This Weekend at LACMA: 13th-Annual Young Directors Night, CicLAvia’s Iconic Wilshire Boulevard, Free Talks, Films, Tours, and More!

April 4, 2014

Make the most of your weekend with LACMA. Friday night, film buffs will have a field day with a new 35mm print of The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years at 7:30 pm, presented by Academy @ LACMA, in the second part of an unflinching portrayal of Los Angeles’s underground music scenes. For our neighbors to the east in Montebello, the LACMA9 Art+Film Lab arrives for four weeks of free film workshops, an oral history project, and outdoor film screenings. It all starts off with the Opening-Night Celebration at 6 pm on Friday, followed by the screening of La Bamba at 8 pm. Saturday, check out the freshest in filmmaking talent at the 13th-Annual Young Directors Night at 7:30 pm, hosted by Elvis Mitchell. Tickets are available online and at the door.

Still from The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years (detail), 1988, © New Line Cinema Still from The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years (detail), 1988, © New Line Cinema

Learn a thing or two during on Saturday afternoon at 3 pm at the free lecture Art and Music—Songs in the Key of Los Angeles, with USC Professor Josh Kun, director of the Popular Music Project, as he speaks about the countless odes to L.A. he uncovered from the L.A. Public Library sheet-music bank. All the while, free, docent-led tours offer guests the chance to better understand and appreciate works in our galleries, like a look at the new exhibition Helen Pashgian: Light Invisible on Saturday at 1 pm or Latin American Art on Sunday at 3 pm.

Stephen Dean, Volta, 2002–3, Collection of William and Ruth True, Seattle, Courtesy of the artist and Baldwin gallery, Aspen, © Stephen Dean

Once Sunday rolls around expect crowds and longer travel times to LACMA, as CicLAvia takes over Wilshire Boulevard from 9 am to 4 pm. At the museum visitors have plenty to choose from, including Calder and Abstraction: From Avant-Garde to Iconic, Fútbol: The Beautiful Game, and Visions of the South. On the same day we welcome residents from Monterey Park, who will enjoy free general admission as part of the Art+Film Lab. See their stories in the Bing theater during Nicole Miller: Believing is Seeing from 12:30 to 2:30 pm. On your way to LACMA, stop at our satellite gallery at Charles White Elementary for Public Hours of Kaz Oshiro: Chasing Ghosts from noon to 4:30 pm. All that, plus our usual offerings of Andell Family Sunday at 12:30 pm and Sundays Live with the Afro-American Chamber Music Society Orchestra at 6 pm. The weekend is what you make of it!

Roberto Ayala