Jonathon Glus: Embracing San Diego as a Creative City
Editor’s Note: This episode was recorded in March 2026, before the City of San Diego released its initial FY27 budget proposal. That proposal has since raised urgent questions about the future of public arts funding in San Diego, making Jonathon and Grant’s conversation about arts, culture, and downtown’s future especially timely.
Jonathon Glus is the Prebys Senior Art & Design Fellow in Residence at the Downtown San Diego Partnership, working to help shape a bold vision for a more creative, vibrant, and connected downtown. A longtime arts leader, Jonathon brings national experience and a deep belief in the role artists, creative businesses, and cultural infrastructure can play in the life of a city. In San Diego, his work is focused on what it would take for downtown to become not only a place of business, but a civic and creative center worthy of the region’s talent, beauty, and binational identity.
Jonathon Glus is the Prebys Senior Art & Design Fellow in Residence at the Downtown San Diego Partnership, working to help shape a bold vision for a more creative, vibrant, and connected downtown. A longtime arts leader, Jonathon brings national experience and a deep belief in the role artists, creative businesses, and cultural infrastructure can play in the life of a city. In San Diego, his work is focused on what it would take for downtown to become not only a place of business, but a civic and creative center worthy of the region’s talent, beauty, and binational identity.
This Episode:
What role do arts and culture play in helping a city thrive?
What role do arts and culture play in helping a city thrive?
Jonathon and Grant explore why downtowns still matter, not just as business districts, but as civic centers where people gather, connect, experience beauty, and feel part of a shared life. Jonathon makes the case that arts and culture are essential to that work. They bring people into public spaces, support creative workers and small businesses, strengthen local identity, and help make a city feel alive.
Together, they look at what San Diego can learn from other cities that have used creativity to reimagine their urban cores, while also naming the ingredients this region already has, from Balboa Park and historic buildings to its border-region identity and creative talent.
At a moment when public arts funding is under serious threat, the conversation is a reminder that arts and culture are not extras. They are part of the civic infrastructure that helps communities build belonging, opportunity, and shared pride. If San Diego wants to be a global and inviting city, arts and culture need to be part of that story.
Key Moments:
- [4:40] The shift from focusing only on cultural institutions to centering artists and creatives
- [8:50] Why affordability, space, and invitation matter for San Diego’s creative workforce
- [22:15] How arts and culture can shape the next era of downtown
- [33:38] How imagination and grit can help San Diego move beyond a scarcity mindset
- [46:19] What a more creative downtown San Diego could look and feel like in five years
Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- San Diego Downtown Partnership – Organization working to support, strengthen, and reimagine downtown San Diego
- Balboa Park – San Diego’s historic cultural park and one of the region’s most beloved civic assets
- Creative Enterprise Zones – Policy and planning models used in cities such as London to protect and grow creative districts
- Pacific Standard Time – Getty-led regional arts initiative that brings museums and cultural organizations together around shared themes
Take Action:
- Support Public Arts Funding – Pay attention to local budget decisions and speak up for arts and culture as essential civic infrastructure. Resources at sdartmatters.org.
- Visit Downtown with Fresh Eyes – Notice the public spaces, storefronts, historic buildings, and creative possibilities already present in the urban core.
- Support Local Artists and Creative Businesses – Seek out San Diego artists, designers, performers, galleries, studios, and cultural events. Find San Diego art events here.
- Make Space for Creativity – Whether you own property, lead an organization, or shape policy, consider how artists and creatives can be invited into the future of your community.
- Help Tell San Diego’s Creative Story – Celebrate the artists and cultural voices that reflect the region’s unique identity, from its natural environment to its transborder connections.
Credits:
This is a production of the Prebys Foundation
Hosted by Grant Oliphant
Co-Hosted by Crystal Page
Produced by Adam Greenfield, Tess Karesky, Edgar Ontiveros Medina, and Crystal Page
Engineered by Adam Greenfield
Engineered by Adam Greenfield
Production Coordination by Tess Karesky
Video Production by Edgar Ontiveros Medina
The Stop & Talk Theme song was created by San Diego’s own Mr. Lyrical Groove.
Special thanks to the Prebys Foundation Team
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