Destination of Event:
https://www.twitch.tv/latinjazzmusicfestival
We deserve some fun and good times, right? Yes we do! So here are some upcoming art shows and events you may be interested in. We are all in need of some good distractions.
At the Huntington…
VIRTUAL PROGRAMS AND EVENTS
More public programs are added regularly; check huntington.org for updates
—OCTOBER—
ZOOM LECTURE
The Huntington Library at One Hundred and One: Eleven Million Items and Still Counting
Friday, Oct. 16, 3 p.m.–4 p.m. (PST)
Free with reservation: Click here to reserve
(Zoom link will be sent to attendees in registration confirmation email.)
Join the Huntington Library's curators for stories about some of its most remarkable and surprising acquisitions. The program is presented by Rare Books LA.
ZOOM LECTURE
The Past in the Present: America’s Founding and Us
Saturday, Oct. 17, 4 p.m.–5 p.m. (PST)
Free with reservation: Click here to reserve
(Zoom link will be sent to attendees in registration confirmation email.)
Annette Gordon-Reed—Pulitzer Prize-winning author, professor of history and law at Harvard University, and one of the nation’s authorities on the founding of the U.S.—discusses how Americans today deal with problematic historical figures such as Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, with the inaugural lecture for the Shapiro Center for American History and Culture at The Huntington.
ZOOM LECTURE
What Is a Second Edition? A Pictorial Introduction to Bibliographical Terms
Wednesday, Oct. 21, 10 a.m.–11 a.m. (PST)
Free with reservation: Click here to reserve
(Zoom link will be sent to attendees in registration confirmation email.)
How are first editions different from later ones? How do you tell a reprint from a reissue? In this webinar, Huntington Curator of Rare Books Stephen Tabor explains how printing technology developed from the hand-press period to the early 20th century, shows how to spot different typesettings and impressions, and explores how basic bibliographical terms have been used variously by book historians, publishers, and booksellers. Illustrations include examples of varying quality to show how photographic reproductions can produce false clues and digital red herrings. The webinar is useful for collectors (or people thinking of becoming collectors), dealers, and anybody who works with printed texts or digital copies of originals. This event is part of an ongoing webinar series presented by the Library’s Reader Services Department.
ZOOM LECTURE
The Past and Future of The Huntington's Asian Gardens
Thursday, Oct. 29, 4 p.m. (PST)
Free with reservation: Click here to reserve
(Zoom link will be sent to attendees in registration confirmation email.)
For this presentation, James Folsom, Telleen/Jorgensen Director of the Botanical Gardens, recounts the physical and intellectual origins of Liu Fang Yuan, reminding us of the many people, ideas, and activities that brought this garden and endeavor to its current state—15 acres of pavilions, pathways, landscape, and water features—the largest Chinese Garden in the United States.
VIRTUAL HALOWEEN EVENT
Strange Science: Tales From the Vault
For members: Tuesday, Oct. 27, 10 a.m. (PST)
General public: Saturday, Oct. 31, 10 a.m. (PST)
Discover the eerier side of The Huntington in a virtual event where curators and botanists share rarely seen objects and otherworldly stories from deep inside the collections. Enter a mysterious world of ghoulish characters and bizarre plants. Indulge in cocktails and treats you can make at home. Enter our costume contest by submitting a photo online. Enjoy talks, art, and demos geared toward adults, and family-friendly treats and activities.
Cocktail kits are available for purchase online and pickup at 1919 café. The Huntington Store has a special selection of Strange Science and Halloween merchandise.
ONLINE FAMILY ACTIVITY
Funtington: Family Fun with The Huntington
Saturday, Nov. 14, 10 a.m. (PST)
Join us for our Funtington Family Saturday, a day of free online fun for families, featuring videos from our community partners that celebrate artists in our communities. Highlights include Porfirio Gutierrez’s “Living Color: Carmine Red,” the Pablove Foundation’s photography show, a WriteGirl poetry reading, and The Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA) Art Show, inspired by plants in our botanical collections.
