Tag Archives: art

Old Masters, Modern or Contemporary Art – Visit LACMA for Free

Posted on August 10, 2017 by Cornelia | Comments Off

Old Masters, Modern or Contemporary Art – You can have it all at LACMA

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Nothing is more refreshing on a scorching hot summer day than walking the air-conditioned aisles of LACMA!

Well, …nothing except for cooling off at the beach perhaps.

But, hey, you can’t let the beach monopolize you, right? There is so much more to do and see in LA! Like visiting the Los Angeles County Museum of Art – LACMA, the western United States’ largest art museum.

And….LACMA is making it sooo easy for you to visit! Especially if you have children.

LACMA has a special membership program for children called NexGen. My kids have been members ever since this program existed. It makes visiting LACMA a fun and enjoyable family outing, that doesn’t overstretch your budget, because … it’s FREE!

Every child 17 years and younger can become a member ! You just sign up at the museum or online. Your kids are then presented with a cool orange lanyard that allows them free entry every time they visit. Plus they can invite one adult guest for free as well! So, guess what? You, as the parent can enjoy LACMA for free, too?

Still missing the beach? …Because, it’s just a must during summer? Well, with the NexGen membership it’s easy to divide the day and do both in a day! After all, this awesome kids’ membership makes it possible for you and your child to visit the main galleries and all temporary exhibitions any day, any time, all year! So it doesn’t matter if you stay for 2 hours or 5.

Give your mind and soul a well-deserved break from the fast-paced life around you. I tell you, it’s relaxing and invigorating at the same time to walk LACMA’s various galleries. And, you will be amazed how much children actually like it as well. Check out the modern and contemporary art galleries to visit the oversized billiard pool set, blown-out-of-proportion- comb, and ask your child what he thinks of a Pollock painting! Kids especially enjoy the installation of Chris Burden’s Metropolis II.

We often start out at LACMA by roaming the galleries to our heart’s content and then stop by the museum’s store. It used to be an all time favorite for my children, and even now with only our youngest one in tow it hasn’t lost much of its attraction. You can always find something there that is cool, inspire or else. Sometimes it’s just something small like an all graphite pencil, which turned out to be a hit at my son’s school a few years ago.

Occasionally we stay for lunch or a light snack at the museum’s restaurant, bar or cafeteria before we hit the road to the beach in the summer.

If you do it the other way around and visit the beach first, then you might catch some of LACMA’s cool outdoor summer concerts later in the afternoon; or choose to attend a talk at the museum’s theater. LACMA is not only about art and design. It’s an overall cultural experience !

I have to say for us the “LACMA outing” has never been boring. Ever! We always find new things to look at, new installations to marvel at, and discover new art installed in some of the galleries; galleries, that we thought we knew already inside out.

Images: “Art At LACMA” ©CaliforniaGermans

Summertime – Time for German Summer Camps in California

Posted on June 23, 2017 by Cornelia | Comments Off

Summer has officially started and all the school children in CA have most likely started their summer vacation by now. Have you checked out our list of German Language Summer Camps yet? Some camps might still have an open space for your child!

There are overnight camps and day camps, and camps right along the Bay in Newport and some at a serene lake. Most of them offer a variety of activities, of which some are more STEM related and others are more arts heavy. But we just got word of a cool camp in Santa Rosa, that focuses on nature explorations and Innerweaving!! We had to let you know…

Have you heard of Innerweaving before? It’s a method of experiential and emotional hands-on techniques that spark imagination and support personal development and conscious living. It’s a technique created by Silvia Schroeder, who is also leading this unique camp for children. The camp offers a combination of indoor/outdoor creative fun. “Throughout the camp we will talk German and introduce language based on nature and craft activities.” Family members are invited to celebrate their children’s powerful Nature-Earthcraft accomplishments on the final day.

The Innerweaving German Summer Camp will take place from July 5th-6th for 7-11 year old kids, and a one-day camp is offered on July 7th for children 4-6 years old.

The camp is located in a small Redwood Park along a little creek at the Community Center/Women‘s Clubhouse, 16 Park Rd, Fairfax, CA 94930.

Check out our Camp Listings for more detailed information.

