When the World Comes to Life

The first artwork on the UC San Diego campus created by a Native American artist, Johnny Bear Contreras' When the World Comes to Life is a 400-pound aluminum sculpture inspired by the origin stories and cosmology of the Kumeyaay people. Contreras was inspired by a moment in the cosmology of the Kumeyaay where "four individuals [were] hovering above us, and then the stars in between...a moment in where the world literally came to life."

Created in partnership with students at UC San Diego's Muir College, the sculpture represents diversity, sustainability, and solidarity as fundamental values of the College. On the north-side panel, "figures are intertwined as if they are dancing...they are deliberately gender fluid and encourage us to 'see people as people' in the words of Bear." On the south-side, "Bird singers with gourds suggest stories of creation, of journeying, and of transformation. Marine plants and aquatic flowers flow between the figures, illustrating the importance of the sea."

Contreras is a member of the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians and a local public artist. His work has been installed permanently at Our Lady of Angels Cathedral in Los Angeles, Valley View Casino, Poway City Hall, and the University of San Diego and San Diego State University campuses.

When the World Comes to Life was officially dedicated in 2019.