Results tagged “museum”

      

The Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956-1968 makes its West Coast debut today at the Skirball Center. It features more than 160 images that were taken by professional and amateur photographers and social activists to chronicle the injustice in America and helped build the momentum for the civil rights movement.

It was just a year ago that wealthy philanthropist Eli Broad came to save the day at MOCA by offering the museum a much-needed bailout to help keep it on its feet. By summer, however, the Broad Foundation had begun to chatter publicly about future cultural endeavors, namely a museum of contemporary art of their own. At the time, "Broad said that the museum 'is going to happen' and that it's merely a matter of timing," reported the LA Times. Broad was enthused about having the space in 90210: "Our first choice is the Beverly Hills site."

Since February, the Grammy Museum has hosted a special exhibit featuring some of Michael Jackson's glitzy clothes. It was scheduled to come down this summer, but following his death, the media storm jumped onto the museum--even Larry King did a live episode from there--and the exhibit turned into one of the city's various ad hoc memorial points (other ones included his Hollywood Star and the Encino family compound).

The pop-up museum that is Environmentaland is going away after Wednesday. It's a nicely done and unique project by Global Inheritance. The interactive museum (or theme park, as they describe) has stuff like bikes that you pedal to create different kinds of energy, a design your own recycling bin area and a taste test that let's you see the difference between sustainable and regular food.

Curbed LA caught the installation of some panels from the Berlin Wall at 5900 Wilshire Blvd., across from LACMA: "The exhibition is part of Culver City-based Wende Museum's commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Wall... When finished (a total of 10 panels will go up), the exhibition will constitute the largest concentration of Berlin Wall panels outside of Europe."

       

This weekend brings the opportunity to check out many of our area museums for a can't-beat-it price: Absolutely free. If you've got more time than dimes these days, hit up as many of our amazing art, history, science, and culture museums at no charge.

The movement to save the axed Film Program, chiefly its Weekend Film series and much of the museum's film-related endeavors, has been taking place swiftly where most movements do their work these days: Online. There is a Save Film @ LACMA blog, Twitter, Facebook fan page, and online petition. Now add this video to the list of efforts underway to urge the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to keep their film program alive.

It's made the internet rounds in the pas few years and today sister site Chicagoist talks up an Egyptian Bust from sometimes between 1550 BC and 1050 BC that is currently in the collection at the Field Museum. The bust's nose has a striking similarity to Jackson's post surgery one. "95% of Egyptian statues and busts were defiled by early Christians and Muslims because they were used for idolatry," a Museum spokesperson said. "They looked at these as idols and taking the nose off made them 'non-human.'" Chicagoist is not sure if that applies to Jackson, too. In any case, do you remember the time?

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art announced yesterday that after four decades, they were ending their much-loved weekend film series, but hopes to reassure fans and patrons that they aren't abandoning film altogether, reports the LA Times.

As Hollywood loses the Knitting Factory, it gains Madame Tussauds. Even trade? Not at all. But as tourism goes, the wax museum will be a sticky attraction. 350 construction jobs were created out of the project and over 100 permanent operational jobs will exist thanks to Madame Tussauds, according to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office, which expects it to have an annual fiscal impact of $800,000. A ribbon cutting with the Mayor and others will take place tomorrow morning.

              

As part of the current exhibit "Your Bright Future" things are looking very colorful at LACMA these days. Two of the most striking parts of the show include the work of Korean artists Choi Jeong-Hwa, whose blue, red, and yellow swaths of fabric, "Welcome," drape the museum's exterior, and the bright and dangling "HappyHappy" delight the visitors. LACMA's site explains more about the artists and his work:

The only artist in the exhibition who has not studied or lived abroad, Choi Jeong-Hwa proudly proclaims that he was "made in Korea." Renowned as the father of Korean pop art, he has produced three temporary outdoor installations for Your Bright Future. In Welcome, swaths of brightly colored fabric stretch from roof to balustrade on the south and west facades of LACMA's Ahmanson Building. Two other works are both titled HappyHappy. One comprises long strings of colorful plastic containers that hang from ceiling to floor in the museum's BP Grand Entrance. The other, near Sixth Street, includes five sections of chain-link fence, on which visitors can hang their own sculptures made of plastic containers.

