LACMA is a 21st-century museum that engages visitors with a vast collection of artworks and objects. As the Public Programs Assistant, I get to activate the galleries through a range of programming curated in response to rotating exhibitions, from contemporary pieces in Simone Leigh to ancient objects in Mapping the Infinite: Cosmologies Across Cultures.
We Live In Painting: The Nature of Color in Mesoamerican Art, which opened to the public in September 2024, highlights the scientific and cosmological significance of natural pigments in Indigenous Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, and Central Mexico. To step into this exhibition is to enter the realm of the pre- and post-colonial Americas. Visitors are surrounded by material manifestations of Mesoamerican cultures and gain insight into how they interpret the world around them and their position within it.
Public programming for We Live in Painting debuted in October 2024 with a tour by curator Alyce de Carteret. Participants gained academic insights into key objects like the Florentine Codex, a legendary encyclopedia based on the knowledge and expertise of Nahua artists and sages during the 16th century. Due to the book's age and fragility, a fascimile is on view in the exhibition, but visitors privy to the Codex's significance were nonetheless thrilled to behold it.
The next activation of We Live In Painting was our quarterly Art + Meditation series led by LACMA educator Alicia Vogl Sáenz. Art + Meditation offers the unique opportunity to practice mindfulness in the galleries without the crowds. On this occasion, participants devoted the evening to engage with the intricate color theory of Mesoamerica. White, for example, produced by materials like shell and marble, represents the creative process carried out by human hands. Red, created from oxide minerals and Cochineal cacti insects, symbolizes the life-force of the sun as well as blood, the life-force of humankind. Black, harvested from burnt wood and oily soots, evokes the night and ancestral time before the first sunrise. Participants each drew a card from a deck of hues and set on quiet quests for corresponding artworks. Slow, deliberate observation of art often sparks novel experiences and thoughts, like considering why a statue would bear the head of a dog or reflecting on a world where muralists are revered members of society.
These are exciting moments when the museum holds space for individuals to make connections and engage in private contemplation and visitors may well walk away with unique and personal insights. After participating in these programs, I considered the past lives of quotidian objects, like clay soil before it transformed into brick. It’s my hope that more and more Angelinos also consider LACMA a shared community resource. By participating in free programs, free admission hours, free NexGenLA youth memberships, and more, we can consciously cultivate our connection to ourselves and to the world around us.
Join us on Tuesday, January 21, for Pigment and Perspective: A Deep Dive into Mesoamerican Color, part of our series of quarterly tours of the exhibition, which offer insights into the Mesoamerican worldview and the deep significance of color. See LACMA’s full program calendar for more events and tours related to this and other exhibitions. We Live in Painting: The Nature of Color in Mesoamerican Art is on view in the Resnick Pavilion through September 1, 2025.