Jonathon Glus: Embracing San Diego as a Creative City

About this episode

Jonathon Glus discusses the importance of arts and culture in transforming downtown San Diego into a vibrant civic center.

Editor’s Note: This episode was recorded in March 2026, before the City of San Diego released its initial FY27 budget proposal . That proposal has since raised urgent questions about the future of public arts funding in San Diego, making Jonathon and Grant’s conversation about arts, culture, and downtown’s future especially timely. Jonathon Glus is the Prebys Senior Art & Design Fellow in Residence at the Downtown San Diego Partnership, working to help shape a bold vision for a more creative, vibrant, and connected downtown. A longtime arts leader, Jonathon brings national experience and a deep belief in the role artists, creative businesses, and cultural infrastructure can play in the life of a city. In San Diego, his work is focused on what it would take for downtown to become not only a place of business, but a civic and creative center worthy of the region’s talent, beauty, and binational identity. This Episode: What role do arts and culture play in helping a city thrive? Jonathon and Grant explore why downtowns still matter, not just as business districts, but as civic centers where people gather, connect, experience beauty, and feel part of a shared life. Jonathon makes…

People in this episode

Host: Grant Oliphant

Guest: Jonathon Glus

Topics covered

• arts and culture
• public funding
• urban development
• creative cities
• community engagement

Keywords

• San Diego
• arts funding
• creative city
• public spaces
• cultural infrastructure

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Prebys Foundation, Downtown San Diego Partnership

Places: San Diego

More episodes of Stop & Talk

• Dana Toppel: Housing, Hope, and Human Service · June 5, 2026 · 60 min
• Erin Harkey: Arts, Culture, and a Healthy Democracy · May 15, 2026 · 57 min
• Norma Chávez-Peterson: Courage, Community, and Defending Civil Liberties · April 17, 2026 · 60 min
• Jay Buys: Profit, Purpose, and the Future of Business · April 2, 2026 · 1h 1m
• Laura Castañeda: Journalism, Trust, and Telling the Full Story of a Border Region · March 19, 2026 · 1h 0m
• Gil Alvarado: Using All Our Resources to Benefit the Community · December 4, 2025 · 45 min