The sky along North 2nd Street was still purpling on Thursday, February 26, but inside San Jose Downtown’s Hobee’s Restaurant and Beer Garden, Content Magazine’s Issue 18.2 Pickup Party, hosted in partnership with 1Culture Collective, Hillbrook School, and Levitt Pavillion San Jose, was already in full swing. The magazine, entitled “Sight and Sound,” featured a diverse array of local artists and creators — from mural and tattoo artist Karime “Dawll” Contreras to rapper Joe Fresco. The party was no different.
Arrayed within the seafoam-green Victorian house was a curated selection of pieces from each of the visual artists. Large framed artwork lined the periphery of the room, including selected students’ clips from San Jose State University’s Photo 125 class and an artwork by Cooper Salmon. At the center of the gallery, displayed on two vertical columns, hung visual artist Natalia Drachinskaya’s multimedia collages and painter Jonathan Crow’s nostalgia-filled canvases, among others.
The evening began with a whisper. Guests trickled in slowly, some arriving straight from the office, while others came decked out in evening finery. Some lounged under the crisp, night air in the quiet outdoor patio, chatting and admiring the twinkling lights strung across the courtyard. Still more guests migrated inside, marvelling at the art and enjoying craft beers and other specialty drinks to the soundtrack of DJ Zuri Alexa’s pulsing mix.
The food, circulated in bite-sized hors d’oeuvres, was a display of Hobee’s new beer garden menu: pillowy goat-cheese sandwiches, grilled tofu skewers, caramelized bacon sliders, avocado and black bean tostadas, and banana and Nutella pancakes — a crowd favorite.
At 7:00p, guests congregated in the gallery, and the live performance portion of the party kicked off with an abstract clarinet solo composed and directed by Mauricio Rodriguez.
Afterwards, Content Magazine Developer David Valdespino Jr. took center stage, thanking the magazine’s supporters and presenting Drachinskaya’s commissioned artwork to each of the five Santa Clara County Supervisors. Following short speeches by each supervisor, and lots of congratulations from the audience, musician William Johnston Bohrer and his band took over the space, performing a set consisting entirely of his own original songs.
By 8:00p, the sky was giving way to faint stars, and the performances had wrapped up. Guests spent the rest of the evening socializing and networking with one another, drawn together by their shared love of art.
The night–and the magazine–were ultimately a celebration of those artists and creatives who work in the liminal space between disciplines and refuse to be defined by simply one medium — an especially apt theme for a city as layered as San Jose.
Join Content Magazine at West Valley College on Friday, May 15, for the next Pick-Up Party celebrating Issue 18.3. The party will be another eventful evening, featuring The Cilker School of Art and Design’s Grad EXPO, live performances, and a peek into the vibrant arts community nestled in the heart of Silicon Valley.
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