Sonia Romero’s Urban Oasis at the MacArthur Park Metro Station

During the past several decades, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) has steadily expanded the region’s bus and rail systems. Recognizing that art can engage transit riders, beautify public space, and reflect the diverse communities that use these systems as well as the region’s rich history, Metro initiated an ambitious public art program in 1989 that has become an important component of its planning and construction programs.

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Deconstructing Perestroika

To mark the 20th anniversary of the USSR’s demise in 1991, the Wende Museum and Archive of the Cold War, in collaboration with the Craft and Folk Art Museum, have produced an exhibition of poster art titled “Deconstructing Perestroika: Soviet Ideology and its Discontents.” Comprised of 24 political posters produced in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the exhibit seeks to shed light on the ways in which some Soviet artists responded to the dramatic changes and upheaval of their society, as well as to the new found freedom of expression and insistence on transparency that were the hallmarks of Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies of Glasnost (openness) and Perestroika (re-structuring).

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California International Antiquarian Book Fair

This weekend thousands of book lovers, 200 book dealers, and scholars from around the world will gather in Pasadena for the 45th edition of the California International Antiquarian Book Fair. Attendees to this prestigious event will find a wide assortment of printed materials spanning five centuries, including rare and out of print books, maps, graphics, photographs, prints, and autographs, among others. Original manuscripts that predate Gutenberg will also be on display and for sale.

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MyHistoricLA Launches and Seeks Public Input for SurveyLA

As I reported in an October 2010 post, the Los Angeles Planning Department’s Office of Historic Resources is undertaking an ambitious program called SurveyLA, which is the first comprehensive effort to identify historic resources throughout the city. Now the Office of Historic Resources has launched an innovative public engagement program called MyHistoricLA, which is intended to get the public directly involved in the survey process through the use of an online technology platform developed by MindMixer.

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Edwardian Ball Los Angeles – New Date and New Venue Announced

In case you missed the January 16th update to my first post about the 2012 Edwardian Ball Los Angeles, the event had to be postponed because the original venue, The Music Box in Hollywood, unexpectedly closed. While it was unclear for a brief time when and where the Ball would take place, I’m pleased to report that the event’s producers have regrouped and everything is back on track. Read their update below for all the latest details.

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Come Celebrate California’s First Sustainable Utility Campus

This weekend Burbank Water and Power (BWP) will host a community celebration and dedication ceremony to mark the completion of California’s first comprehensive, sustainable utility campus. Working with Los Angeles-based landscape architecture firm AHBE, BWP has transformed the facility from an aging industrial site into a state-of-the-art regenerative green space and a model for other public and private entities around the nation.

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