ICA San Diego is devoted to creating a thriving ecosystem of arts and culture across Southern California, presenting an array of art, ideas, and education from galleries in both Balboa Park and Encinitas; totaling more than 15,000 square feet and across six acres of coastal landscape overlooking the San Elijo Lagoon.

At ICA / North, the Linda Formo Brandes and the LEED-certified Artist Pavilion galleries provide exhibition spaces for individual exhibitions. The Education Pavilion also delivers contemporary art camps, classes, tours, and workshops for all ages. When visiting the six-acre campus, visitors will experience our growing Sculpture Trail featuring rare local flora amongst site-specific art installations.

At the ICA / Central campus, visitors are welcomed by an engaging mezzanine before being drawn into the open 6,000 square foot exhibition space for large scale individual and group exhibitions. ICA / Central hosts an annual graduating student exhibition highlighting emerging talent from colleges and universities.

The ICA provides complimentary admission to the gallery open hours and most events. Public programming includes C You Saturday! monthly events featuring family friendly art activities and community development based around each featured exhibition plus free weekend tours led by ICA Engagement Guides who utilize visual thinking strategies to understand our artists and their works.

The outreach program, The Valise Project, founded in 1999, was created to meet a growing need for arts education in schools. Each unique Valise, French for ‘suitcase’, is an Artist-designed portable sculpture that contains thought-provoking miniature artworks. These unique Valises are brought directly into classrooms to creatively connect to the current California Core curriculum. A trained Teaching Artist prepares a lesson plan that includes an interactive discussion of the themes followed by hands-on art-making activities that encourage students to respond and express their own interpretations in visual form to the material presented.