SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — It’s San Diego’s Met Gala as the Bloom Bash brings in patrons of the arts from all over the county for one wild night celebrating Post impressionist Toulouse Lautrec and a night in Paris.
“This is one of our signature centennial exhibitions, and so knowing we were going to have this for our centennial, we themed our Art Alive around this. There will be a lot of Parisian flair here and around Art Alive,” said Erika Ulring, associate director of the San Diego Museum of Art.
Since the city announced it will cut $12 million from art and culture, leaders in the art community are pushing back against the budget cuts.
“Funding cuts for that could be hundreds of thousands of dollars for a big organization or half of a projects over all budget,” said Leticia Gomez Franco of the Balboa Art Conservation Center.
That’s why nights like this are critical to the storied San Diego art institution.
“While it is only one weekend, it funds exhibitions, programs, and outreach throughout the year,” said Ulring.
The party, in a word, is spectacle, sights and sounds, taste, and community, and it couldn’t be happening at a more important time.
Museums say they are seeing 34 percent less foot traffic since the city started charging for parking, and, as a group of museums in Balboa Park, they are expecting to see a $10 million loss in revenue.
That means events like the Bloom Bash become even more important as private donors continue to support their local art museums.
“Arts and culture permeate our lives from the murals we take selfies in front of to the arts education our children receive in school,” said Gomez Franco.
The Bloom Bash has made as much as a million dollars in a night in past years.
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