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German Chamber Music or German Tarot Cards. What’s Your Pick?

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Art enthusiasts in L.A. listen up! Are you in for an off-beat art experience? We have 3 fun and eclectic recommendations for you this month.

From unique German/Austrian Chamber music to German Cartomancy, you can find something to satisfy your unconventional taste for art this April.

1 – If you love chamber music and enjoy not only traditional, classic scores but also have an ear for modern, contemporary music. You might want to check out:

Three’s Company: Music for unique Combinations of Three. Part of the Pittance Chamber Music 2017/18 season at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music this concert presents works not only by German composers Schubert and Brahms but will also feature work of Austrian composer Gernot Wolfgang, who resides in Los Angeles and works as an orchestrator in the film and TV music industry.

Gernot Wolfgang is currently also associate director of “HEAR NOW – A Festival of New Music by Contemporary Los Angeles Composers”. Described as a composer with a “winning sonic arsenal” (Daniel Rosenberg, Gramophone) you will be hearing his work Road Signs, which will be on his next CD.

WHAT: Pittance Chamber Music Concert Three’s Company

WHEN: Saturday, April 14 at 7:30pm at Pasadena Conservatory of Music.

All works on the program will be performed by members of the LA Opera Orchestra and Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artists.

2 – Our next suggestion is for a spiritually invoked art exhibition: A mystical German fortune-telling card system re-imagined by artist Shay Bredimus at the Long Beach Art Museum:

“The Seni Horoscopes were a 17th-century German fortune-telling card system. [Read more…] about German Chamber Music or German Tarot Cards. What’s Your Pick?

I Scream, You Scream, Museum of Ice Cream

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I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM, MUSEUM OF ICE CREAM

Remember those museums where it is all about “don’t touch, just look” and “no photography”?  Luckily, since a couple of months now, there is a new fun and interactive place in town, where touching and making Instagram memories are highly encouraged (at least for the most part). Welcome to the Museum of Ice Cream!

Located right in the heart of the Arts District in Downtown Los Angeles, this interactive place of discovery totally defies the meaning of a traditional museum. The fun already starts before you even enter the place. Visitors are guided into a cute little garden right next to the facility, which is equipped with fun games like Cornhole and Jenga. The music is blasting, and you can’t help it but get in a happy mood.

The staff at this place is doing a wonderful job at keeping the crowds entertained and forgetting about everyday life at least for one afternoon. Once visitors are called to line up by the entrance, a certain amount of people are encouraged to participate in a Hula Hoop contest.  After all the hoops have touched the ground, it is finally time to enter the holy halls of the actual museum, but not without a quick briefing by one of the employees.

In my friend’s and my case, who had the honor of visiting this trending spot recently, this person had the funky name of Sprinkle Steve, a handsome twenty-something Zach Efron look-alike. After a quick reminder that people are allowed to touch everything except the popsicles and bananas, the really fun part starts: exploring the museum.

While I don’t want to give too much away in case some of you, dear readers, are anticipating visiting the Museum of Ice Cream yourself, I’d like to tell you this:

1) Your sweet tooth will definitely be satisfied. With samples of chocolate, ice cream, and gummy bears in almost every of the exhibit rooms, your taste buds will not be disappointed.

2) If you are a fan of photography and Instagram, this is the place to be.  Every room in the museum offers unique photo opportunities thanks to a ton of fun and interactive props.

3) This museum is very well organized and only lets a manageable amount of group sizes in at once.  Thanks to specific time slots you get when you purchase your ticket, the exhibit never feels too crowded, and you don’t have to wait in line for ever to capture the fun in pictures.

4) Be advised that tickets are currently sold out and, if they are available, sell out quickly.  It took me two tries until I was finally able to purchase tickets after I missed the newsletter announcement once.

If you are like me and like the out of the ordinary, then this is the place for you.  You will experience an afternoon where you are allowed to be a kid again in the colorful world of candy.

Life is short, eat that ice cream!

 

Images: Anne-Kathrin Schulte
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Anne-KathrinAnne-Kathrin Schulte, is a contributor for CaliforniaGermans.com. She writes on her personal experience of the American Dream as well as on working as an au pair in CA. She was born and grew up in Düsseldorf, Germany, where she completed her degree as a state-approved Kindergarten teacher. After her au pair engagement in the US and a quick return to Germany she decided to attend university in California and moved back to the United States. She has been living in Southern California since 2011.

If you would like to contact Anne-Kathrin, please send an email to californiagermans(at)gmail.com and place her name in the subject line.

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

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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

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Summertime – Time for German Summer Camps in California

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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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Art Sampling in Los Angeles

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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 21st (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.

All Images: ©CaliforniaGermans

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

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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 to read:

Daily Pilot: http://articles.dailypilot.com/2011-05-12/news/tn-dpt-0513-happs-20110512_1_theater-group-silliness-godot

http://dutchperformingartsevents.blogspot.com/2011/04/ipay-dutch-youth-theater-consortium_21.html

http://www.nashvilleparent.com/theater-reviews/tpacs-family-field-trip-is-a-hoot-saturday-may-7

More Art Happenings In and Around L.A.

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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.

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Fernando Botero at the Bowers Museum

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Hooked on Botero

My first introduction to Fernando Botero was in Tuscany many, many years ago. Traveling Tuscany with my Italian friends in my twenties we stopped at a medieval castle in the middle of the soft Tuscan hills. There nestled within this magical medieval scenery were Botero’s impressive sculptures and sensual paintings of his voluminous figures he is so famously known for.  This first impression of Botero never left me and I still have a vivid memory of this day.Fernando Botero

Many years later, in fact about six years ago, my husband, son and I were visiting Venice and while touring the canals on one of the ‘Taxi” boats, I was realizing these enormous parts of some big sculpture on a passing boat.  Taken by surprise I was trying to get a closer look at them and realized with joy and excitement that these had to be part of a Botero sculpture. Shortly after we found out that Venice in fact was getting ready for a huge show of Botero sculptures throughout the city. This show with Venice as a fantastic backdrop left unforgetable memories.

Fernando Botero

How thrilled was I to find out that the Bowers Museum is presenting a major retrospective of this Latin American artist right now. The show opened on September 12 and will run through December 06, 2009. Many of the 100 paintings , sculptures and drawings on view have never been seen in public. It’s a great exhibit, well put together and giving an overview from Botero’s very early works to his recent ones. I will defenitely go and visit again.  

Tickets are $12 for adults. Free Entrance is offered on every first Sunday of the month!

Latin American Art Lovers can enjoy another exhibit at the Bowers as well: “Latitude” shows works by Frieda Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Roberto Matta, Jesus Soto, Rufino Tamayo and many more. 

BOWERS MUSEUM
2002 N.MAIN STREET
SANTA ANA, CA 92706

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