Posts Tagged ‘Museum of Jurassic Technology’

Los Angeles is chock full of art museums that consistently bring us (and create!) world-class exhibitions that culturally nourish and amaze Angelenos alike. When you forget to make those reservations at the Getty or just know tickets are sold out for the newest LACMA show, remember there are alternatives for lazy Sundays or first dates.  Dozens of smaller institutions that highlight more specialized fields within our cultural landscape are scattered between the Getty, LACMA, MOCA, and the Norton Simon. We’d like to tell you about our top three.

Culver City’s Museum of Jurassic Technology is a definite underdog to the heavy hitter art museums in Los Angeles.  You’ve got to be wondering, what is Jurassic technology? The museum describes its focus as being a “specialized repository of relics and artifacts from the Lower Jurassic, with an emphasis on those that demonstrate unusual or curious technological qualities.”  But in fewer words, they mean their specialty is the most curious of curiosities. This museum is filled with the unusual and strange – exhibitions include mosaics of flowers and fauna made completely of butterfly wings and microminiature sculptures that fit into the eye of a needle, a favorite being one of Pope John Paul II, that are sure to make you question what exactly you are looking at.

In Downtown, the Museum of Neon Art brings back lost Los Angeles history by preserving and restoring the glitzy and glamorous neon signs of yesteryear and neon artwork in their permanent collection as well as presenting contemporary neon pieces in changing exhibitions.  Also impressive, their program LUMENS (Living Urban Museum of Electric and Neon Signs) has relit over 150 signs from the Wilshire Corridor, Hollywood District, and Downtown, giving us a taste of days of yore. To boot, they give a pretty good lesson on how these neon lights work through interactive components.  It’s science!

Across the street from LACMA, the Craft and Folk Art Museum brings fine arts and cultural diversity together seamlessly in one museum. Its history makes this museum so much more appetizing, as the Craft and Folk Museum was built upon founder Edith Wyle’s innovative café and shop, The Egg and The Eye.  Once serving over 50 omelettes inspired by international cuisines, it was only a natural progression that lead to the development of the CAFAM as a safe haven for artistic frequenters to contribute to this living museum. Current exhibitions include Celestial Ash: Assemblages from Los Angeles, a meditation on Joseph Cornell’s shadowboxes by Los Angeles artists, as well as Ancient Gods and Modern Politics: Mithila Painting, a color saturated painting show focusing on the depiction of ancient epics and local legends.

Come one, come all, these cultural nooks in Los Angeles are to be celebrated and shared like that perfect place for Sunday brunch or your favorite hidden vintage store.

For more information about visiting the Museum of Jurassic Technology, call: 310.836.6131; for more information about visiting the Museum of Neon Art, please call: 213.489.9918; for more information about visiting the Craft and Folk Art Museum, please call: 323.937.4230.

Image:  A micromosaic by Henry Dalton shown at the Museum of Jurassic Technology