11:30am | This weekend presents an abundance of cultural and artistic options for Long Beachians eager for enrichment. I offer a summary in the hope that your appetite for creative experience will be whetted.
First, I’ll start with the museums, all of which are participating in the Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time initiative, which has funded more than 60 institutions throughout Southern California to exhibit work created in California in the four decades following World War 2. The Long Beach Museum of Art is exhibiting Exchange & Evolution: Worldwide Video Long Beach 1974-1999. You can read my interviews with curator Kathy Rae Huffman and featured artist Thomas Allen Harris.
The University Art Museum presents Peace Press Graphics 1967 – 1987: Art in the Pursuit of Social Change. The museum has created a compelling and beautiful exhibition using posters created by the Peace Press, a printing collective that, amongst other things, helped support many grass roots social and political movements. You can read my interview with co-curators Ilee Kaplan, and Carol Wells, and keep an eye out for an upcoming interview with Henry Klein, who worked at the Peace Press.
The Museum of Latin American Art is presenting MEX/LA: Mexican Modernism(s) in LA 1930 – 1985. I hang my head in shame because I’ve yet to see this exhibit, or interview anyone from the museum about it, but I swear that I intend to remedy this very soon. Stay tuned. Also, while you’re there, you can check out The Good, The Bad, The Ugly: Selections from MOLAA’s Permanent Collection.
If you aren’t familiar with The Collaborative, now is a great time to discover it. It is a shared space, located at 421 West Broadway (Right across the street from the Police Department), co-curated by MOLAA and the Long Beach Arts Council. The current exhibition, Utopian City Project, is an interactive and fanciful re-imagining of urban life. The space is open from 11 AM – 5 PM Wednesday through Sunday, and runs through January 15th.
You’re in luck if theater is your thing. According to Victoria Bryan, Long Beach has more than 20 theater groups. The CSULB Studio Theatre is presenting Execution of Justice, Musical Theatre West presents John Waters’ musical Hairspray at The Carpenter Center and, if you hate mockingbirds, then check out the Long Beach Playhouse production of To Kill A Mockingbird.
If literature is your bag, then go directly to Gatsy Books this Saturday at 7 PM to catch LBPost’s own Greggory Moore, reading from his novel, The Use of Regret. I bet he’ll even sign a copy for you if you ask.
For those with an ear for music, I can’t think of anything more spectacular than the West Coast Premiere of Maestro Diemecke‘s Concerto Fiesta Otoñal for Marimba and Orchestra, performed by our very own Long Beach Symphony Orchestra. The performance kicks off this Saturday at 8 PM. Affordable balcony seats are almost always available, but I wouldn’t wait until tomorrow night to find out.
If you’re looking for something a bit more eclectic, or free, then stop into Zephyr Vegetarian Cafe, located on 4th between Elm and Long Beach Blvd, from 9 – 10 PM. Scott Heustis, known for his prowess on the electric guitar, will be performing a rare acoustic set with bassist Orlando Greenhill, and yours truly on piano. This sonic art is part of Zephyr’s monthly 2nd Saturday Experimental Music Series, presented in partnership with LVXEdge.com.
If you want to get your art on, go to the Long Beach Playhouse where the talented local photographer known as El Imagenero is presenting a small sampling of images he created as part of a series called Eve is a Fecund Goddess. The show opens tomorrow, but you may want to catch the reception on Sunday from 5 – 6 PM.
Lastly, it is with no small amount of sadness that I report the closing of the Catalyst space on 1st Street, between Elm and Linden. For the last few years it has served as a cultural hub, and has given birth to many great social movements in the City. If you’re in the area on Saturday evening, stop by. They’ll be having a celebration of all that’s happened there. I should say, though, that Catalyst lives on. It just won’t have a permanent physical space. If you want to learn more about Catalyst, read the three part interview with its founder, Eric Leocadio.
Details for many of the events listed here can be found on LimeLightLB.com, a community service of DOMA Properties. It is a fantastic, and surprisingly thorough, community resource.