A Gallery & a Museum 02-04-08

My drive on Sunday was to see the exhibit at the Visions Art Quilt Gallery and to drop by the Grand Opening of the new Oceanside Museum of Art.

The exhibit at VAQG is from California Fibers, a local group that was formed in 1970 and has a limited membership of 25. The work includes quilts, tapestries, baskets, wearables. It is their first time at this new gallery.

I do enjoy visiting the redevelopment area where the Gallery is located. It was the Navy Training Center for many years, but is now being developed as "Liberty Station", a 'destination' - galleries, restaurants, stores, etc. There is a Trader Joe's grocery, Starbucks, Panera restaurant, Von's groceries.. and a number of other places open, a large church meets in one of the buildings on Sundays and there is a dance studio in operation. Many of the buildings, perhaps most, have yet to be refurbished and rented, but things have progressed since the VAQG moved in almost a year ago. And the Watercolor Society of SDiego has a lovely gallery in the same building. You can find info about the development at http://www.sandiego.gov/ntc/ or http://www.libertystation.com/

For info about the VAQG see http://www.quiltvisions.org/

The only drawback I can see (hear?) is that the airplanes from the San Diego airport take off directly overhead. It can be deafening! But the grounds are very nice with large trees, a rose garden and many buildings from the early 20th Century.

The Oceanside Museum of Art is where the Visions exhibits are held every other year. The quilts have been selected for 2008 and I was surprised that there are about the same number as previous years. It turns out that the old portion of OMA is now offices and the gift shop and all the galleries are in the new building. There appears to be only slightly more wall space than there was before. Disappointing.

I purposely did not arrive until about an hour after the opening started because I am not fond of crowds. But there were still a LOT of people visiting the galleries. The exhibit is of early 20th Century plein air paintings of the San Diego area, all are very nice and some are quite wonderful. In one small area, all by itself and with a solitary lady on guard, was a lovely Sam Maloof chair that apparently has been donated to the museum. A treasure, indeed. Altogether I had a lovely Spring day looking at art and enjoying great weather. ....and limited traffic!