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Images: ©Innerweaving

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Posted in CA For Kids, Education, Fun For Kids - Kinderecke, German Schools In California, Life in California

Tagged art, CaliforniaGermans, creativity, Expats, German camp, Innerweaving, nature, Silvia Schroeder, summer, Summer camp

Art Sampling in Los Angeles

Posted on April 28, 2017 by Cornelia | Comments Off

Art Walks are calling

These days beautiful Southern California weather and warm temperatures are beckoning us outside. What better time to check out the LA art scene, especially since some great art events are just around the corner.

One is in fact happening tomorrow. The Brewery Art Walk Community opens its doors tomorrow and Sunday from 11am to 6pm. More than 100 participating artists in residence let you experience up close how they live and work. If you see some artwork you like, strike up a conversation with the artist right there and then. At the Brewery Art Walk you are basically breathing art. Anything you can remotely call art, you can find here.

Brewery Art Walk is fun, it’s hip and eclectic! There is a spring and a fall art walk and we used to visit at least one of each every year. The atmosphere is definitely a bit crazy but totally fun and groovy. Even people-watching becomes an adventure.

The famous Venice Art Walk is coming up on May 21^st (12pm to 6pm). Contrary to the Brewery Art Walk it is not a free event since the proceeds of the event go to the Venice Family Clinic. Artists as well as architects are opening their homes and studios to the public and let everyone participate in their creative process. Special Studio tours are often offered and apart from fascinating art you can see some stunning homes. The impressive silent auction features famous names like Ed Ruscha, Billy Al Bengston , Sam Durant and many more.

What’s the atmosphere here? You are walking along the cool Venice community close to the beach with all its restaurants and bars. It’s quite a different setting compared to the Brewery Art Walk which is housed in a previous industrial zone with artists’ lofts in former warehouses. And, yes, people-watching is definitely a must also here… you are in Venice Beach after all!

We started our “art walk season” with last week’s Spring Fling at Bergamot Station. Another art haven, this time in Santa Monica. The venue is easily accessible with LA metro’s Expo Line. If you arrive by car, parking can sometimes become a bit challenging.

The Spring Fling event was a collective Open House of about 30 galleries, welcoming art enthusiasts to check out what’s hot in the contemporary art world. Bergamot Station used to be one of our regular art venues to get our ‘art fix’ quite some years ago. So upon hearing of the spring event we packed up the family and left for LA.

Having not been here for a while I perceived the audience and overall vibe as quite a bit different from the exhilaratingly crazy, creative chaos at the Brewery Art Walk. While still colorful and vibrant the audience seemed to be more on the ‘sophisticated’ side and one could feel that the venue here was managed by various gallery businesses rather than an artist community. But that didn’t mean the art was less intriguing. In fact some of the galleries put on some well curated shows. Walking through Bergamot Station felt more like visiting a bunch of micro museums.

It was quite a coincidence that we stumbled upon the abstract architectural sculptures by German artist, Manfred Müller from Düsseldorf, whose work was featured in a show called “Not From Here” at the Rosegallery.

Taking in all what Bergamot Station had to offer, we particularly enjoyed the art installation “People I Saw But Never Met” by Zadok Ben-David at Shoshana Wayne Gallery. 3,000 hand-cut aluminum figures are installed on the gallery floor covered in white sand (see this post’s featured image).

Another highlight was William Turner Gallery’s “Chance and Circumstances”, an exhibition that featured new works by 91 year-old famous and prolific Los Angeles painter, Ed Moses, a central figure in post-war West Coast Art.

One Show that really captivated us long after we had already left for home was Stephen Wilkes’ “Ellis Island- Ghosts of Freedom” at the Peter Fetterman Gallery. The photography exhibition took you on a trip through an abandoned hospital on Ellis Island that the early immigrants to this country had to pass through before they were allowed access to the ‘land of the free’. Stephen Wilkes captured the eerie atmosphere and its history so perfectly that one was literally pulled into each picture’s story.

