This year, the coastal community will once again host the La Jolla Festival of the Arts. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the festival will again benefit San Diegans with disabilities through a weekend-long sales exhibition by artists from around the country.
Held Saturday and Sunday, June 24 and 25, at University of California, San Diego’s (UCSD) east campus, the event will feature non-stop entertainment by various world-class musicians, including an inaugural concert, “The Art of Music,” by guitarists Wayne Johnson and Doyle Dykes on Saturday night. The event is organized by the Torrey Pines Kiwanis Club, with main sponsorship from El Cajon-based Taylor guitars, San Diego Volvo, Volvo North America, and other local and international organizations.
The idea to raise money for disability assistance groups began in 1982, when Torrey Pines Kiwanis Club member Ross Ehrhardt and his wife Susan, who had recently lost a leg, were vacationing in Colorado. While on the ski slopes of Durango, they met Dave Spencer, who had lost a leg to cancer and was working as an instructor for non-disabled skiers. After Spencer visited the Kiwanis club, members were inspired to begin numerous fund-raisers, most of which proved unsuccessful.
In 1987, a year after Spencer’s death from cancer, Kiwanis member and photographer Dallas Clites had the idea to start an art festival. Since then, the event has grown from 60 artists and six food vendors to 190 artists and 15 food vendors.

The festival grows each year, and the 2006 event is no exception. According to festival chairman Ted Peãa, a Kiwanis member and Encinitas resident who was also the chair for the 1991 event, more than 400 applications were received this year from artists who want to show and sell their work at the festival. Of the 190 award-winning artists who were chosen, most are from California, with several from the East Coast and other areas around the country.
The La Jolla Festival of the Arts has become the foremost arts event in San Diego, and one of the top five in Southern California, raising money through artists’ fees, food sales, entry fees and a raffle. This year, the raffle will be for a Pierre Matisse-painted Taylor guitar. Matisse, grandson of the master painter Henri Matisse, lives in France and painted the guitar specifically for the event. The festival has a goal of $100,000 for this year and to break $1 million for the 20-year run.
The funds are given to more than 25 disability support organizations, including the Adaptive Sports Association, Paws’itive Teams, the Mission Bay Aquatic Center, the Helen Woodward Animal Center for therapeutic horseback riding, and the Junior Wheelchair Sports Camp and Kids’ Aquatic Camp. The amount of money designated for each organization is decided upon by Kiwanis volunteers upon reviewing grant applications. As Peãa noted, however, “We hope to get world recognition more than anything else.”
Logistically, the event is coordinated and publicized by SpearHall Advertising and Public Relations, a San Diego firm whose president, Shelly Hall, is a member and past president of the Torrey Pines Kiwanis Club. Hall has been deeply involved in the festival in the past, but this year, the event coordinator is Heather Cook, a Point Loma resident who has worked with the festival over the last three years.
“I take a lot of pride in working on this event because it’s for great reasons. I enjoy working with great people and putting on this event,” Cook said, noting that, to her, the most worthwhile part of the event is the ability of the attendees to interact with the beneficiaries.
This is the second year that the event will be held at UCSD, having previously been at the Jewish Community Center and at La Jolla Country Day School, whose campus is undergoing some major renovations and construction.
This year marks the first that the arts festival will be held on a hard surface, which allows for greater accessibility, rather than on grass. Approximately 10,000 people are expected over the weekend, Peãa said, noting that those who will make sure everything goes smoothly are volunteers. Furthermore, a kids’ zone will ensure that the whole family will enjoy the festivities.
The poster artwork for the 2006 event is by Katy Reeve-Weesner, a University Heights resident who has participated in the festival since its inception. The English-born Reeve-Weesner, who is a graduate of the Central School of Art in London, specializes in the English countryside, Southern California scenes and watercolors of houses. For more information about Reeve-Weesner, please visit www.katyreeveweesner.com.
The La Jolla Festival of the Arts will be held on UCSD’s east campus, on the corner of Regents Road and Genesee Avenue, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. Entrance fee is $10, with children 10 years of age and younger free. The inaugural concert will take place from 6 to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 24, and will cost $25. No pets (except service dogs for the disabled) are allowed at the event, and parking is free.
For more information on the La Jolla Festival of the Arts, its sponsors, beneficiaries or involvement opportunities, please visit www.lajollaartfestival.org.