As LACMA looks toward reopening,* so too do the museums we've partnered with locally. Such is the case for the exhibition Golden Hour: California Photography from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art—now on view, in person!—at the Museum of Art and History (MOAH) in Lancaster. If you're like me, you've been missing all the amazing cultural venues that make our life in Southern California as rich and diverse as it is. And no, virtual visits don't count—as much as I enjoy attending virtual talks (no commute, no parking, no timezones!), visiting virtual exhibitions worldwide (Moscow, Melbourne, Capetown—you name it, I've not been there) just doesn't move me.

I hope you all are equally itching to get out there—and in this case, to go as far as Lancaster! Why is LACMA in Lancaster, you ask?...

Thanks to a major grant from the Art Bridges + Terra Foundation Initiative, LACMA and four institutions in greater Southern California have embarked on a dynamic exhibition partnership featuring LACMA's permanent collection. The partnership—named Local Access—is made possible by a grant of nearly $2 million and will support special exhibitions through 2024. Over the next several years, each partner will present up to three exhibitions that reframe and broaden traditional ideas about American art. This unprecedented partnership is centered on sharing collections and museum resources to establish a new model for accessible and inclusive community engagement.

Partner institutions include the Lancaster Museum of Art and History; Riverside Art Museum; Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College; and California State University, Northridge, Art Galleries.

Local Access's inaugural exhibition, Golden Hour: California Photography from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, features works by more than 70 artists and three photography collectives, offering an aesthetic approach to understanding the complexities and histories of California. These images from LACMA's collection have come to define the myths, iconographies, and realities of this unique state.

Left: Anthony Friedkin, Old Surfboard, Topanga Beach, California, 1977, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Ralph M. Parsons Fund, © Anthony Friedkin, digital image © Museum Associates/LACMA; Right: Edward Weston, Wrecked Car, Crescent Beach, 1939, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, anonymous gift, © Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents, digital image © Museum Associates/LACMA

Pairing masters of photography with experimental practitioners in a range of lens-based media that includes photo sculpture, vernacular, and video work, the selection blurs the boundaries of the tropes that formed a California identity. With works ranging from the early 1900s to present day, Golden Hour is neither a didactic history of the state nor an inclusive tale of photographic history, but rather artists' impressions of the state of being in, and being influenced by, California.

Sam Comen, Jose Saldaña on Chapulín in Lost Hills, CA. March, 28, 2009 from the series Lost Hills, 2009, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Ralph M. Parsons Fund, © Sam Comen, digital image © Museum Associates/LACMA; Right: Susan Ressler, System Development Corporation from the series Los Angeles Documentary Project, 1980, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by the Ralph M. Parsons Fund, © Susan Ressler, digital image courtesy of the artist and Joseph Bellows Gallery, La Jolla, California

Join me (virtually, that is) in a talk with two of the exhibiting artists, Susan Ressler and Sam Comen, on Saturday, March 27 at 2 pm.

* LACMA will reopen indoor galleries to the public on April 1, 2021, in line with L.A. County guidelines for museums. Member Previews are March 26–30. All visitors, including LACMA Members, must purchase or reserve an advance timed-entry online ticket.