Museum of Neon Art (MONA) Vies for Chance to Showcase John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight" Art Collection
After nearly 8 months of closure MONA hopes to raise funds to pay staff, build awareness about struggling small museums, host a wacky art exhibition viewable for free to the public, and sponsor a local food bank in the process
MONA Concept Art by Paul Manchester
Screenshot of John Oliver on “Last Week Tonight”
Glendale, CA After encouragement from community members and the MONA Board of Trustees, the Museum of Neon Art, a 39 year old institution dedicated to electric, kinetic, and neon art, and historic signage has put it’s hat in the ring for the chance of showcasing three artworks that are a part of the John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” art collection.
The collection includes a portrait of famed TV personality Wendy Williams eating a porkchop, a cubist style composition featuring two rats locked in a passionate embrace, and a painting of a bundle of ties belonging to Larry Kudlow, Director of the United States Economic Council, fashioned in a photo realistic style by his wife. “We’ve dabbled a bit in the art market this year and have acquired a small but high-quality collection of modern masterpieces,” John Oliver said at the end of his show last week. “Tonight, I’m proud to announce that this collection is available to go on tour. That is right, we’re inviting any US museum — as long as they can safely show them — to apply to host these masterpieces.”
Each of the five museums selected for this traveling exhibition will receive a donation of $10,000 from ”Last Week Tonight”, with an additional $10,000 donation from the show to a food bank in the museum's city. If selected for the opportunity MONA would artfully display the works from the museum’s public facing windows so that viewers could enjoy or puzzle over) the exhibition free of charge. Over 11,000 pedestrians pass by MONA’s windows each week and the museum has a following of over 45,000 on social media channels, so the curious collection would get a new audience while the Museum of Neon Art could shed light on the plight that many museums, art centers, and performance venues have faced due to the pandemic.“Museums are caretakers of objects, translators of meaning, meeting places for community, places of learning, refuge for thinkers to imagine the improbable, among many other things. Small museums are also testing grounds, quirky outposts, and unique place-makers. Much like the mom and pop businesses that MONA honors, small arts institutions have a ripple effect in the community they exist in, and once lost can never be completely regained. Covid has put these one-of-a-kind institutions at risk. The stories they tell, the communities they foster, and the unique perspectives they offer the world,” says Executive Director Corrie Siegel.
Like "Last Week Tonight", MONA presents the wacky, tacky, uncomfortable, disturbing, and inspiring parts of American history in an engaging manner. Instead of comedy the Museum does this through showcasing art and historic signage (though some of their signage and art can be quite humorous). ”Neon is a democratic art form that weaves itself through daily life, our museum aims to share this art-form with the public in a way that transforms the audience encounter with neon, whether it is an artwork or a shop sign” says MONA Executive Director Corrie Siegel. MONA’s collection of historic signs help to tell American history through Mom and Pop stories that reveal that the history of this nation is diverse, complex, and nuanced. The art and signage MONA houses weave stories about Japanese American Internment, the Aids crisis, African American success stories, and Hollywood romance. The Museum’s collection of neon art addresses critical issues, and creates playful objects from scientific principles. Hosting John Oliver's collection would buy MONA more time to weather the closure of the museum, draw in a new audience, and help to ensure that this one-of-a-kind institution makes it to its 40th birthday next year. We believe our collection of anthropomorphic neon creatures provides a context for the rat erotica painting in Oliver’s collection and the museum’s Doc Kilzum exterminator sign weaves a tragic-romantic narrative arc of star crossed rat lovers, and the untimely end of their progeny.
During its closure MONA has lost over $130,000 in revenue. Due to state and local restrictions, Museums in LA County must remain closed, however small museums like MONA raise most operating costs from museum admission. The museum also hosts neon bending classes, and the Neon Cruise, a special tour of historic neon lights from the top of a double decker bus. Since the museum has considerable fixed expenses, including rent, and salaries for a skeleton crew, MONA’s very existence is threatened. If given the money MONA would restore staff who have been working in a decreased capacity, so that the team could create more safe social distanced programs for the public, and to promote the traveling exhibition, so all residents of LA County would have the privilege of gazing upon Wendy Williams indulging in a delicious snack. “The 8 months of closure the Museum of Neon Art faced has enabled us to reimagine how the museum can function for its audience, and though we have seen wildly successful engagement online with our free downloadable self guided tours, family guide, studio takeovers, and historic takeovers, these can’t keep the lights on” says Executive Director Corrie Siegel.Individuals interested in supporting MONA can donate here: https://www.neonmona.org/support-mona/
