The exhibition Race: Power, Resistance & Change shares stories of how the construction of race has shaped laws, institutions, and daily life in San Diego and the broader multinational region.

Presented in English and Spanish, the exhibition highlights key moments in this region’s complex history of race. Experienced through mixed media, artworks, and accounts from regional archives, the exhibition brings forward important stories and voices often left out of mainstream narratives.

Created in collaboration with local artists, researchers, and community leaders, this experience highlights stories, past and present, of how communities have resisted oppression and worked for change.

Race: Power, Resistance & Change is an invitation and a call to action. It is a space to reflect, connect personal experiences, and take part in ongoing conversations about racial justice and building a more equitable future together.

What to Expect

• The exhibit traces how race was built from the era of Spanish colonization to the present, showing how these systems became embedded in laws, science, education, and daily life.
• More than 50 artists contributed to the exhibition through numerous works. Interactive installations, sculpture, photography, animation, images of murals, and poetry give form to these histories and connect them with the present.
• Acts of resistance and visions of change–reflected in community histories, archives, and creative work–ground the narrative in lived experience.