About Us

vision

Art on 30th was the vision of Kate Ashton in 2013 and officially opened its doors in January 2015. Ashton wanted a venue that honored the artists she mentored, a space that would be inspiring not only to work in, but for all who visit.

An 8,000 square foot, 2-story art center made up of a community of artists who are courageous enough to take their art to market and do it successfully.

history

The building that is now Art on 30th once housed the Morse Security Company. We left the original mosaic logo in the lobby floor for the first 5 years we were open as an homage to the building’s history.

The original Samuel Morse was an artist made famous by his portrait of American President John Adams. He also invented the Morse Code. So the mosaic has an unexpected association with art.

Check out the Google virtual tour:

celebrating 10 years

It has been our great honor and privilege to provide a community art center, accessible not just to all of San Diego, but also to North County.

We have offered over 100 themed art shows open to any artists in San Diego County. Each show is presented with a warm and welcoming reception with finger foods and wine.
We began with just one teacher and now proudly work with over 25 instructors currently.
We have offered many traditional art classes like drawing, oil, acrylic, and watercolor. In addition to these, we have set the standard for presenting 'experimental' classes in Mark Making, German Expressionism, Abstract Drawing, Big & Bad Abstracts, plus numerous fun and unexpected workshops.
We have been the first to offer a 24-Week Mentorship Program, graduating over 50 artists who learned to create a body of work and gained the sales tools they needed to take their work to market. We have even had artists move to San Diego from out of state just to attend this program.
We are the only San Diego art center that offers a continuous Professional Artist Program to provide support for exceptional artists to be able to work together and display their artwork at Ashton Gallery.
We offer sought-after private studio spaces to over 20 working artists, who benefit from the regular receptions that bring in hundreds of art lovers every 5 weeks.
We have hosted a national show every fall with several hundred art entries. Each of these shows are accompanied by cash prizes for award winners and a printed catalog that gives each juried artist a full-color page to showcase their accepted artwork.
Four of the shows that we have hosted over the years have been successful fundraisers for charitable organizations; giving proceeds to the Ukrainian people, endangered animals, fostering dogs, and supporting humane treatment of farm animals.
Our senior instructor, mentor and owner, Kate Ashton has published a book that features local artists and supports new and experienced artists from all over the world in how to become better abstract artists. It exclusively used over 100 full page, color images of artwork created by artists from Art on 30th to illustrate the book's principles.
We have been proudly and joyfully supporting our mission statement: "Where Artists Come to Grow" with art studios, art classes, art workshops, regional juried art shows, and national juried art shows.