I’ve had a long-standing love affair with Balboa Park.
Called the Jewel of San Diego for good reason, the park always gives forth something new, no matter how often I go — which is not often enough. It sometimes takes out-of-town guests to remind me that the park is a gem-of-a-destination.
It was our cousins from North Carolina, who came in early January, who prompted our trip to the park. First on their list was the Mingei Museum, which opened in 1978 to foster an appreciation of folk art from worldwide cultures, both contemporary and historic. (Mingei is the Japanese word for people.)
The current exhibition, Blue Gold: The Art and Science of Indigo, features dozens of patterned fabric pieces, weavings, carpets and clothing from multiple countries that tell the history, uses, cultivation, science, production and distribution of indigo.
The exhibit immerses visitors in a colorful universe while evoking an emotional pull in opposing directions. While indigo blue tops my favorite-colors list, the exhibit also explores the “unpleasant realities of (the dye’s) growth and manufacture, including hard labor and pollution and its association with colonialism and slavery.”
Needing further investigation: Knowing what we do, why do modern-day artists, shown in an exhibit video, work with giant vats of indigo without protective clothing?
The museum also is notable for its interior space — vastly changed from what I remember. A 2021 renovation brought the Mingei into the company of other contemporary museum spaces and makes the display of sizable pieces possible.
A bonus: The wide view from the museum roof of The Prado, the pedestrian-only street that allows current-day Balboa Park visitors to feel a bit of the wonder experienced by those who attended the 1915-1917 Panama-California Exposition. Fortunately, many of the exhibition’s ornate buildings, constructed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, survive today.
Ostensibly held to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal, the exposition also was a vehicle to tout the virtues of living and doing business in San Diego. Its population at barely 38,000 in 1915, the city nevertheless was the first major port after passing east-to-west through the canal.
One of the few buildings not constructed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style is the 109-year-old Botanical Building, long a perennial favorite of visitors and locals alike. The building recently reopened after a three-year closure for the first phase of a $26.4 million renovation. Amazingly, admission remains free.
We can thank the city and Forever Balboa Park, which paid for replacing the redwood lath, upgrading planter and watering systems and more.
Those who knew the Botanical Building in its former life will discover a striking difference. The refurbished lath structure is now absent the heavy overgrowth of tropical vegetation and therefore is many times brighter. The newly planted vegetation leans mostly toward native plants, and that’s the good news and the bad news. This openness showcases the grandeur of the building, but some will miss the thick, rainforest-like environment.
I’m willing to withhold judgment; I’ve been told there will be more flowers and plants to be placed at Easter and during other holidays, and over time, the growth will become more lush.
Botton line: A visit to any part of Balboa Park is cause for celebration.
Originally 1,400 acres until State Route163 was constructed through its west side in the mid-1940s, the park today totals 1,200 acres and offers 18 museums, most within walking distance of each other; eight gardens; an outdoor stage that showcases a 5,000-pipe organ and free weekly concerts; an international village representing 33 countries; a dog park; picnic areas and miles of trails.
A free, hop-on, hop-off tram takes visitors to a few areas of the park — all of this thanks to the city’s 1868 forward-thinking Board of Trustees. With a population of a scant 2,300, the board nonetheless set aside the acres that would forever remain free of urban development.
Originally called simply City Park, the park eventually was renamed in honor of the Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa. In 1513, he became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean.
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