Photo: Tim Evanson (Flickr)

Just because San Diego has the luxury of mighty pleasant weather year-round doesn’t mean we don’t know how to celebrate springtime.

Not long ago we wrote here at Check In San Diego about the super bloom that recently turned the Anza-Borrego desert into a once-in-a-decade kaleidoscope of color: a wild send-up of the season. Well, a different sort of blossomy burst is shortly going to get underway right here in the city itself: Art Alive over at the San Diego Museum of Art in beautiful Balboa Park!

Art Alive has been a major fundraising event for the museum for a whopping 36 years, and by now it’s a fixture of the San Diego spring. The 2017 run-through takes place Friday, April 28 through Sunday, April 30. You can buy tickets for the shindig, which is free for members, right here.

Staying at the Sofia, among the standout Hotels in downtown San Diego, you’re only a stone’s throw from the Art Alive action!

Art Alive: Works of Art Evoked in Flower Form

Here’s the unique premise: Designers create floral compositions depicting artwork from the museum’s collection. Then these beautiful, bright accompaniments are displayed alongside the pieces throughout Art Alive; more than 100 such arrangements will be part of this year’s proceedings.

The Museum Rotunda Flower-fied

Meanwhile, on the John M. and Sally B. Thornton Rotunda on the second floor, you’ll get to enjoy the fourth Art Alive installation by designer Carlos Franco: FloraMorphic: A Sky of Colors. Franco’s elaborate flower-scape, its multicolored micro universe, will conjure up a “surrealist dream of sunrise and sunset.”

Other Art Alive Activities

The flower art arrangements and the FloraMorphic rotunda display may be the primary draw, but Art Alive has plenty else going on. The Garden of Activities gives kids and families lots of fun bloom-themed projects to enjoy, including a flower hunt throughout the whole museum. On Saturday afternoon, you’ll have hands-on instruction in terrarium-building at a workshop hosted by San Diego’s Pigment boutique. The Museum Store Trunk Show, meanwhile, will feature jewelry and other unique items for sale.

Celebrate Spring at Art Alive—and the Sofia Hotel!

As an honored guest of ours at the Sofia Hotel (all of our guests are honored guests, by the way), you’re only a few minutes away from the San Diego Museum of Art and its fundraising flower fest. Join us at one of the best Hotels in downtown San Diego for a Southern California-style spring, and take in this unique art gala while you do!