New Tech. New Tools. New Times

 
Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2010, Americans for the Arts is the nation's leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America. Americans for the Arts is dedicated to representing and serving local communities and creating opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts. From offices in Washington, DC, and New York City, it serves more than 150,000 organizational and individual members and stakeholders.

Looking for something to do in San Jose during your stay?

  • Check out the sites below for links to many of our local arts & culture establishments, or view our calendar of events for November 10th through November 15th by clicking here >>
  • You can also find places to grab a bite that are within walking distance of the host hotel, the Fairmont San Jose

CULTURAL FACILITIES - stop on by for a show!

Center for the Performing Arts
255 Almaden Blvd.
San Jose, CA 95113

Center for Performing Arts

The San Jose Center for the Performing Arts is within easy walking distance of the Convention Center and home to resident arts partners Ballet San Jose and Broadway San Jose. Stop by and enter through the red carpet lobby that will lead you into a dramatic performace hall. The curved and sloping architecture creates not only elegance, but offers clear sightlines from any seat in the house.

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California Theatre
345 South First Street
San Jose, CA 95113

California Theatre

The California Theatre, originally built in 1927, recently went under renovations and celebrated its grand re-opening in September 2004. This versatile theatre, with state-of-the-art audio and video technology, plays seasonal classic films, gritty and cutting edge movies of Cinequest, as well as provides a home to resident arts partners Opera San Jose and Symphony Silicon Valley. The theatre is located one block from the Convention Center.

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Learn more about the Center for Performing Arts resident arts partners here:

Learn more about the California Theatre's resident arts partners here:

Ballet San Jose

Ballet San Jose's mission is to provide the South Bay with theatrically produced ballet and professional dance education in a manner that honors the vision of the artists, meets the highest technical and artistic standards, contributes to the fulfillment of the cultural needs of the community, and is accessible to as wide an audience as possible. The Ballet School's free Education Outreach programs are dedicated to serving young audiences and at-risk children in our region.

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Opera San Jose

Opera San José is a professional, regional opera company that is unique in the United States. Maintaining a resident company of principal artists, this company specializes in showcasing the finest young professional singers in the nation. Featuring fresh, new talents in the first years of their careers, Opera San José’s performances are always dramatically stimulating and vocally accomplished.

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Broadway San Jose

A Nederlander Presentation is where Silicon Valley can find some of the most exciting shows touring the U.S. Broadway San Jose, in association with Team San Jose, makes it easy to get the best seats available at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts and provides unique visitor and tourism offerings for a very special theater experience.

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Symphony Silicon Valley

Founded in 2002, Symphony Silicon Valley has progressed from daring idea to exciting reality, rapidly becoming the greater South Bay's premiere orchestra and a notable community success story.

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Montgomery Theater
271 S. Market St.
San Jose, CA 95113

Montgomery Theatre

Located across the street from the Convention Center in the same building as the San Jose Civic, the Montgomery Theater is the permanent home of the San Jose Children's Musical Theater. Though quaint, this stage offers full production capabilities hosting a variety of cultural and performing arts events for the San Jose community. Originally constructed in 1936, recent renovations have given the theater a more elegant appearance to this classic building.

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HP Pavilion
525 W. Santa Clara Street
San Jose, CA 95113

HP Pavilion

The HP Pavilion at San Jose is Northern California’s premier sports and entertainment venue. Home to the San Jose Sharks and host to many concerts and events, and no facility anywhere is a better showcase for architectural excellence and technological innovation than the HP Pavilion at San Jose.

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Learn more about the Montgomery Theatre's resident arts partner here:

Learn more about our arts and culture initiatives within the South Bay:

Children's Musical Theatre

Founded in 1968 to create a community-based children’s theater in San Jose, CA, Children’s Musical Theater (CMT) is now one of the nation’s largest youth musical theater and training program of its kind. The mission of CMT is to train and educate today’s youth through musical theater to set and achieve high artistic and personal goals, and to inspire them to become exemplary artists, patrons and citizens of tomorrow.

