‘Hometown Heroes’ exhibit showcases San Jose athletes, artists

I doubt anyone really looks forward to going to San Jose City Hall unless they’re skipping through the delightful Sonic Runway or practicing their skateboarding tricks. But now there’s another reason to pay a visit that doesn’t require sitting through a meeting.

This week, the city unveiled “Hometown Heroes,” a three-piece exhibition that showcases San Jose sports figures — from NFL stars to roller derby players and synchronized swimmers — while also putting a spotlight on the artists and photographers who bring their images to us. It’ll be on display through July 31, as the region hosts Super Bowl LX, NCAA men’s basketball games and FIFA World Cup soccer matches.

Digital screens throughout City Hall are displaying “The Community in Motion,” a rotating lineup of 44 sports photographs from 25 local photographers that capture people participating in all kinds of sports in San Jose, from Little League baseball to a Sharks game.

There’s also a display in the City Hall tower lobby featuring the work of Arnold Del Carlo, a professional photographer. Known to many just as “Del,” he chronicled a number of aspects of San Jose life with his camera in the post-World War II years. This exhibit focuses on his work on San Jose State’s athletic program.

But the most eye-catching piece is “Larger than Life,” the four vinyl murals adorning the long hallway in City’s Hall’s wing. Each of the four artists — Emilio Cortez, Elba Raquel, Sam Rodriguez and Alyssa Wigant — created a piece that works on its own, but taken together, they form a great tapestry of San Jose’s athletic heritage. They celebrate homegrown heroes like Jim Plunkett, Brandi Chastain, Steve Caballero and even Krazy George and highlight the lessons sports can teach us about adversity.

And, if you’re a Gen Xer like me, you’ll love Wigant’s woman-centered refresh of the ubiquitous Pee-Chee folders we all had in school with her piece, “She-Chee Folder.”

At the opening reception for the exhibition last Tuesday, San Jose Director of Cultural Affairs Kerry Adams Hapner also provided a rundown of the upcoming art installations and activations coming this winter and spring. They include the “Invisible Skies” event at City Hall on Jan. 31, “Minis,” featuring illuminated sculptures at City Hall created by Esteban Garcia Bravo and students from SJSU’s CADRE Media Lab, and “Free Throw,” an interactive projection-mapping installation by G. Craig Hobbs and the CADRE lab that’ll light up SAP Center in late March.

GREEN PARTY: Gratitude filled the courtyard of Mezcal restaurant in downtown San Jose on Thursday night at a “thank you” celebration for Alan “Gumby” Marques, who recently stepped down after serving as the San Jose Downtown Association’s interim CEO for nearly all of 2025. Mezcal owner Adolfo Gomez, who chairs the SJDA board, put together the festivities, along with fellow board members David Mulvehill of Nuvo Hospitality and Chris Shay of Sharks Sports and Entertainment.

Marques, who owns Heroes Martial Arts in downtown San Jose, has been involved with the Downtown Association for more than a decade and stepped in after the sudden departure of CEO Alex Stettinski last April. Now that the SJDA has hired Brian Kurtz as its new CEO, Marques can go back to his day job full-time, though he told me he values the perspective he got on downtown issues from holding the interim position.

“What makes San Jose so unique is that any one of us can make an impact here in whatever way you decide to do that,” Marques said. “It’s really your opportunity more so than anyplace in the world, and I’ve been around.”

Marques picked up the “Gumby” nickname long ago, and it stuck because of his flexibility in jiu jitsu. Naturally, the party was filled with Gumby references. There was a green Gumby cocktail served, Gumby cartoons on the TVs and Gomez unveiled a huge piñata-like sculpture of the Gumby character as a gift for Marques. Shay presented him with a Sharks jersey emblazoned with “Gumby” on the back and No. 75, which is the number of Sharks winger Ryan Reaves known for his, shall we say, physical play on the ice. That’s perfect, Shay said, as Marques is a fighter for downtown.

SKATE ON: A few weeks ago, I mentioned that Tricia McNabb, manager of the downtown San Jose ice skating rink, was hoping a sponsor would come through to keep the rink open through the Super Bowl. PG&E answered the call, and you can glide to your heart’s delight in the Circle of Palms through Feb. 8 now. By the way, the San Jose Downtown Association is referring to the rink as “Skate Under the Palms” these days, and you can get hours and other info at www.skateunderthepalms.com. I guess telling people you run Downtown Ice doesn’t have the same benign meaning it once did.

THAT’S ITALIAN: The Mission Chamber Orchestra’s collaboration with San Jose’s Italian American Heritage Foundation continues for a fourth year next weekend with “Italy by the Bay,” on Feb. 1.

For the 3 p.m. concert at the IAHF’s cultural center at 425 N. Fourth St., the orchestra will be joined by Francesco Darmanin, a native of Florence, Italy, who is not only the guest clarinet soloist but also the composer of one of the pieces. The orchestra will perform Darmanin’s “Foglie di Narciso,” and he also will be the soloist for Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. Surprised to find Mozart in a program of Italian music? Juan Cristóbal Palacios, the Mission Chamber Orchestra’s music director, says the music of Venice, Naples and Rome shaped Mozart’s development as much as Vienna did.

You can get more information on the concert program and purchase tickets at www.missionchamber.org.