Category: downtown

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Weekend Events: January 4-6, 2019

It’s a new year, it’s a new you. Whether or not you followed through on your resolutions so far in 2019, you deserve to treat yourself to a weekend of fun in LA. In the city of stars there is no shortage of thrills. We rounded-up the best “Angeleno” approved events to spruce up your first weekend of the year!

Read below for events happening in and round LA January 4-6.

Discover your inner Angeleno!

Friday, January 4th

First-Time Fridays at LACMA

You haven’t been to LACMA you say? Well luckily for you, LA’s Contemporary Museum of Modern Art accepts this and offers First Time Fridays. This monthly event invites guest to explore the museum from 3:00pm-8:00pm for LA residents. If you let the ticket office know it is your first visit to LACMA, you will receive a free poster and discounts at the LACMA store, LACMA Cafe and C+M.

Click here for more details.

Abbot Kinney First Fridays

AK’s neighborhood block party returns this Friday on the “coolest block in America”. Whatever your craving, you’ll be sure to find something with new and old food trucks joining the event and merchant discounts plus late hours.

Click here for more details.

LA Lakers vs. New York Knicks

NBA tickets to see the Los Angeles Lakers play the New York Knicks are sure to be selling quickly! Fans from both sides of the nation won’t want to miss this exciting regular season game! If you want to be there to catch all of the action you’d better act now. Secure your seats so you can cheer on your favorite team!

Click here for more details

Saturday, January 5th

Watson Adventures’ Thrilla at the Getty Villa

Roam for Romans on a unique scavenger hunt that transports you to ancient Greece and Rome via the Getty Villa. You’ll follow a trail of clues and answer fun, tricky questions. Discover facts you never knew about the odd aspects of gods, goddesses, and the inventors of the toga party.

Click here for more details

Golden Globes Foreign Language Nominee Symposium

Discover the best foreign language films of 2018. This year’s five nominees include Capernaum from Lebanon, Girl from Belgium, Never Look Away from Germany, Roma from Mexico, and Shoplifters from Japan. The symposium will also include a free roundtable with the Directors for each of the nominated films. The panel will be moderated by Mike Goodridge, former HFPA member and VP turned festival director and programmer. Advance sale tickers are available until 5:00pm January 4 but will still be available for standby the day of.

Click here for more details

Bricks LA 2019

Come share your love of Lego and discover hundreds of fan created models at the Pasadena Convention Center ! Enjoy their vendor area with new, used, and unique brick accessories as well as building techniques and panel discussions. It will be a weekend of fun for all ages.

Click here for more details

Sunday, January 6

Annual Carroll Shelby Cruise-In

Come see some of the fastest, rarest and most beloved Shelby’s of all time. The Petersen will celebrate Carroll Shelby’s birthday by having a cruise-in on the third floor parking structure of the museum. All car enthusiasts are invited to participate in the car show and contest. Coffee and snacks will be provided.

Click here for more details

A Faery Hunt Magical Adventure

Named by Nickelodeon the “Best Children’s Theater” in Los Angeles, A Faery Hunt delights as a magical adventure. Auntie Angelica leads the audience on a gentle journey to help the Faery royalty! With the help of the audience and the Faeries, it’s a musical filled afternoon with fun, laughs and surprises.

Click here for more details

LA Kings Holiday ICE at L.A. Live Final Day

Just because the holidays are over, doesn’t mean the fun has to be. Don’t miss out on the last day of the LA Kings Holiday Ice at L.A. Live. Skate your way through the weekend as a family fun activity or date night.

Click here fore more details

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Arts District's Newest Museum Set To Open This Weekend

This weekend a familiar local art institution is opening in a fresh space, under a new name.

On Saturday, Sept. 9 The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA), formerly known as the Santa Monica Museum of Art (SMMoA), will open the doors on a new 12,700-foot facility located on the south side of the Arts District in Downtown Los Angeles.

ICA LA’s new digs include 7,500-square-feet of exhibition space, a designated area for public programs, plus offices. Still yet to open is a cafe, which is scheduled to arrive sometime in 2018. And here’s the part you’ll want to note: Admission, both for the opening celebration and ongoing visitation, is free!

ICA LA Courtyard

“now I’m going to tell you everything” is the inaugural project for ICA LA’s courtyard wall on 7th Street. Photo by Brian Champlin / We Like L.A.

