The look of Downtown San Jose will be refreshed with the artwork of 20 San Jose-area high school students who competed for a canvas in the public realm as part of the Downtown Doors program.

In its 15^th year, student artwork has been digitized, transferred to vinyl coating and affixed to downtown’s service doors and utility boxes 292 times.  Downtown Doors occupies 110 sites located mostly on busy pedestrian rotes through the downtown core.

Students from 22 schools vied for selection to Downtown Doors.  The students must first compete for a Top-10 spot against their classmates. Only the top 10 are submitted to the Downtown Doors selection jury.

Of the record 206 art works submitted in 2019, 20 were selected from students at 13 schools.

“Downtown Doors is as popular as ever,” said Ramona Snyder, president of the San Jose Downtown Foundation board.  “It is always interesting to see what is on the minds of today’s high school students.”

Several of the art works pay tribute to the long and often incredible journeys of the students’ parents or their grandparents to immigrate to the United States. Multiple art works are portraits in various forms.

Evergreen High student Jiawei Li’s depiction of our “Modern World” shows a cowboy atop a horse riding along the rim of a magnificent canyon — checking his cell phone for messages. The works can be as sweet as a kiss or as moving as a memorial of flowers placed through fencing.

“The competition gets tougher every year,” said Bree von Faith, director of the San Jose Downtown Foundation.  “Some very quality art works are unfortunately rejected each round.”

Program sponsors include:  Baker’s Floor & Surface; Bill Graham Supporting Foundation of the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund; Catered Too!; City of San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs; Comerica Charitable Foundation; Ernest and Irene Pestana Charitable Foundation; Kimley-Horn; KQED; Newmark Knight Frank; the Offices of Councilmembers Dev Davis, Johnny Khamis, Lan Diep, Magdalena Carrasco, Maya Esparza; Pam Foley, Raul Peralez, Sergio Jimenez and Sylvia Arenas; Orchard Commercial; Republic Services and SVCreates.

Site hosts for the 2019 art work includes:  City of San Jose, 33 South Third Street Apartments; Digital Realty; Hilton San Jose; Hyatt Place San Jose/Downtown; San Jose Marriott and The Studio Climbing.

Art selection Committee:  James Morgan of SJSU; Jeannine Flores, Santa Clara County Office of Education; Jeff Bordona, San Jose Museum of Art; Juan Borrelli, SJDF Trustee; and Lynn Rogers, City of San Jose.

Stipends for the artists and teachers were supported by Adobe, Annabel Mangold, Catered Too!, Councilmember Dev Davis, Juan Borrelli, Manny Fernandez, Roy’s Station Coffee & Tea and San Jose Museum of Art.

 East Side Union HS District

(21) Piedmont Hills – 09, 09, 09, 10, 11, 11, 11, 12, 12, 12, 13, 13, 14, 14, 15, 15, 17, 18, 18, 19, 19

(17) Santa Teresa – 06, 09, 11, 11, 12, 12, 14, 14, 14, 15, 15, 15, 16, 17, 17, 17, 18

(17) Evergreen Valley – 09, 09, 09, 09, 10, 11, 12, 12, 13, 13, 15, 15, 15, 16, 16, 18, 19, 19

(11) Andrew P Hill – 12, 12, 13, 13, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 18

(11) Independence – 12, 13, 14, 15, 15, 16, 17, 17, 18, 19, 19

(9) Mount Pleasant –  04, 05, 10, 10, 11, 11, 12, 16, 17

(8) Yerba Buena – 10, 14, 14, 15, 16, 17, 17, 18

(3) James Lick – 11, 12, 16

(3) Oak Grove – 07, 07, 07

(4) Silver Creek – 12, 13, 19, 19

(105) East Side SubTotal

 

(53) Lincoln (includes Saturday Art Academy) – 03, 03, 03, 03, 04, 04, 04, 04, 04, 05, 05, 05, 05, 05, 05, 05, 05, 06, 06, 06, 06, 06, 06, 06, 06, 06, 06, 06, 07, 07, 07, 07, 07, 07, 09, 09, 09, 09, 09, 09, 09, 10, 10, 12, 12, 13, 14, 14, 18, 18, 19, 19, 19

(34) Notre Dame – 06, 07, 07, 07, 07, 07, 07, 09, 09, 09, 09, 09, 09, 09, 09, 10, 11, 11, 11, 12, 12, 12, 13, 13, 13, 13, 15, 15, 15, 16, 16, 17, 19, 19

(14) Leigh – 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 15, 16, 17, 17, 17, 18, 18, 18, 19

(12) Homestead – 12, 12, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 14, 16, 17, 17

(13) Pioneer –12, 12, 12, 12, 13, 13, 13, 14, 14, 17, 17, 18, 19

(10) Gunderson – 14, 14, 14, 14, 15, 15, 16, 16, 16, 19

(9) Willow Glen – 12, 14, 14, 15, 15, 16, 16, 16, 18

(9) Del Mar – 12, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 18, 18, 19

(6) Cupertino – 10, 10, 10, 11, 11, 11

(5) San Jose High Academy – 04, 05, 05, 05, 05

(4) Downtown College Prep – 04, 07, 07, 19

(3) San Jose High – 16, 17, 18

(3) Bellarmine College Prep. – 10, 17, 19

(1) Leland – 16

(2)   Westmont – 18, 19

(1) Castillero Middle – 12

(179) All other districts Subtotal

 

(2) Okayama, Japan – 14, 16

(2) Pune, India – 14, 16

(2) Tainan, Taiwan – 14, 16

(1) Dublin, Ireland – 14

(1) San Jose, Costa Rica – 14

(8) International Subtotal

 

(292) TOTAL