On Saturday night, Councilman Tom LaBonge showed off prototype neighborhood sign for the maybe-future Little Italy neighborhood in the downtown area. "The borders of what would make up a Little Italy would certainly take debate," noted Ed Fuentes of blogdowntown. "The Italian community in Los Angeles was originally centered in land that is today occupied by Chinatown." Last weekend's 1st Annual Taste of Italy was held at Italian Hall where in 2010, a museum is slated to open with exhibits intended to educate the public about Italian-American Angelenos.

       

In light of Michael Jackson's death, a small and recently closed exhibit featuring some of the pop star's wardrobe selections made a return yesterday at the Grammy Museum in downtown LA. Fans, the media and even one impersonator flocked the museum Friday, increasing the usual attendance and drawing more interest for the weekend when even larger crowds are expected. Michael Jackson: HIStyle features the suit worn on the Thriller album cover, two gloves and more. In the same rotunda, an original Grammy documentary repeats throughout the day.

This summer marks the 40th anniversary of Woodstock and across the nation, museums will be opening exhibits about the famous event. The Grammy Museum downtown is taking a new twist and when their exhibit opens this August, it will be through the eyes of festival goers--the people's history of Woodstock, in a sense.

News of increased parking rates--yeah, $15--at The Getty Center and Villa effective July 1st did not go over so well with some people. So today, they announced that it will be free after 5 p.m. on Saturday nights when the Getty Center is open 'til 9 p.m. The Getty Villa is not open Saturdays, so it does not apply there. Of course, museum admission has always and will always be free so if you can get there car free, none of this matters.

Racing WiFi controlled cars around the Museum of Contemporary Art sure sounds like a fun thing to do on a Friday night, which is how the blogger behind Things to do in LA wound up at the museum trying to get a good race going. It seems the bottom line for this event was A for innovation of idea (racing WiFi controlled cars around an art museum does sound like a quirky, cool thing to do) but an F for execution. Apparently there were many technical glitches that kept the races from running smoothly. All in all, though, despite the delayed signals, it was, according to the blogger, a lot of fun. Here's one piece of the race captured on the video (the rest are on his blog).

Los Angeles blazes the trail when it comes to the t-shirt. The lightweight garment wears ideally for our SoCal weather, and it’s casual versatility is locked in a cultural groove. We’re home to the $1,850 t-shirt, numerous eye-sore trendy brands, and a slew of feaux-vintage, nearly-ironic t’s whose wearer looks the butt of a silent joke. Thankfully those aren’t our only options.

            

Hollywood auction house Profiles in History is running two separate auctions today and tomorrow, but both have some killer and, well, out there stuff.

              

On November 6, 1913 the then-named Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art opened. Nearly a hundred years later, LA's first museum building is almost ready for public consumption.

Los Angeles, meet the 761 Metro Rapid. The CNG-fueled bus takes you right to the front gates of the Getty from either Westwood or Sherman Oaks. Round trip? $2.50 or $5 if you're transferring from another bus. Why start taking the bus? Well, the Getty is raising the parking rate once again, this time to $15. "The Getty likes to call itself a museum accessible to the whole city, but it's starting to sound more like a Bel-Air hilltop institution," sniped Kevin Roderick at LA Observed. Nevertheless, the economy has got everyone in a crunch and this is the second time in a year that the fee has gone up. Museum admission will remain free and the parking fee increase also affects the Getty Villa location.

On Sunday at LA Heritage Day, when over 60 local historical groups gathered at Heritage Square, one of the most crowded booths was from the Museum of the San Fernando Valley. The museum's president, Jerry Fecht, displayed hundreds of historical postcards drawing people to see what their Valley home looked like before massive development.

