This Weekend at LACMA

June 25, 2010

With two exhibitions opening, three concerts, and a couple of special events, we thought it might be helpful to lay it all out for you so you might plan accordingly.

Tonight the weekend kicks off with our weekly free Jazz at LACMA concert. Vocalist Janis Mann will take the stage at 6 pm. Don’t forget the museum is free after 5 pm, so you can sneak in some time in the galleries while you’re here. If you’re a member,  you can also see John Baldessari: Pure Beauty—it’s open to members only, today and tomorrow.

By the way, even if you’re not at the museum today, you ought to check in with our twitter account. Artist Adrienne Ferrari is taking over our feed all day for a performance as part of our Cell Phone Stories project.

Saturday at 5 pm the salsa group Opa Opa will play a free concert in Hancock Park as part of our Latin Sounds series. Then, at 8 pm—after the galleries close to the public—we’re having our annual Late Night Art event, Video on the Loose: Freewaves and 20 Years of Media Arts. The nonprofit organization Freewaves has assembled more than twenty experimental videos which will be screened on the BP Grand Entrance all night. Tickets are just $10 and they get you into Pure Beauty too.

Sunday Pure Beauty officially opens to the public. So if you didn’t see it as a member and you didn’t see it as part of Saturday’s event, this’ll be a good time too. Baldessari himself will join exhibition curator Leslie Jones in conversation at 2 pm inside BCAM. The event is free but you need a ticket, which will be available first-come, first-served at the Box Office one hour before the program starts.

Also opening on Sunday is EATLACMA: The Fruit of LACMA, which was assembled by the artist collective Fallen Fruit. In addition to the exhibition in the Ahmanson Building, there are also a number of artist-created gardens all around campus. The artists will be on campus from 5–8 pm, enjoying an evening picnic in Hancock Park—BYOP (bring your own picnic).

At 6 pm you can also drop into the Bing Theater for a performance of the USC/Thornton Polish Music Center’s Chopin Marathon. As with the other concerts this weekend, this one is free too!

Scott Tennent