Friday, October 21 

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Palette Panel: Development may honor local culture and community by engaging local artists. Local art connects neighborhoods and residents as artists interpret the history of the area and society through a unique lens.
Experience their passion and learn more about their approach with an art palette panel: renowned muralist Victor Ochoa and 2021 San Diego Art Prize Recipient Panca, Paola Villasenor, gaining a deeper understanding of our community. Learn how incorporating cultural context through artists' color and texture choices stimulates human connection and well-being. Rounding out the panel is seasoned developer Robert Ito, who’s commitment to housing equity and strategies for revitalization without gentrification has proven successful to retaining existing citizens and strengthening community.

Speakers: 

Victor Ochoa

Activist, painter, graphic designer and master muralist. He has painted over 100 murals, many of them in San Diego, California. He is considered one of the pioneers of San Diego's Chicano art movement as a co-founder of Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park and the influential Border Art Workshop/Taller de Arte Fronteriza (BAW/TAF). . His work has been shown nationally and internationally. In addition to creating his own work, he is also a master of art preservation techniques, especially relating to murals. He is considered to be a "serious cultural resource in the border region.

Arte Atolondrada-Isabel Garcia and Shirish Villasenor

Arte Atolondrada is Spanish for “scatterbrained art.” Our work, both collectively and individually, embodies the meaning of “scatterbrained” in the sense that we create an assortment of bright, colorful imagery that pushes the viewer’s imagination and honors our Mexican-American heritage. As artists, we value the practice and creativity of art. As active members in our socio-political communities, we empower its role in collective work that goes beyond beautification. We are creators and we are trouble-makers of the good kind. 

Robert Ito

Ito Girard and Associates was formed in 2004 as an urban real estate development company that develops property and builds homes in San Diego’s older neighborhoods.    The company has been developing single-family, multi-family, and mixed-use project with a focus on affordable housing. He served 31 years as CEO of nonprofits in workforce training and housing that developed over 1,200 affordable housing rental units providing housing for 3,500 people and developed and sold over 100 homes to low and moderate income first time homebuyers.

Elizabeth Carmichael

Elizabeth Carmichael founded ECOhouse as a source for ecologically responsible architecture and development.  ECOhouse's concern for a building’s impact on the environment and the positive benefits for occupants, community, and developers at the forefront of their practice. She conducts ECOL.A.B.s(TM), "Learn, Apply, Build" as a hands-on approach to educating the public on implementing sustainable practices, serves on the Board of Directors for San Diego Green Building Council as Vice President, interviewed in articles and podcasts and honored as a San Diego Woman of Influence in Construction, Commercial, Real Estate and Design.

ECOhouse = ECOlogical Habitats of Urban Sustainable Experiences(TM).