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Arts Council

Established in 1982, Arts Council Silicon Valley is a private, nonprofit arts organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for Santa Clara County residents by creating and fostering arts and culture throughout the region.

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LOCAL EXHIBITS - take a look at established and upcoming artists

San Jose Museum of Art

The San Jose Museum of Art is a distinguished museum of modern and contemporary art and a lively center of arts activity in Silicon Valley. The leading institution in the area dedicated to the art of our time, SJMA is committed to providing access for its extraordinarily diverse populations and to pioneering new approaches to interpretation.

www.sjmusart.org

Anno Domini

Anno Domini has been both representing and promoting urban contemporary culture and its many faces since we opened our doors in 2000. What began as a space where new, emerging and often ignored artforms could flourish and be celebrated has come to be recognized nationally for consistent vision.

www.galleryad.com

The Tech Museum of Innovation

The Tech Museum of Innovation is a hands on
technology and science museum for people of all
ages and backgrounds and also includes
the Hackworth IMAX Dome Theater.

www.thetech.org

Childrens Discovery Museum
of San Jose

Ranked among the top five youth museums in the nation. More than 150 interactive exhibits in science humanities and arts for children and families.

www.cdm.org

San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles

Textile art transcends cultural, ethnic, age and gender boundaries and encompasses traditional as well as contemporary forms. The museum provides a serious venue for all artists working with textiles, filling a void left by larger institutions with a narrower view of what defines artistic expression. Its exhibits and programs promote the appreciation of quilts and textiles as art and provide an understanding of their role in the lives of their makers, in cultural traditions, and as historical documents.

www.sjquiltmuseum.org

Art Ark

Art Ark Gallery is located on the Art Ark Apartments property, a thriving Artisan Village in the heart of the Martha Gardens Arts District. Since October 2006 Art Ark Gallery has been featuring the work of local artists in one-person shows and group exhibitions. Art Ark Gallery’s mission is to provide a space where emerging artists can explore possibilities and engage the public. Selected artists experience the entire process of exhibiting art, from submitting a proposal and signing contracts, to planning exhibition design, installing the art, adjusting lighting, and restoring the gallery to its original state.

www.artarkgallery.net

Art Glass Center

The San Jose Glass Artists Alliance was formed to create a community of local artists that work primarily in glass. The members of the organization promote public awareness about art glass through low cost or no cost educational exhibits, demonstrations, lectures and presentations.

www.sjgaa.org

Kaleid Gallery

The concept behind Kaleid is to offer local artists the opportunity to display their works on their own wall. There are continually new works being displayed as artists get the chance. Kaleid also features artisan artists. It's a great place to show support for local artists and to keep an eye out for up and comers.

www.kaleidgallery.com

Works San Jose

works/san josé is “the” place for the south bay community to experiment, exhibit, and engage. founded in 1977 by local artists, works “success is in the process” philosophy and unique range of opportunities allow artists, curators, and the community to take creative risks. works is an alternative non-profit art and performance center dedicated to providing a venue for artists, ideas, and images that expand the scope of cultural and artistic experience and challenge the boundaries of contemporary art.

www.workssanjose.org

SLG Publishing

Slave Labor Graphics (SLG) Publishing was founded by Dan Vado in 1986 and over its twenty year history has remained true to its roots as a publisher of great diversity. The first publisher of such notable comic book artists as Evan Dorkin, Andi Watson and Jhonen Vasquez, SLG has been known to be on the forefront of discovering and fostering new talent in the comics industry. We seek out and publish comics that are fun, smart, and fresh and that offer a different perspective from what you'll find anywhere else. SLG is often the "first choice" of new artists looking to break into the industry and because of this, SLG books offer readers the opportunity to not only read entertaining stories told with excellent artwork but to encounter new voices and talents.

www.slgcomic.com

MACLA

MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana is an inclusive contemporary arts space grounded in the Chicano/Latino experience that incubates new visual, literary and performance art in order to engage people in civic dialogue and community transformation.

www.maclaarte.org

San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art

The ICA presents forwardlooking thoughtprovoking and exciting contemporary art by emerging and established Bay Area artists.

www.sjica.org