One picture was taken from such an angle that the Statue of Liberty was visible in the mirror over a sink in a room, where some Eastern European woman might have had to stay to get her health monitored. Wilkes writes in his remarks next to the image, that he was wondering if this was perhaps the closest she could ever get to the freedom she so had longed for…

Striking, thought provoking compositions left you wanting to find out more about this part of history. Apparently Wilkes just came to visit the hospital for a one-time article assignment but it turned into a 5-year project. You can feel his fascination with his project in his exceptional capturing of the various moods and energy in every image. History comes alive under his camera and we seem to become an invisible witness of the many impactful moments that might have had occurred at that time in history.

Still in thought we solemnly made our way back to our car and were grateful for the appeasing pictures by Tamayo and Diego Rivera at the Latin American Masters Gallery before we found ourselves back on the freeway chaos of the late afternoon traffic.

“Performance in Which Hopefully Nothing Happens” – Dutch Theatre Group in OC

Posted on May 27, 2011 by Cornelia | Comments Off

The “Performance in Which Hopefully Nothing Happens” at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts last weekend was a real treat for children and grown-ups alike. In times where the Wii and other video games have taken over our children’s leisure time, it is so important to have their minds and imagination stimulated with something more creative.

That’s exactly what Theatergroep MAX from the Netherlands did. Inventive, absurd and fantastic at times, “Performance in Which Hopefully Nothing Happens” was great modern theater that played with the audience’s minds, made it laugh over clever absurd funny scenes while playfully demonstrating what a performance actually consists of!

The actors brilliantly incorporated elements of Pantomime and Comedy and with a witty play of words kept the audience engaged. Their scene of having the various parts of a performance appear as different people, from the ‘previous moment’ person to the ‘next moment’ guy and the ‘dead moment’ was hilarious, with the interview of the ‘little detail’ being the absolute highlight. Comicly funny the ‘little detail’ was being interviewed with a microphone, but all the audience could really see was the actor Roger holding the microphone pointed towards a little round spot that was illuminated by his flashlight. That’s where the little detail supposedly was on stage and spoke, but it was just too small for the audience to see with bare eyes…The children were bursting in laughter. The audience loved it.

Playing with the audience’s mind and making illusion reality was at its best, when one actor suddenly seemed to play hide and seek with his alter ego, and in the end after desperately trying to find himself, suggested, that he must have lost himself.

By inviting Theatergroep MAX from the Netherlands, Segerstrom Center for the Arts has put on an excellent show making sure that theater goers of the next generation are trained to watch something more challenging than only mainstream theatre. Too bad that this award winnig show was available for the general public only for two days. I will for sure be on the look out for their next performance in the coming season.

“Performance in Which Hopefully Nothing Happens” -A real treat for eyes, ears and mind!

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More Art Happenings In and Around L.A.

Posted on October 16, 2009 by Cornelia | 1 comment

This weekend seems to be full of opportunities to dive into all kinds of art experiences in and around Los Angeles.

The Miracle Mile Artwalk will be held on Wilshire Blvd on Saturday, October 17th, from 4pm to 10pm. Visit more than 40 participating galleries and attend free Artists Talks. Entrance to LACMA, CAFAM & MAK Center will be FREE on that day.

Santa Monica Art Studios will host its 5th Anniversary Open Studios. Indulge in contemporary art with more than 30 painters, printmakers, photographers, sculptors and mixed media artists having their studios open for the event. October 17, 6-9PM & October 19th, 1-5PM

In the mood for buying some great original art at reasonable prices? There are two auctions going on this weekend:

The Museum of Latin American Art , MOLAA, in Long Beach will host its Auction 09 on October 17, 2009 This is a significant auction of modern and contemporary Latin American art . More than 120 museum quality works of art will be featured including paintings, sculptures, works on paper and prints by renowned and emerging artists from Mexico, Central and South America and the Spanish speaking Caribbean.

Santa Monica Auctions will have the Fall Live Public Fine Art Auction at the Bergamot Station Art Center on Sunday, October 18th at 1PM, featuring Original Advertising, Urban & Illustration work in addition to Modern & Contemporary Photography, Paintings, Sculptures, Drawings, Mulitples and Prints. Location: Building I (Writer’s Boot Camp) @ Bergamot Station Arts Center.