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ABOUT SDVAN

The Project - San Diego Visual Arts Network:

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San Diego Visual Arts Network ( SDVAN) is a database of information produced to improve the clarity, accuracy and sophistication of discourse about San Diego's artistic and cultural life and is dedicated to the idea that the Visual Arts are a vital part of the health of our county. SDVAN provides a resource-rich website and facilitates countless opportunities for inspiration and collaboration on visual arts projects.

We believe in the transformational quality of the arts and its ability to widen our vision of the world around us. We hope not only to build the confidence of those involved in the arts, but also to disseminate information throughout San Diego, thus raising the bar on the writing, production and appreciation of the visual arts in our region. This is the only site designed exclusively for Visual Arts in the San Diego region. SDVAN is a 100% volunteer non-profit organization, where all services are free and financed by donations from people like you who believe in our mission.

Currently the site includes a feature to encourage new buyers of art, SmART Collector; a gossip column RAW; top picks of the month Picked RAW including Branching Out with new listings on the site, report on those events chosen in Picked RAW Peeled, a editorial A+ Art Blog; and a monthly message of updates about the site. SDVAN is the sponsor for the San Diego Art Prize and the New Contemporaries and supports exhibitions which encourage local talent such as Little & Large and Movers & Shakers and Art Meets Fashion and DNA of Creativity. . We connect artists to patrons in our Eat Your Art Out fundraisers.

SDVAN currently receives over one million hits a year and has 4-5000 unique visitors a month. We list over 2200 visual arts resources including artists in the SD region.

Directory entry includes: Name of Organization or Service, location, contact numbers (tel, fax, email, website), and mission statement or services offered to the community.
The directory is available as a website only and not a printed document. .

Entries are made directly onto the site by those listed.
The Events Calendar lists the next 15 events and ongoing events with a search by type and location. Opportunities both paid and volunteer are listed, including grants with a search by type and age. The SDVAN offers a listing of artists by name, with website and gallery affiliation, and enables them to be located by medium as well.

The directory categories include:
Arts Organizations
Public Exhibition Spaces
Commercial Spaces
Art Education
Services and Suppliers
Art Management and Promotion


SDVAN Committee

Founding members
Sandra Chanis (Oceanside Museum of Art)
Daniel Foster (Oceanside Museum of Art, formerly Riverside Museum of Art, formerly SDAI)
Patricia Frischer (SDAI board, formally COVA)
Elfred Lee (SD Artist Guild and Portrait Society)
Jane LaFazio (San Diego Watercolor Society)
Ann Berchtold (Art San Diego formally SanDiegoArtist.com)
Steven Churchill (Art of Photographer, formally La Jolla Art Association)

For a list of Current members and past members please see our volunteer page. We have over 120 committee members who work project by project. Our committee is continually expanding. If you would like to participate in the development of SDVAN, please e-mail Patricia Frischer at patricia@sdvisualarts.net

We believe that the Visual Arts Network will:
1. Recognize and celebrate the existing accomplishments by ordering and identifying the visual arts.
2. Facilitate cross-pollination between the cultural organizations to strengthen and invigorate the art scene.
3. Bring the visual arts to a new audience - children and adult, business and family, state, country and world
4. Promote a vision of the future of the role the visual arts can play in the San Diego community - lively, thriving, positive and empowered.
5. Create an infrastructure of spokespeople who have access to regularly collected information about visual arts organizations, activities and providers including a data bank for future analysis.

The SD Visual Arts Network to be used by:

1. The artist who would use it to get more information and services, who want others in the community to be directed to an organization to which they are members.
2. The listed entries would use it to be made available to those who might want to join, attend or use their services.
3. The new or newly interested citizen or corporation who wants to know what is happening in the Visual Arts in the city and who may be encouraged to fund the visual arts or use the services of the entries.
4. National research programs like the Pew Charitable Trust who will need to start with this type of directory to do its research
5. The Convention and Visitors Bureau and Commission for the Arts and Culture who are charged with promoting San Diego as a city of cultural richness.

Go to this link to find out answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the San Diego Visual Arts Network.

Want to help us improve SDVAN? Take a brief survey and give us some feedback.

Go to this link to read more about the SDVAN in our press pages.