San Diego Weekend Guide: Nov. 22-24 – Crafts & Critters

Arts and crafts take their turn in the spotlight this San Diego weekend but make a little room for the fur babies too.

The Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad hosts Kyshona, a music therapist, who through her organization Your Song, facilitates therapeutic songwriting sessions with groups and individuals while also trying to help those who feel “lost, silenced, forgotten or alone.” Her show starts at 7 p.m. Friday and tickets cost $35.

The San Diego Tap and Jazz Dance Fest, opening Saturday, features classes and performances over four days at Keiller Leadership Academy in Skyline. The event concludes with a showcase at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Individual classes cost $35, and day passes $133 and up. Social dances cost $15, but Sunday’s 5 p.m. swing event, at Panama 66 in Balboa Park, is free.

Celebrate the pet in your life – or perhaps acquire one? – at the free Doggie Street Festival in Liberty Station. It opens at 9 a.m. Saturday with an “adopt-a-thon” and vets and vendors, for tips and pet products. For fun, there’s music, a kids art area and contests.

How’s that shopping going? You know, for that big holiday that comes after next week’s big holiday. Well, if you’re an early starter – or you’re looking for the best in homemade decorations – we have a couple of events for you:

• The Japanese Friendship Garden’s Holiday Market opens at 10 a.m. Saturday with more than 20 vendors and artists sharing their products and creations. There will be food booths too. Entry is included with $16 garden admission.
• Makers Arcade has a North County pop-up at Tremont Collective in Oceanside at 11 a.m. Saturday with 70 local vendors. Extras include live music, a handmade workshop and kids crafts. Green Cheek Beer Company offers food and drinks too.
• The Encinitas Holiday Street Fair begins at 9 a.m. Sunday along six blocks of 101 South Coast Highway. More than 450 vendors are expected for the showcase, along with local businesses. The event also features carnival rides, a beer garden and multiple acts on three stages.

A $20-million initiative by Getty, PST Art: Art & Science Collide, is funding an exploration of those connections in shows at dozens of museums. See two associated events this weekend:

• ICA San Diego in Balboa Park hosts a live performance at 4 p.m. Saturday with Project [BLANK] as part of the “Restless Waters” exhibit by Nathalie Miebach. It’s the artist’s first exhibit in San Diego, with Project [BLANK] providing vocals, electronics and chamber music to accompany Miebach’s visualizations of extreme weather patterns. Admission is free but online reservations are required.
• The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla hosts a weekend of PST events Saturday and Sunday. Two local instructors, Amy Cimini of UC San Diego and Charissa Noble of the University of San Diego perform at 3 p.m. Saturday in honor of the late composer Pauline Oliveros. The the free PST Art Party follows at 5 p.m. RSVP for free admission.