Reginald Jones

Since the inception of our work at the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation (JCNI), arts and culture taken form in the development of an emerging cultural district, bringing together community members, organizations, and artists to shape both its look and character.

Since I became the CEO of JCNI a few years ago, my focus has been keeping residents engaged in place making efforts to create unique public spaces and creative experiences, especially through partnerships with many of San Diego’s great arts organizations. These efforts have made our neighborhood a place where people of all backgrounds can share their own heritage and learn about diverse art forms. To that end, we were surprised to learn through our research that when people visited our website to find out more about our performing arts and festival series, over 70% were new visitors, more than half of which were from outside our district. That really speaks volumes for the economic development power and draw of the arts.

The San Diego’s Tourism Authority must agree.  We are ecstatic that the Jacobs Center is featured in the Nine Arts Districts, One Vibrant City video promoting southeastern San Diego as a vibrant cultural destination. The promotional video will be distributed internationally through a social media campaign and air locally on access television. Check out our arts and culture district at http://www.jacobscenter.org/artsculture.htm.