You See LA: Summer 2018

5 things to see and do around Los Angeles handpicked by UCLA Arts Faculty

July 19, 2018

Since fall 2014, UCLA Arts has invited a member of its community to hand pick five things to see and do around Los Angeles each quarter for its ongoing You See LA series. From off-the-beaten-track historic sites, to quirky eateries and neighborhood institutions, to self-guided walking tours and the best arts and culture offerings in a given season, UCLA Arts faculty and alumni have shared their personal insights into the only-in-LA attractions that make our city so vibrant. Read on for selected recommendations to check out this summer, and peruse past editions for a glimpse into the UCLA Arts community's Los Angeles.

Architecture and Urban Design Professor Sylvia Lavin (Spring 2018)

^{Johnston Marklee, Mameg, Beverly Hills, California, 2007.}

In the 18^th century, if you were interested in the world around you, you were probably an amateur scientist; and since there were relatively few schools, most scientists were amateurs. Instead of university, a common form of education was to be had by going shopping for scientific instruments. While demonstrating their skill in making telescopes, for example, a consumer would be inducted into the logic of scientific experiment and observation. L.A. is home to the most extraordinary contemporary version of this kind of accidental education: Mameg—an exquisite and high end clothing store owned, perhaps curated is the better term, by the exquisite and down-to-earth Sonia Eram. Drop by and ask her about anything in the store, whether it is a dress or an object not for sale, and you will be treated to the most extraordinary education in design you could ever ask for.

Mameg
9970 South Santa Monica Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA 90212

More things to see and do around Los Angeles handpicked by Sylvia Lavin

Design Media Arts Professor Erkki Huhtamo (Winter 2018)

^{The Last Bookstore.}

An absolute must is The Last Bookstore at the Spring Arts Tower (5th & Spring). It is much more than a traditional bookstore. In its 22,000 square foot space it has really become an independent cultural center hosting events and alternative art and design galleries. As most independent bookstores have disappeared from the LA area, regular visits to The Last Bookstore have become, for me, an obsession. Here, I can still do what I have done all my life, browse shelf after shelf of great and unusual books, looking for things that have escaped my attention. The only thing that saddens me are the hordes of visitors who seem to have no interest in reading. They use books as a background for their selfies (huge numbers are taken every day at the entrance to the “book tunnel” and posted on social media). As someone who is interested in the things between the covers, I hate the idea of book as decoration.

More things to see and do around Los Angeles handpicked by Erkki Huhtamo

Fowler Museum Chief Curator Matthew Robb (Winter 2017)

^{Image courtesy: The Velaslavasay Panorama.}

The Velaslavasay Panorama
Open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, 12–6 p.m.
Admission is granted to all with a suggested donation of $6 for entrance ($4 Students & Seniors).

With all its movie history, it’s great that LA has a few spots where you can experience the technologies and spectacles that preceded cinema and even photography. Effulgence of the North is a meditative 360-degree presentation of a frozen landscape, complete with changing light and sound suggesting cracking ice—a modern version of the kinds of visual spectacles that residents of London, New York, and Los Angeles could experience in the 19th century. A great break from the urban chaos of LA, this refurbished movie theater in University Park also has a funky garden, and they host a range of screenings and performances, including silent films with contemporary musical accompaniment and the occasional 3D movie.

More things to see and do around Los Angeles handpicked by Matthew Robb

Art Alumnus Brian Bress (Fall 2016)

^{Trouvelot Hallway at the Museum of Jurassic Technology. Credit: Museum of Jurassic Technology.}

Museum of Jurassic Technology
9341 Venice Boulevard
Culver City, California 90232
Adults, $8; Children aged 13 to 21, $5; Students in full-time education, $5; Persons 60 years or older, $5; Unemployed persons, $5; Disabled Persons, $1.50; Active service personnel in uniform, $1.50; Children 12 and under, Free

The door to this small and unassuming little building that sits on Venice Blvd. in Culver City leads you into a mysterious museum that turns the institutional devices of presentation on their head and playfully pokes fun at the tropes and tricks of the museum exhibit itself. Walking through this museum you’ll feel like you’ve traveled sideways in time to a parallel dimension where museums exist only to explain the mystical. And, if you happen to see the founder, David Wilson, when you're walking around, see if he’ll have you upstairs for tea in the tearoom. I’m not sure what Prague was like in 1923, but if I had to imagine, I’d imagine the tearoom of The Museum of Jurassic Technology.

