Stephanie Dinkins’ AI-driven “Data Trust” transforms San Jose’s ICA

The guests on the Institute of Up to date Artwork final Friday can say they had been there when some of the revolutionary installations within the metropolis’s historical past was unveiled. It’s Knowledge Belief, a venture by Brooklyn-based artist Stephanie Dinkins that has remodeled the downtown San Jose gallery into an immersive, AI-driven surroundings.

It’s about land and historical past and storytelling and know-how, nevertheless it’s actually about individuals. Dinkins, who was named certainly one of Time’s Most Influential Folks in AI, interviewed individuals in African American communities within the Bay Space to get the oral histories that the venture’s synthetic intelligence makes use of to generate immersive projections on 14-foot partitions — photographs the transfer and evolve.

It’s participatory, too, as guests can inform their very own tales into certainly one of a number of pink telephones — sure, actual old-school telephones — after which they, too, develop into a part of the digital tapestry.

Artist Stephanie Dinkins speaks on the opening “Data Trust,” her immersive artwork set up, on the San Jose ICA on Friday, Sept. 19, 2025. (Picture by Keith McCullom) 

Dinkins attended the launch of Knowledge Belief, which was supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Basis’s Hewlett 50 Arts Commissions and drew greater than 250 individuals. The mesmerized crowd included artists and lecturers from San Jose State, Santa Clara College, UC Berkeley and Stanford, together with a number of the venture interviewees and each San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and Stephen Caines, who serves as the town’s chief innovation officer.

It’s one thing that actually must be skilled, and fortuitously, there’s loads of time to take action. ICA Government Director James Leventhal says the venture might be up by means of subsequent March 22, to coincide with the return of Nvidia’s huge know-how convention, GTC. The ICA is open from midday to five p.m. Thursdays by means of Sundays, and you will get extra info at www.icasanjose.org.

HAPPY HOLLOW’S ‘UN-GALA’: Who says a fundraiser wants a giant ballroom, robes and tuxedos? Actually not Comfortable Hole Basis, which held its profit final Saturday outside in San Jose’s beloved park and zoo. As Comfortable Hole Basis Government Director Rhonda Nourse put it, the third annual “Hooray for Happy Hollow” was extra of an “un-gala” that inspired company to come back as they had been.

Danny the Dragon clowns round with company on the third annual “Hooray for Happy Hollow,” a fundraiser for Comfortable Hole Basis held on the San Jose park and zoo on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. (Picture courtesy Comfortable Hole Basis) 

Company roamed the grounds and took half in hands-on actions, together with assembly a few of Comfortable Hole Park & Zoo’s “animal ambassadors” up shut, earlier than letting it unfastened for the stay public sale.

The desserts — crafted and donated by native bakeries for the public sale — bought artistic with the zoo theme, together with a Monarch Meadow pollinator cake from Paris Ave. in Willow Glen and a Danny the Dragon-themed layer cake from Icing on the Cake that bought for $3,350 within the stay public sale. And it was touching that C’est Si Bon bakery in South San Jose created jaguar-themed cupcakes to honor Sophia, the zoo’s longtime huge cat who died in June at age 21 following a kidney illness prognosis.

However the huge public sale merchandise of the evening was the up-close Capybara Encounter, which bought thrice for $7,000 every — which means the zoo’s huge rodents could have a lot of firm within the coming months.

STITCHES IN TIME: The Santa Clara Valley Quilt Affiliation is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary with a quilt present this weekend on the swanky Membership Sportiva in North San Jose. SCVQA President Nancy Reis says members might be displaying a group of their favourite quilts, and there’ll even be distributors on the present as effectively.

The group helped set up the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles in 1977 and has had an extended historical past of sharing the quilting arts with the neighborhood. “The guild also has a recognized philanthropic history and to this day its members donate many quilts of all sizes to NICUs, hospitals, quilts for kids, shelters, veterans, and hospice,” Reis mentioned.

The Sept. 27-28 present opens at 10 a.m. each days, and tickets are $12 upfront or $15 on the door. You may get extra info at scvqa.org/quiltshow. Membership Sportiva is at 521 Charcot Ave, and parking is free.

SMALL LANGUAGE MODELS: Motion Day Faculties will minimize the ribbon Monday on two new school rooms for its first-ever Full Spanish Immersion Preschool program, geared toward youngsters from 2½ to five years outdated. When this system launched final month, its enrollment shortly maxed out with 33 college students, prompting the necessity for extra space pronto. The ten a.m. occasion at 2021 Lincoln Ave. in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood, is open to the general public.

“After 57 years of serving families in the South Bay, we are thrilled to expand our language immersion opportunities,” Motion Day Faculties President Cathy Jelic mentioned. “We know how valuable it is for children to learn a second language early, and we’re proud to offer a program that reflects the needs of today’s families.”

REMEMBERING LU RYDEN: Once you’re a Republican on the San Jose Metropolis Council, you have a tendency to face out. However that by no means gave the impression to be an issue for Lu Ryden, who served 10 years on the council from 1980 to 1990. Ryden, who died Sept. 17 at age 94 in Duluth, Ga., spent the latter half of that decade as the one conservative voice on the council.

Former San Jose Metropolis Councilmember Lu Ryden, photographed in 1994, died Sept. 17, 2025 in Duluth, Ga. Ryden, a Republican, served 10 years on the town council after internet hosting a girls’s speak present on KNTV and working a modeling company. (Picture by Patrick Tehan/Mercury Information) 

She actually had moxie, suggesting to KNTV that the TV station wanted a girls’s speak present — which she then hosted from the mid-Sixties to the early ’70s. When her TV stint completed, Ryden began a modeling company, after which was elected to workplace in 1980 when she was 50.

A 1994 profile by Leigh Weimers famous that her sharp wit and humorousness within the job not solely helped her handily win re-election but additionally allowed her to carry her personal with then-Mayor Tom McEnery. However she was on the dropping facet of many votes and was a vocal opponent of each homosexual rights initiatives and the Equal Rights Modification.

After she left workplace, she was very concerned with CityTeam Ministries and remained energetic in civic affairs. She left San Jose for Duluth in 2017, following the demise of her husband, Paul.