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Downtown Doors Facts:

Downtown Doors is an outdoor art exhibit sponsored by the
San Jose Downtown Foundation. Artwork is selected through
a design competition of student artists.

Young people take the lead in the Downtown Doors project.
The program offers high school students an opportunity
to demonstrate their artistic ability and showcase their
craftsmanship within the community.

The intent is to give art students throughout the community a real life opportunity to learn how public art is selected and installed and to provide a way for the youth of San Jose to be involved in shaping their urban environment. This real life experience teaches students how to factor in client preferences, customize a project to fit a specific venue size and how art works with its surroundings.

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These large-scale art installations are mounted on the flat utility doors of highly visible buildings and will be viewed and enjoyed by the thousands of people who live, work and visit downtown San Jose. Many downtown buildings have blank service and utility doors that face major streets and walkways. The Downtown Doors art exhibit uses these unattractive doors as “canvases” for artwork by local art students.

The artwork originals selected for exhibit will be digitized, enlarged and transferred onto vinyl adhesive decals, and then professionally installed (wrapped) on the selected door sites. The artwork remains in place for one year, and then is replaced by new images selected from the next year’s competition. The Downtown Foundation publicizes the program, hosts a reception for the artists, teachers, site owners, sponsors and other guests. Each artist receives an honorarium to pay for art supplies.

The San Jose Downtown Foundation, run by volunteer foundation trustees, is a non-profit organization that seeks to foster art and culture Downtown. Downtown Doors is funded by private contributions and is placed on private property.

Student art adds life to downtown doors in 2006
15 winners from three San Jose High schools

Works by San Jose’s budding artists are on display – beautifying otherwise drab utility doors on some of downtown’s biggest buildings.

Installed May 1-3, the thoughtful, colorful, eclectic and sometimes whimsical pieces of art for the San Jose Downtown Foundation’s “Downtown Doors” project cover 13 double- and triple-panel doors outside the Fairmont San Jose, Pavilion building and San Jose Repertory Theatre.

The Downtown Doors program, now in its fourth year, has grown from four doors in 2003. More than 100 entrants from 12 San Jose schools, including Downtown College Prep, San Jose High Academy, Lincoln High School, Lincoln Saturday Art Academy, Notre Dame High School and the East Side High School district, participated in the competition.

“The images this year largely center on the great diversity of people and activities available around San Jose,” said Jackie Rose, president of the Downtown Foundation. “All of the pieces celebrate our city in a rich and colorful way.”

Artists, their teachers and families, private donors and the property owners and managers who allowed the artwork will attend a reception tonight at the Silicon Valley Capital Club.

In March, San Jose State University, the San Jose Museum of Art, and the Foundation sent representatives to judge the entries. The process to digitize, enlarge and transfer the artwork onto vinyl adhesive decals occurred in April.


The winners are:

• “Staged in Red,” by Katherine Webb (Lincoln High School), located in the Paseo de San Antonio Plaza on the Repertory Theatre;
  
  
• “The Native,” by Eliza Morales (Lincoln High School), located in the Paseo de San Antonio Plaza on the Repertory Theatre;
  
  
• “Fruit Punch,” by Diana Juarez (Lincoln High School), located on a three-panel door on the First Street side of the Fairmont Hotel;
  
  
• “Nature’s Promise,” by Allegra Bick-Maurischat (Lincoln High School), located on a three-panel door on the First Street side of the Fairmont Hotel;
  
  
• “Inspiration Meets Innovation,” by Vi Vu, (Lincoln High School), located on a three-panel door on the First Street side of the Fairmont Hotel;
  
  
• “Sidewalk Pairing,” by Allegra Bick-Maurischat (Lincoln High School), located on the north side of the Fairmont Hotel near the reflecting fountain;
  
  
• “Fantasia,” by Julia Lemke (Notre Dame High School), located on the north side of the Fairmont Hotel near the reflecting fountain;
  
  
• “Modern Woman,” by Lucie Roberts (Lincoln High School), located on the Second Street side of the Pavilion;
  
  
• “Paused,” by Becky Roberts (Lincoln Saturday Art Academy), located on the First Street side of the Pavilion;
  
  
• “On the Surface,” by Raquel Robledo, “On the Inside,” by Gina Maune and “Surreal Smile,” by Alex Meadows (Lincoln High School), an ensemble of three works located on a three-panel utility door of the Fairmont Hotel facing Market Street;
  
  
• “Fountain Romance,” by Emily Gliozzo (Lincoln Saturday Art Academy), located on a three-panel utility door of the Fairmont Hotel facing Market Street;
  
  
• “Zoom,” by Jessica Blaine (Lincoln High School), located on a three-panel utility door of the Fairmont Hotel facing Market Street;

• “Untitled,” by Med Williams (Santa Teresa High School), located on a three-panel utility door of the Fairmont Hotel facing Market Street.