Enter if You Dare

Imagining the Possibilities of Our Surroundings

Join us for our FREE community Marcus Festival, Enter if You Dare, on Friday, July 17th from 6 – 10 pm! Get ready for an exhilarating night of music, movement, and art—explore our exhibition The Art & Architecture of Maybe. Dance between multiple sound stages with Zuri Alexa and Ritmos Calientes, then catch Lucas Artists Fellow Rashid Zakat’s unforgettable video DJ finale. Watch Melecio Estrella and Damara Ganley bring site-responsive performances and surprise moments to life across the gardens, and see the magic unfold as Wingspan: A Wearable Sanctuary is activated. Join in the fun by helping to create two community art projects, including one with Namita Paul.

Enter If You Dare is a public celebration of this year’s Marcus Exhibition, The Art & Architecture of Maybe. Free parking and shuttles available from West Valley College.

NO PARKING AT MONTALVO.

The Art & Architecture of Maybe, Montalvo’s 2026 Marcus Exhibition, examines the role that art, when integrated with architectural elements and sensibilities, can have in building community. While art is an act of personal communication, architecture is explicitly committed to connecting people to each other and the landscape. At the intersection of these two disciplines, the horizon line of magical thinking becomes visible. 

The thirteen contemporary artists featured in this exhibition are actively engaged in this social experiment by encouraging us to see and move from/through/around our immediate worlds, environments, and homes. Their work consists of clever portals and whimsical structures. Their materials of expression include wood, metal, glass, fabric, and video. Equally intentional is their use of built forms that play with light, shadow, color, transparency, void, and mass to encourage viewers to enter physically and emotionally into these “spaces” and engage with the works.  

NO PUBLIC PARKING AT MONTALVO FOR THIS EVENT

Designated parking is available at West Valley College in lot 4. To simplify your arrival, Montalvo provides complimentary shuttle service from the West Valley College parking area directly to the Marcus Festival.

NOTE: The last shuttle from West Valley College to Montalvo will depart at 9 pm for the event, while the final return shuttle from Montalvo to West Valley College will leave at 10 pm.

RIDE SHARE DROP-OFFS ONLY

Rideshare (Taxi/Lyft/Uber) drop-offs will be allowed, but no pick-ups. If you are using a rideshare service, please take the shuttle to West Valley when you depart and call from there.

5:45 PM

• Shuttle service begins at West Valley College

6 – 8:45 PM

•  DJ set with Zuri Alexa & Rashid Zakat – Front Lawn

6 – 9 PM

• Wingspan: A Wearable Sanctuary activation through the night – Parking Lot 2
• (Art-Making Hub) Montalvo’s Origami City – Front Lawn
  • In line with the theme of this year’s exhibition, we invite everyone to participate in creating a Montalvo cityscape. Using origami paper, guests may craft an architectural structure to construct their very own origami Montalvo community.

• (Art-Making Hub) Community Landscape: A Participatory Artwork with LAP 2023 Fellow Namita Paul – Front Lawn
  • Join this community artwork. Using fabric markers, thread and your creativity, share where you find refuge. Pieces from this activity will be used to construct an artwork that will be on display in Namita’s upcoming exhibition, Thresholds of Memory. Thresholds of Memory is a solo exhibition of works by Namita Paul organized by Montalvo Arts Center’s Lucas Artists Program and curated by Judy Koong Dennis. It will be presented at Miro Gallery located at 181 E. Santa Clara St, San Jose.

• Montalvo Service Group Shop – Villa Library
• SCC Saratoga Seed Library Pop-Up – Charmaine’s Garden Terrace

6:30 / 8 PM

• LAP 2023 Fellow Melecio Estrella & Damara Ganley perform – Front Lawn; Cedar tree

A diptych of dance and song at intimate altitudes – between earth and sky, hand and ear, nervous system and ground. Damara Ganley and Melecio Estrella have an ongoing practice of dance and song that spans 2 decades. before we were trees is a movement on this continuum, living in response to the art, architecture, landscape and people present here at the Marcus Festival.

6:55 – 9:30 PM

• DJ Set with Ritmos Calientes – Italianate Garden; Love Temple

7:15 PM

• LAP 2023 Fellow Melecio Estrella & Damara Ganley perform – Italianate Garden; Double Vision: Doorway

8 – 9:30 PM

• Community tea service at Rolling Counterpoint & Holding what you have lost with Taro Hattori – Behind Parking Lot 2

9 PM

• Bar closes and alcoholic beverages are no longer served (non-alcoholic drinks will still be available)

9 – 10 PM

• Video DJ projection by Rashid Zakat – Villa Facade

10:20 PM

• Last shuttle departs Montalvo

Soda, beer, and wine will be available for purchase at the bar on the Villa’s Veranda. Alcohol service ends at 9 pm (non-alcoholic drinks will still be available).

Food will be available on the Front Lawn, in Parking Lot 2 and in the Villa Solarium:

• Waffle Roost
• Yakitori Harue
• Road Dogs
• Smokin’ J’s Pulled Pork Tacos by LAP Residency Chef Jose Ortiz
• Rocko’s Ice Cream Tacos
• Lucy’s Fruits

Coming Soon!

The exhibition is made possible by the George and Judy Marcus Family Foundation and the Jo and Barry Ariko Fund for Artistic Programs. It is presented with gratitude and appreciation for the Lucas Artists Program Committee, the Montalvo Acquisition Committee, and the many partners who invest in Montalvo Arts Center.