ENCINITAS — After more than two decades of showcasing the work of local artists on streetlight banners, the 101 Artists’ Colony is preparing to unveil the 2025 Arts Alive Encinitas collection during a public reception on April 19 at Pacific View Arts Center.
Now in its 26th year, the Arts Alive program will debut 60 original hand-painted banners, later displayed along Coast Highway 101 from La Costa Avenue to Cardiff Restaurant Row and at Cardiff Town Center. The unveiling event, held from 3 to 5 p.m., is free and open to the public.
“This has been actually going since 2000,” said Danny Salzhandler, president of the 101 Artists’ Colony. “So it’s 26 years we’ve been doing this.”
Salzhandler acknowledged the program skipped a few years due to logistical challenges but continued even during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We did it through COVID, and we had one of the best years ever, believe it or not,” he said.
Each banner is painted by a local artist and installed on light poles for public viewing over two months. According to Salzhandler, the process of organizing the exhibit has remained largely consistent over the years.
“We pick artists, we give them the banners, they paint them, we hang them, we auction them,” he said.
One banner painted this year by longtime contributor Darlene Katz features a dog swimming with a tennis ball in its mouth.
“Encinitas is a real dog town in a good way, not a bad way,” Salzhandler said.
A banner honoring the late Trish Dugger, Encinitas’ first poet laureate, will also be displayed. Salzhandler recalled Dugger’s longstanding involvement with the Artists’ Colony, from poetry readings to slams.
“She was proclaimed the first poet laureate of Encinitas, and we have a banner in her honor,” he said.
Following the unveiling, banners will be available for silent bidding beginning at the reception. Bids will be accepted by phone at 760-473-5164 until a live auction is held on July 13 at Cardiff Town Center. Banners are removed in late June, cleaned at a local car wash, and dried publicly before being returned to the artists for touch-ups.
Sponsors for this year’s program include Seaside Market, Leucadia 101 Mainstreet, Hansen Surfboards, and Surfing Madonna Oceans Project.
Salzhandler, who helped found the program and personally hung banners for many years, said the city is stepping in to assist with installation this year.
“They’re giving me a break,” he said. “The city is going to contract out hang[ing] the banners, so those can make it easier on me.”
Looking back on the program’s origins, Salzhandler credited Peter Norby, then-director of the Downtown Encinitas Mainstreet Association, with first proposing the idea of painting banners for street poles.
“He’d seen the idea somewhere. And so we got [artists] together. We all painted. We didn’t really know what we’re going to do with them,” Salzhandler said.
What began as a small effort to liven up the community became an annual tradition. The banner program continued even after the group lost its physical gallery space in 2007.
“We haven’t had a place since 2007 when they tore down those pink buildings,” Salzhandler said, referring to the site on which the Moonlight Lofts now stand. “Now we don’t have any place to call home except the light pole.”
At 75, Salzhandler said this unveiling may be his last at the program’s helm.
“I want to make sure this one is a good one,” he said. “We’re hoping for good weather and a good turnout, and another year for Arts Alive.”