More things to see and do around Los Angeles handpicked by Brian Bress

Architecture and Urban Design Professor Mark Mack (Spring 2015)

Center for the Study of Political Graphics. Left: Who’s the Illegal Alien, Pilgrim?; Yolanda M. Lopez; Offset, 1981; San Francisco, CA. Right: Prisons: Slave Ships on Dry Land; Andalusia Knoll; Silkscreen, 2004; Pittsburgh, PA.

The Center for the Study of Political Graphics
Founded by Carol Wells, a UCLA alumna (B.A. History ‘67, M.A. Art History ‘75) and former professor of art and architectural history at Cal State Fullerton, the Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG) is a community, art resource and historical archive of political posters located in Culver City that offers an exciting visual journey into the history of political communication. Their slogan, “Reclaiming the Power of Art to Educate and Inspire People to Action” is a welcome and much needed antidote to the laissez-fair economic and socio-cultural realities of today. CSPG’s extensive collection of posters comprises “primary historical documents [that] reveal histories of struggles that are too often hidden, and more often forgotten.” Their collection includes more than 85,000 protest graphics from the 19th century through to the present—including the largest collection of post-World War II posters in the United States. A powerful resource that helps to educate about important social and political struggles of the past by presenting the visual languages that defined them, CSPG’s archive also serves as inspiration to those involved in framing critical issues of today on a local and national level. Their upcoming exhibit, No Human Being is Illegal: Posters on the Myths and Realities of the Immigrant Experience, will be on view at Mercado La Paloma from May 9 – June 28, 2015.

More things to see and do in Los Angeles handpicked by Mark Mack

Design Media Arts Professor Peter Lunenfeld (Winter 2015)

Esotouric runs the best bus tours of Southern California. I know, I know, buses are intrinsically uncool, but obsessives Richard Schave and Kim Cooper promise to take you into the “secret heart of Los Angeles,” and they deliver. Heavy on crime – the Black Dahlia and Raymond Chandler tours are classics – Esotouric is also great at introducing different parts of the city to each other. Their “Boyle Heights & The San Gabriel Valley: The Hidden Histories of L.A.’s Melting Pot,” will cover everything from the abandoned synagogues of the far East Side to the emergence of the Chicano rights movement to the best Chinese dumplings in Monterey Park.

More things to see and do in Los Angeles handpicked by Peter Lunenfeld

CAP UCLA Executive and Artistic Director Kristy Edmunds (Fall 2014)

Show Box L.A. is a ‘DIY’ hyper smart organization that presents collaborative and artist-led projects. They have cultivated an active community of followers and, in collaboration with the artists, are an important platform for experimentation in dance. Think of it as an umbrella for artists to share work and ideas (usually on a shoe-string budget), that adds depth to the larger conversations about the art and legacy of dance practitioners. They partner with other like-minded and similarly passionate entities to bring artists to L.A. (like Live Arts Exchange/LAX and Los Angeles Performance Practice) that you would likely not see if they didn’t, and they are a hot bed for connecting people in relevant exploration. Much of it happens at the Bootleg Theater in Echo Park. You really need to go to their website (all mentioned). If I were a UCLA art student – in ANY discipline – I would be beating a path to join the real time conversation through Show Box L.A. You will end up finding some fascinating places and neighborhoods around Los Angles as you follow their lead, and you will meet artists who are committed to forging creative hubs for one another along the way.

More things to see and do around Los Angeles handpicked by Kristy Edmunds

And finally, Dean Brett Steele took an alternative approach to the series, and shared five things not to do in Los Angeles...

UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture Dean Brett Steele (Fall 2017)

Don't drive to the beach after 9 a.m.

You can, and the beach is lovely as the day warms up, but the limited number of parking spaces suggests serious beach-goers set their alarms for before sunrise. We spent long enough circling the micro-lot at Annenberg Beach House that we might have ended the day with more hours in the front seat than on the sand. Parking and driving are to LA as sleeping and eating are in less modern cities than this one.

More things not to see and do in Los Angeles by Brett Steele