SAN DIEGO – CowParade, the world’s largest and foremost public art event, is kicking off plans for its California debut in San Diego, celebrating local artists’ work and benefiting three local charities.
CowParade San Diego will feature 200 life-sized fiberglass cows transformed by artists from San Diego and Tijuana and displayed around San Diego’s premier outdoor locations for three months – Jan. 3 through March 31, 2009. The cows will dot the region’s landscape and become an important tourism attraction and weekend outing for local families. More than 1 million people are expected to visit the cows in San Diego. Local businesses, hotels, restaurants and retailers will sponsor the cows individually or in multiple cow “herds.”
“I appreciate the creative thinking that has gone into this fundraising event. The beneficiaries of this effort are important cornerstones of our community,” said San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders. “Helping them meet their financial needs is a worthy goal, and everyone involved in CowParade San Diego, from the artists and their sponsors right on through to general public coming to view the cows, should be commended for their support.”
An auction of the top 50 cows — to be held at the end of the exhibition — will raise funds to benefit Rady Children’s Hospital, The Zoological Society of San Diego and the Balboa Park Cultural Partnership. It is estimated the post-exhibition auction will generate hundreds of thousands of dollars for the local nonprofit organizations.
Through an open “call-to-artists” in the San Diego/Tijuana region — which began June 10 — CowParade San Diego intends to cast a wide net for a diverse range of artists from the San Diego area. An array of artists – painters, sculptors, craftsmen and multi-media artists – ranging from well-known to emerging will be selected to participate in the exhibition. Each artist whose design is selected for the exhibition will be provided with a life-sized, blank fiberglass cow form and will be paid a $1,000 honorarium upon completion and approval of their transformed cow.
“We’re excited to bring this important event to San Diego and engage a local arts community that will ultimately turn CowParade San Diego into a world-class public art exhibition,” said Nuffer, Smith, Tucker President Bill Trumpfheller, director of CowParade San Diego. “Participating artists will be challenged by the creations from past events, inspired by the cultural influences and history of the region, and moved by their own interpretations of the cow as an object of art.”
CowParade San Diego will reach out to local students during its three month run. School children will participate in a design competition that will give many their first exposure to the creative process and allow them to create their own “minimoo” cows — perfect miniatures of the full-sized versions — for public display.
The event will offer a working artist lab and cow warehouse for all participating artists at Liberty Station — the official staging ground in the months leading up to the exhibition opening. The artist lab will enable artists without adequate studio space to work on their full-size cows in a communal setting, open for the public to observe the life-size bovine works in progress.
CowParade has been held in more than 50 cities on six continents and has been seen by more than 100 million people. From its start in Chicago in 1999, CowParade has evolved in size, creativity and quality with exhibitions in cities such as New York, Paris, Mexico City and Buenos Aires. The event has raised more than $25 million for charities worldwide through live and online cow auctions at the end of each city’s exhibition.
CowParade San Diego is made possible through sponsorships from the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System, Liberty Station and the California Milk Advisory Board. For more information regarding CowParade San Diego sponsors, beneficiaries, artist submission process, sponsorship opportunities, education program and event specifics, please visit www.cowparadesandiego.com
