves as the city\u2019s chief innovation officer.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s something that really needs to be experienced, and fortunately, there\u2019s plenty of time to do so. ICA Executive Director James Leventhal says the project will be up through next March 22, to coincide with the return of Nvidia\u2019s big technology conference, GTC. The ICA is open from noon to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays, and you can get more information at www.icasanjose.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

HAPPY HOLLOW\u2019S \u2018UN-GALA\u2019: Who says a fundraiser needs a big ballroom, gowns and tuxedos? Certainly not Happy Hollow Foundation, which held its benefit last Saturday outdoors in San Jose\u2019s beloved park and zoo. As Happy Hollow Foundation Executive Director Rhonda Nourse put it, the third annual \u201cHooray for Happy Hollow\u201d was more of an \u201cun-gala\u201d that encouraged guests to come as they were.<\/p>\n

\"DannyDanny the Dragon clowns around with guests at the third annual “Hooray for Happy Hollow,” a fundraiser for Happy Hollow Foundation held at the San Jose park and zoo on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. (Photo courtesy Happy Hollow Foundation)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Guests roamed the grounds and took part in hands-on activities, including meeting some of Happy Hollow Park & Zoo\u2019s \u201canimal ambassadors\u201d up close, before letting it loose for the live auction.<\/p>\n

The desserts \u2014 crafted and donated by local bakeries for the auction \u2014 got creative with the zoo theme, including a Monarch Meadow pollinator cake from Paris Ave. in Willow Glen and a Danny the Dragon-themed layer cake from Icing on the Cake that sold for $3,350 in the live auction. And it was touching that C\u2019est Si Bon bakery in South San Jose created jaguar-themed cupcakes to honor Sophia, the zoo\u2019s longtime big cat who died in June at age 21 following a kidney disease diagnosis.<\/p>\n

But the big auction item of the night was the up-close Capybara Encounter, which sold three times for $7,000 each \u2014 meaning the zoo\u2019s big rodents will have lots of company in the coming months.<\/p>\n

STITCHES IN TIME: The Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a quilt show this weekend at the swanky Club Sportiva in North San Jose. SCVQA President Nancy Reis says members will be displaying a collection of their favorite quilts, and there\u2019ll also be vendors at the show as well.<\/p>\n

The organization helped establish the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles in 1977 and has had a long history of sharing the quilting arts with the community. \u201cThe guild also has a recognized philanthropic history and to this day its members donate many quilts of all sizes to NICUs, hospitals, quilts for kids, shelters, veterans, and hospice,\u201d Reis said.<\/p>\n

The Sept. 27-28 show opens at 10 a.m. both days, and tickets are $12 in advance or $15 at the door. You can get more information at scvqa.org\/quiltshow<\/a>. Club Sportiva is at 521 Charcot Ave, and parking is free.<\/p>\n

SMALL LANGUAGE MODELS: Action Day Schools will cut the ribbon Monday on two new classrooms for its first-ever Full Spanish Immersion Preschool program, aimed at kids from 2\u00bd to 5 years old. When the program launched last month, its enrollment quickly maxed out with 33 students, prompting the need for more space pronto. The 10 a.m. event at 2021 Lincoln Ave. in San Jose\u2019s Willow Glen neighborhood, is open to the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter 57 years of serving families in the South Bay, we are thrilled to expand our language immersion opportunities,\u201d Action Day Schools President Cathy Jelic said. \u201cWe know how valuable it is for children to learn a second language early, and we\u2019re proud to offer a program that reflects the needs of today\u2019s families.\u201d<\/p>\n

REMEMBERING LU RYDEN: When you\u2019re a Republican on the San Jose City Council, you tend to stand out. But that never seemed to be a problem for Lu Ryden, who served 10 years on the council from 1980 to 1990. Ryden, who died Sept. 17 at age 94 in Duluth, Ga., spent the latter half of that decade as the only conservative voice on the council.<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer San Jose City Councilmember Lu Ryden, photographed in 1994, died Sept. 17, 2025 in Duluth, Ga. Ryden, a Republican, served 10 years on the city council after hosting a women’s talk show on KNTV and running a modeling agency. (Photo by Patrick Tehan\/Mercury News)\u00a0<\/p>\n

She certainly had moxie, suggesting to KNTV that the TV station needed a women\u2019s talk show \u2014 which she then hosted from the mid-1960s to the early \u201970s. When her TV stint finished, Ryden started a modeling agency, and then was elected to office in 1980 when she was 50.<\/p>\n

A 1994 profile by Leigh Weimers noted that her sharp wit and sense of humor in the job not only helped her handily win re-election but also allowed her to hold her own with then-Mayor Tom McEnery. But she was on the losing side of many votes and was a vocal opponent of both gay rights initiatives and the Equal Rights Amendment.<\/p>\n

After she left office, she was very involved with CityTeam Ministries and remained active in civic affairs. She left San Jose for Duluth in 2017, following the death of her husband, Paul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The visitors at the Institute of Contemporary Art last Friday can say they were there when one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,19377,40444,181,507,3805,2356,88,109059,2558,149,983,92947,15960,28512,10840,10843,74,2628],"class_list":{"0":"post-185436","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-around-town","10":"tag-art-galleries","11":"tag-artificial-intelligence","12":"tag-artificialintelligence","13":"tag-bay-area","14":"tag-california","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-happy-hollow","17":"tag-latest-headlines","18":"tag-lifestyle","19":"tag-local-news","20":"tag-news-columnists","21":"tag-nonprofits","22":"tag-san-jose","23":"tag-santa-clara-county","24":"tag-south-bay","25":"tag-technology","26":"tag-things-to-do"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}