Photo by Ella Gonzalez
Weekly Culture Collection is a column that gives the best things to eat, see and do near Pepperdine, Malibu and the surrounding Los Angeles area. It’s like The New Yorker’s Goings on About Town section but not as high-brow, and there is no dandy with an eyeglass. It also has nothing to do with New York.
This week’s Culture Collection is heavy on the art, exploring new museums and free cultural sites, exercise activities and more to appease the veteran art connoisseur and even the most lackadaisical athlete.
SEE
Smithsonian Magazine’s Museum Day Live! 2017
Saturday Sept. 23 — Various locations
Each year for Museum Day Live!, an event hosted by Smithsonian Magazine, various museums and cultural institutions across the United States offer free museum admissions for one day. This year’s participants include the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, the Grammy Museum at L.A. LIVE, the Japanese American National Museum, and many more.
Institute of Contemporary Art in DTLA
1717 E. 7th St, Los Angeles, CA 90021
The Institute of Contemporary Art in Downtown Los Angeles was originally founded as the Santa Monica Museum of Art in 1984. It shut its doors in 2015, opening back up to the public on Sept. 9 in its newly renovated Downtown LA building. ICA LA lacks a standard admission fee and a permanent collection unlike most Los Angeles museums. ICA LA brings culturally rich and diverse exhibitions to a city that prides itself upon its diversity. Current exhibitions include Martín Ramírez: His Life in Pictures, Another Interpretation.
The exhibition showcases self-taught Mexican artist Martin Ramirez as part of The Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time: Los Angeles/Latin America series. It features 50 drawings and collages by Ramirez produced over a 30 year period. Other exhibitions are No Space Hidden (Shelter) by Bronx-based artist Abigail De Ville, known for her site-specific installations comprised of a motely of repurposed materials, and Sarah Cain’s mural, Now I’m going to tell you everything.
Cain’s work canvases ICA’s interior wall on it’s courtyard featuring a playful interplay of shapes, line, and color.
DO
Saturday Mornings, Sept. 16-Oct. 21, 8 a.m.-10 a.m. — Santa Monica Pier
ROGA, not to be confused with a toga or “broga” (yoga for men) is a hybrid of the words “run” and “yoga.” The new word is part LA-branded nonsense and part innovative exercise. Every Saturday morning until Oct. 21 at the Santa Monica Pier, there is an opportunity to run at 8 a.m. practice yoga at 9 a.m. or do both for a bona fide ROGA session. It’s an “inclusive no-judgment environment,” according to the event’s Facebook page. Take that for what it’s worth. Hopefully it means no West L.A. moms are in better physical shape than a newborn infant. Only time, and ROGA, will tell.
HEAR
LA Opera Presents Opera at the Beach
Saturday, Sept. 23, Doors open at 5 p.m., broadcast begins at 7 p.m. — Santa Monica Pier
LA Opera and Southern California’s beaches come together for a singular pairing on Saturday, Sept. 23. The LA Opera’s season opener, “Carmen,” starring Ana Maria Martinez as an untamable and seductive temptress will be broadcast live from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to the Santa Monica Pier. The event is free, and there’s even a bike valet for bourgeoisie cyclers.
Los Angeles’ museums, new arrivals, opera and beach parings, and dynamic exercise concoctions can make the coming weeks a gateway to an unfettered cultural mecca. These activities and places to go will make it difficult to utter the question “What should we do today?,” or worse yet, “I’m bored.”
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