After opening in 1984 SMMoA had spent it’s final 17 years as a tenant of Bergamot Station before shutting down in May 2015. For the past two-plus years former employees of the museum have been focused on looking for a new home, along with a strategy to rebrand and generate the operating funds necessary for a new endeavor. Now, all the hard work has come to fruition.

ICL LA has defined it’s mission as to “support art that sparks the pleasure of discovery and challenges the way we see and experience the world, ourselves, and each other,” according to the museum’s new website.

To launch that vision the museum will open with three exhibitions, all running through December 31, 2017:

– Martín Ramírez: His Life in Pictures, Another Interpretation features approximately 50 drawings and collages as part of the artist’s first presentation in Southern California.

– Sarah Cain: now I’m going to tell you everything is the inaugural project for ICA LA’s courtyard wall on 7th Street (see photo above).

– Abigail DeVille: No Space Hidden (Shelter) will be the artist’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles.

Additionally, the opening weekend of Sept. 9-10 includes several special activities, tours and talks to welcome the public to the new space.

Saturday features:

  • Bilingual guided tours of Martín Ramírez: His Life in Pictures, Another Interpretation at 1, 2:30, and 4 p.m.
  • Matchsticks and Mashed Potatoes workshop on collage drawings and alternative image-making in the spirit of Martín Ramírez from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • Performance by Los Jornaleros del Norte (The Day Laborers of the North) at 5 p.m.

Sunday features:

  • Migrar storybook reading and art workshop with Spanish-language children’s bookstore LA librería and Book Arts LA from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
  • A conversation with leading scholars of Latin American art and culture: James Oles, Rubén Gallo, Josh Kun, and conservator Harriet Stratis, moderated by Elsa Longhauser, discussing the life and work of Martín Ramírez from 2 to 3:30 p.m.
  • An interactive dance class by Cambalache, featuring Maestro Cesar Castro, Xochi Flores, Chuy Sandoval, and Juan Perez from 4 to 5 p.m.

ICA LA is located at 1717 E. 7th St., Los Angeles, CA 90021.

Opening weekend (Sept. 9-10) hours are from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Ongoing hours thereafter will be 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Wed. – Fri., and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sat.-Sun. Admission is free.

For more information on visiting ICA LA, or to help plan your visit, be sure to visit theicala.org.

Article courtesy of We Like LA.

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Angels Flight Set To Reopen This Week

The four-year wait is over: the Angels Flight funicular will reopen to the public on Thursday, August 31.

The famed downtown Los Angeles landmark has been undergoing renovations lately, following Mayor Eric Garcetti’s March announcement that the self-proclaimed shortest railway in the world would be operational again by Labor Day.

As detailed by Los Angeles Downtown News, a public-private partnership was formed by ACS Infrastructure, engineering firm Sener, and the non-profit Angels Flight Railway Foundation to create the Angels Flight Development Company. The AFDC has spent about $5 million updating the funicular, and is currently awaiting final approval by the California Public Utilities Commission. The last few months have seen an emergency stairway added to the rail line, along with an upgrade to the motors and other systems.

“I will be here riding it myself. That’s how confident I am in these engineers,” Garcetti said at the March press conference ahead of the overhaul.

Angels Flight originally opened at Hill and Third Streets, one block north from its current location, in 1901—only to close in 1969.

Original_AngelsFlight_DropIn_1200.jpg
The original location of Angels Flight at 3rd and Hill before its 1969 closure (left) and the present day 3rd and Hill (right). (Photos via Wikipedia (L) and Google Maps (R))

Since reopening at the base of California Plaza in 1996, the railway has faced something of a rocky history. In 2001, one of the cars derailed and slid down the track—it resulted in the death of one man and the injuries of seven others. Angels Flight closed for nine years following the incident as its operators dealt with legal settlements and approval by the CPUC. The funicular reopened in 2010, only to derail again in 2013, this time to no injuries. Thursday’s opening will mark the first return to public operations since then.

“People have worked very hard together to make sure it comes together and that safety is guaranteed,” Steven DeWitt of ACS Infrastructure told Downtown News.

Tickets for the funicular will be $1 (a doubling in price from 2013), and TAP Card holders will be able to purchase a ride for 50 cents. DeWitt told LAist that regular operating hours will be daily from 6:45 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Article by LAist. 

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