San Jose, California

=== Visual arts ===
[[File:Happy Birthday San Jose (24637282368).jpg|thumb|left|Celebrations for the 240th anniversary of the founding of San Jose at the [[Peralta Adobe]] in 2017.]]
Public art is an evolving attraction in the city. The city was one of the first to adopt a public art ordinance at 2% of capital improvement building project budgets,<ref>{{cite web |title=2006–2007 Proposed Capital Budget |url=http://www.sanjoseca.gov/budget/FY0607/ProposedCapital/28.pdf |website=City of San Jose |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060822225404/http://www.sanjoseca.gov/budget/FY0607/ProposedCapital/28.pdf |archive-date=August 22, 2006}}</ref> and as a result of this commitment, a considerable number of public art projects exist in the downtown area, and a growing collection in neighborhoods including libraries, parks, and fire stations. In particular, the Mineta Airport expansion incorporated art and technology into its development.
Early public art included a statue of [[Quetzalcoatl]] (the plumed serpent) downtown, controversial in its planning because some called it pagan, and controversial in its implementation because many felt that the final statue by [[Robert Graham (sculptor)|Robert Graham]] did not look like a winged serpent, and was more noted for its expense than its aesthetics. Locals joked that the statue resembles a pile of [[feces]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Herhold: I'll miss the red eyes of San Jose's plumed serpent |url=http://www.mercurynews.com/scott-herhold/ci_17274049?nclick_check=1 |work=San Jose Mercury News |date=February 2, 2011 |first=Scott |last=Herhold |access-date=April 15, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120125225457/http://www.mercurynews.com/scott-herhold/ci_17274049?nclick_check=1 |archive-date=January 25, 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref>

A statue of [[Thomas Fallon]] also met strong resistance from those who called him largely responsible for the decimation of early native populations. [[Chicano]]/Latino activists protested because he had captured San Jose by military force in the [[Mexican–American War]] (1846). They also protested the perceived "repression" of historic documents detailing Fallon's orders expelling many of the city's [[Californio]] (early Spanish/Mexican/Mestizo) residents. In October 1991 protests at [[Columbus Day]] and [[Dia de la Raza]] celebrations stalled than plan, and the statue was stored in a warehouse in [[Oakland, California|Oakland]] for more than a decade. The statue returned in 2002 to a less conspicuous location: Pellier Park, a small triangular patch at the merge of West Julian and West St. James streets.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2002/09/16/daily78.html |title=Fallon statue unveiled |work=Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal |date=September 20, 2002 |access-date=June 18, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050314193405/http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2002/09/16/daily78.html |archive-date=March 14, 2005 |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:Thomas Fallon Statue.jpg|thumb|upright|Statue of [[Thomas Fallon]], 10th [[Mayor of San Jose]].]]
In 2001, the city-sponsored SharkByte, an exhibit of decorated [[shark]]s based on the mascot of the hockey team, the San Jose Sharks, and modeled after Chicago's display of decorated cows.<ref>{{cite web |author=Jim LaFrenere |url=http://www.chicagotraveler.com/cows_on_parade.htm |title=Chicago cows on parade exhibit |publisher=Chicagotraveler.com |access-date=July 1, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100924112447/http://chicagotraveler.com/cows_on_parade.htm |archive-date=September 24, 2010 }}</ref> Large models of sharks decorated in clever, colorful, or creative ways by local artists were displayed for months at dozens of locations around the city. After the exhibition, the sharks were auctioned off for charity.

In 2006, [[Adobe Systems]] commissioned an art installation titled ''San Jose Semaphore'' by Ben Rubin,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZBJbIP0fMr0C&pg=PA342 |title=Entangled: Technology and the Transformation of Performance |author=Chris Salter |first2=Peter |last2=Sellars |year=2010 |page=342 |isbn=978-0-262-19588-1 |publisher=The MIT Press |access-date=November 20, 2020 |archive-date=April 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423094456/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZBJbIP0fMr0C&pg=PA342 |url-status=live }} --via Google Books.</ref> at the top of its headquarters building. Semaphore is composed of four LED discs which "rotate" to transmit a message. The content remained a mystery until it was deciphered in August 2007.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/philanthropy/sjsemaphore/past.html |title=San José Semaphore – 2006 Contest – Past Contest – How the code was cracked |publisher=Adobe.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021164919/http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/philanthropy/sjsemaphore/past.html |archive-date=October 21, 2012 |access-date=November 10, 2013}}</ref><ref name=semaphore>{{cite web |url=http://www.earstudio.com/sanjosesemaphore/decoding.pdf |title=Decoding the San Jose Semaphore |date=August 14, 2007 |publisher=Ear Studio |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120304134307/http://www.earstudio.com/sanjosesemaphore/decoding.pdf |archive-date=March 4, 2012 |access-date=November 9, 2013}}</ref> The visual art installation is supplemented with an audio track, transmitted from the building on a low-power AM station. The audio track provides clues to decode the message being transmitted.

San Jose retains a number of murals in the Chicano history tradition of [[Diego Rivera]] and [[José Clemente Orozco]] of murals as public textbooks.<ref name=SJMN>{{cite news| title=San Jose's Disappearing Murals: 'It's Like Wiping Away People's History' |author=Leonardo Castaneda |publisher=Bay Area News Group |work=San Jose Mercury-News| page=A1 |date=December 16, 2018 }}</ref>

Although intended to be permanent monuments to the city's heritage as a mission town founded in 1777, a number of murals have been painted over, notably ''Mural de la Raza'', on the side of a Story Rd shoe store, and ''Mexicatlan'' at the corner of Sunset and Alum Rock. In addition, two of three murals by Mexican artist Gustavo Bernal Navarro have disappeared.<ref name=SJMN /> The third mural, ''La Medicina y la Comunidad'' at the Gardner clinic on East Virginia Street, depicts both modern and traditional healers.<ref name=SJMN />

Surviving Chicano history murals include ''Nuestra Senora de Guadelupe'' at Our Lady of Guadalupe church and the 1970s or 1980s ''Virgen de Guadelupe Huelga Bird'' at Cal Foods east of downtown. The Guadalajara restaurant has the 1986 ''Guadalajara Market No. 2'' by Edward Earl Tarver III and a 2013 work by Jesus Rodriguez and Empire 7, ''La Gran Culture Resonance''.<ref name=SJMN />

An unknown artist painted the ''Huelga Bird and Aztec City'' mural in the 1970s or 1980s on the Clyde L. Fisher Middle School. In 1995 Antonio Nava Torres painted ''The Aztec Calendar Handball Court'' at Biebrach Park, and the unknown artist of ''Chaco's Pachuco'' painted it on the former Chaco's Restaurant in the 1990s. The ''Jerry Hernandez'' mural by Frank Torres at Pop's Mini Mart on King Road dates to 2009, and another recent mural by Carlos Rodriguez on the Sidhu Market at Locust and West Virginia depicts a stern-looking warrior.<ref name=SJMN />