The Getty has a nearly-three-decades-long reputation of being an unabashedly wealthy organization with lofty cultural ideals. Launched in 1982, the Trust was put in place to assure late tycoon J. Paul Getty's vision of bringing art to the people and spreading knowledge. Despite some growing pains (and what billionaire family doesn't have a little scandal now and then?) the Getty, predominantly associated with their two local museums, has remained a stalwart figure in the local and international art scene. But the Getty isn't impervious to the fickle fate of finances, and last December, the Trust revealed that their endowment monies had shrunk by 25%.

The Sports Museum of Los Angeles opened with much fanfare on November 28th last year, but just three months later has already closed its doors to the general public, according to the Downtown News.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is part of 15 museums and cultural institutions nation-wide contributing to the Wikipedia Loves Art program, which kicked off yesterday and runs all February long. "Here’s how it works: for the month of February, LACMA and other museums welcome the public to photograph permanent collection objects to help Wikipedia illustrate its articles. Think of it as an art scavenger hunt," explains LACMA's Unframed blog.

LA's Museum of Contemporary Art may have been saved by Eli Broad and his millions, but their road to recovery will be long and hard. As part of their efforts to curb operational costs, and in what is becoming a disheartening national and local trend, the museum "has announced it will lay off 32 employees as part of an effort to finish the year free of debt," the Daily News reports. The layoffs reflect a 20 per cent reduction in staff, and affect 16 full-time and 16 part-time jobs. In addition to the layoffs, the museum's new Chief Executive, Charles Young, says "other cost-cutting operations would save the museum some $4.4. million annually."

"All plans are tentative; all courses of action provisional. The only certainty is that the J. Paul Getty Museum is very rich, indeed," wrote the LA Times in 1982. And so the journey to build the Getty Center in the Sepulveda Pass began. Today the Wall Street Journal explores the Getty's financial history, from the 50s until today where it is up against the recession just like everyone else. Says James N. Wood, the museum's director: "We are an institution that is entering young adulthood. It's been a hell of an adolescence: rich, painful and with fighting among siblings."

Today is the first day you can see the floats for Thursday's parade. People will still be putting the final touches on them, but if you don't plan on attending or watching on TV, this your alternative. Some people find this more fun anyway.

Los Angeles' beleaguered Museum of Contemporary Art has been resuscitated by the generous purse-strings of a well-known benefactor. According to the LA Times, MOCA's board "has voted to accept a $30-million bailout offer from billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad, a founder and life trustee of the museum and the city's largest arts patron." This means that MOCA will not opt for a merger with LACMA and will instead to continue to operate independently. Broad has said that despite his philanthropic connection to LACMA, he feels there will be no damage to his relationship with them in light of his move to rescue MOCA.

Our ailing outpost for contemporary art has reached a preliminary agreement with wealthy philanthropist Eli Broad for financial rescue, the New York Times is reporting. "The agreement, which the board voted on at a long meeting Thursday afternoon, is not final and is subject to numerous conditions, including Mr. Broad’s examinations of the museum’s financial accounts, according to the people, two of whom attended the meeting on Thursday." Broad went on the record several weeks ago as believing that Los Angeles was not a "one-philanthropist town" and urged people to rally to aid MOCA. One institution has rallied--LACMA--and their deal hasn't been entirely dismissed. In fact, if the Broad bailout doesn't work, a merger of the museums could very well be the next option. MOCA expects to announce their plans as early as next week.

"Let me begin by stressing that the Gettys endowment is managed prudently, with careful oversight," wrote Getty Trust Chief Executive James N. Wood in a memo to staff that was obtained by the LA Times. "But the Getty has not been immune to the steep decline in financial markets which has affected so many of our peers even more seriously. Our endowment ended the 2008 fiscal year at $5.980 billion and, since that time, with financial markets deteriorating further, the value of the endowment has declined roughly 25%."