ICA San Diego / North - Encinitas, California

Sydne R.

It is so hard to write this review! I had my wedding at ICA North on June 29, 2024. You want every review you write for your wedding to be a 5 star, but here I am struggling to leave 3. At the end of the day, the venue looked beautiful during our wedding, but leading up to the wedding was unnecessarily stressful and complicated.

When we originally toured, the gallery was set up with artwork. We were told we could reach out a month or two before our date to find out what artist would be displayed during our wedding. This was a huge selling point for us - we wanted to have a nearly fully outdoor wedding but loved that there would be a cool, interactive, indoor area where our guests could take a break from the wedding and enjoy the art. About 3 months before our date, we learn there would not be ANY art on our wedding date. Apparently, they decided not to have any art due to hosting summer camps at that time. Thus, the gallery area was essentially just an undecorated concrete box. This was super disappointing. To us, the venue price ($5,000) was worth it in part because of the art/galley - without that, it felt a little steep. We had originally planned to have guests enter through the gallery, but we had to rework our layout to have them enter through the back as we did not want them to enter through a random concrete room and we did not have the money/time/interest in decorating the room. Guests still ended up seeing the room as the bathrooms were in there. Overall very disappointing.

Our point person for communication changed about 3 times. The first person was a staff member at ICA and made us feel confident in ICA. He went on leave and we started working with a different staff person, and there was a huge disconnect. For example, on 2 occasions, we made an appointment via email to come visit the space to show our vendors, yet when we got there, no one expected us, and the people there were a little put off by us being there/seemed like we were not supposed to be there. It was like the person we were emailing with was not communicating with any other staff. About a month before the wedding, a third person became our point of contact. She was a third-party contractor/consultant. While it seemed like she had significant experience with events, it did not feel like she was "boots on the ground" at the venue - she was sort of like a middle man between us and the people actually at the venue. Also, she sent us a list of things she needed asap about 4 weeks out from the wedding (which is a stressful time!), which had never been requested before. They were all fair requests, but the list of things should have been sent to us further in advance - it almost felt like she thought we were late in submitting them even though they had not yet been requested.

I asked for a venue layout a few months out to start passing out to vendors. The layout I was sent conflicted with what the original staff member had told me re outlets (the staff member said there were multiple outside, the layout showed none outside). The person who sent it did not know if there were any outside. About 2 weeks out from the wedding, I was sent a new layout, that did show outlets outside. This caused unnecessary stress as I was trying to figure out how to get enough extension cords for all of my vendors to use indoor outlets even though they were all setting up outside.

I had a few personal touches that I planned to set up, including a photo display. I also needed to drop off a bunch of stuff day of. I asked to get to the venue at 10am day of. I explained that time was of the essence (as it was my actual wedding day and I needed to get ready shortly thereafter) and confirmed via phone and email that 10am worked and staff would be there to let me in. On the day of, I showed up at 10am with my parents and now in-laws and no one was there. I called the third-party contractor point person and she had to start calling staff. We ultimately waited over half an hour before someone arrived to let us in. Not how you want to start your wedding day!

Reed B.

ICA was a dream for our wedding venue!! We can’t say enough about this local contemporary art museum, as well as Victor & Sarah who helped us coordinate the best day of our lives! My wife & I live nearby and always knew ICA was a hidden gem in the Encinitas area – after visiting & speaking with Victor, we knew it was the perfect spot for our wedding day and it exceeded our expectations. The garden terrace is beautiful, well laid out, and provides enough flexibility to offer various options for setup. Also, the BEST PART is that access to the lower art gallery is included, so our guests were able to enjoy the amazing local art by Taylor Chapin. It provided a unique experience for our guests, something that we will certainly never forget. Victor & Sarah were such a pleasure to work with – they were flexible, punctual, and provided enough guidance while still encouraging us to make the venue our own. We would suggest reaching out to the ICA team for your next event – you won’t be disappointed!!

Raymond H.

Small museum that achieves big dreams.
Schedule a visit - it is worth it - and there is a lot to see and do.
The first building is for artist exhibits, a ceramic workshop, class rooms, and outdoor activities. The the second building, up the hill, is a gallery for the artist in residence.

TC R.

Salton Sea Arts project fields trip with the kids for Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians Reservation. They were checking out the area for there art exhibition

Laura M.

Amazing art institute, fun scavenger hunt outside. Spent a good hour walking around. Definitely recommend!

Nicole G.

Great little gallery that plays host to a good amount of art-centric events. Beautifully designed, inspiring space that actually has an artist suite in residence. Not something you'd think to see in SD. Can't wait to see what they do in the future, as they plan to expand the campus up onto the hill. Considered them for a potential event venue, but had to pass due to size. They were very accommodating and quick to respond.

Sean L.

Really amazing place, certainly one of the cultural gems of San Diego... They bring world renowned artists as part of their residency program, and they have super high quality studio art classes that anyone can sign up for. I've definitely never been dissapointed by a visit here 🙂

Lyla A.

I had the BEST experience at the Lux Art Institute, the practice runway for Fashion week San Diego and the Runway show !! ✨ SUCH AMAZING ART WORK and the environment is AMAZING ✨💖 thank you all so much!! These photos are from the practice runway show 💖💖#lylakalay ™️