Luis Ituarte & Gerda Govine - Kelly Mellos

Luis Ituarte & Gerda Govine: Consejo Fronterizo de Arte y Cultura (COFAC)/Border Council of Arts and Culture

Luis Ituarte, third-generation Tijuanan and artist, has been working for 15 years in art and cultural exchanges between Tijuana, San Diego and Los Angeles under a program called "Bajo El Mismo Sol" (Under the same sun). Gerda Govine Ituarte, joined the endeavors and helped to consolidate "Bajo El Mismo Sol" into a non-profit organization in 2003, Consejo Fronterizo de Arte y Cultura (COFAC)/Border Council of Arts and Culture in the United States and Mexico. This maverick couple, with the help of many on both sides of the border, created through the arts, a space of understanding and cooperation between all the cultures of this region.

What is your vision of the future of the Visual arts for San Diego?

"This border region has grown into a center of multifarious hybridizations. San Diego is sandwiched between Los Angeles and Tijuana making these cities a cultural phenomenon in the context of global culture. This region is a "cell" of development of new postmodern social attitudes, and it is through the arts that we are gaining our first understanding of this reality."