There's something for everyone in UCLA's summer arts offerings
UCLA's public arts programs offer a wealth of free programs, exhibitions, screening and activities over the summer.
For those interested in film, there's a full slate from the UCLA Film & Television Archive. The Archive’s popular “Family Flicks” free Sunday matinee screening series at the Billy Wilder Theater is back with Sing! on July 16 at the and Nim’s Island on August 27.
As part of the ongoing Archive Television Treasures series, remarkable cult-classic TV gets a showing with “Ernie Kovacs: Television of the Absurd” (July 22), a tribute to the legendary comedian, actor and writer, and “Honey West: TV Private Eye ’65” (Aug. 26), the trailblazing series starring Golden Globe Award–winning actress Anne Francis as a detective and inspired by Britain’s spy show “The Avengers.”
Other free programs from the Archive at the Billy Wilder include the series “Telegrams from the Edge: The Message Picture in the Age of Noir” will run from July 14 to Aug. 6, presenting a sample of Hollywood message films from the 1950s and ’60s in the film noir and pulp genres.
The first night of “Flaming Creatures: Jack Smith, Barbara Rubin and the Cinematic Orgiastic” (July 15–16) marks the 60th anniversary of the double-bill theatrical premiere of Smith’s “Flaming Creatures” (1962), in which images and bodies slide over one another in a tumult of freedom and feeling, and Ken Jacobs’ “Blonde Cobra” (1963) at the Bleecker Street Cinema in New York. The second evening of the program features three works inspired by “Flaming Creatures”: Ron Rice’s Chumlum (1963), Jud Yalkut’s “Kusama’s Self-Obliteration” (1967) and Barbara Rubin’s “Christmas on Earth” (1963).
Music and sports lovers can find a home at the Hammer Museum throughout July and August.
The Hammer’s KCRW summer concert series happens every Thursday night in the courtyard featuring live music and KCRW DJs. In August, those Thursday night concerts keep going with the PopJazz series.
The Hammer is also offering a family-friendly space to view all the World Cup matches this summer. Two screenings have already been announced and more will be added.
July and August are your final chances to see many exhibitions at the Hammer and Fowler Museums.
Coming down soon, so the museum can begin installing Made in L.A. (set to open October 1), are “Together in Time: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection,” which closes Aug. 20 and the museum’s celebrated Armand Hammer Collection which comes off view August 27.
The Chiharu Shiota installation with those striking red strings that crisscross around the Hammer lobby will also disappear August 20, so make sure you stop by and get that Instagrammable moment, or better yet, “Threadable” moment.
Speaking of threads, over at the Fowler, there is a truly stunning display of threadwork and needle work and sacred sequins that runs through August 27. Myrlande Constant: The Work of Radiance is whimsical and spiritual at the same time. This first solo museum exhibition for a female Haitian artist includes incredible piece from the Fowler’s permanent collection that was commissioned in the wake of the 2010 earthquake.
With endings come new beginnings.
Recently opened at the Fowler is “The Weight of a Patina of Time” from artist Gala Porras-Kim, a UCLA alum, Made in L.A. alum and all around beloved L.A. artist. Her seemingly subtle and poetic artworks ask big questions, sometimes hilarious but also sharp, insightful, and generative questions about how knowledge is produced and maintained by museums.
New at the Hammer is a fascinating exhibition of photographs by the Armenian-Egyptian artist known as Van Leo. Van Leo was an acclaimed portrait photographer based in Cairo in the 1940s-60s, who also experimented with self-portraiture, dress himself like Zorro, a beggar, or Jesus Christ, among others. “Becoming Van Leo” opens July 15 and runs through November 5.
Meanwhile, in downtown L.A….
Marlené Nancy Lopez, the first-ever activist in resident from the Department of Architecture and Urban Design will be unveiling a new mural in MacArthur Park on August 17. Lopez was on campus all of last school year in partnership with the Asian American Studies Center working to create the forthcoming “Grieving Sun” mural.
And while UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance stages are dark for the summer, tickets to the CAP UCLA season are on sale now.
The opening performance at the from Grammy-winning poet J. Ivy on Sept. 23 will inaugurate the new UCLA Nimoy Theater in Westwood.
