High art, low price

Brazilian dancers at the Music Center? Shepard Fairey deejaying after parties? Seminars for Westside photo connoisseurs?

If it’s January, then it must be Los Angeles Arts Month. And if you weren’t downtown last Wednesday for the lunch hour kickoff with Cirque du Soleil and the guys from Los Lobos, then there’s still plenty of culture to catch at once-a-year bargain prices.

Museum shops are offering discount coupons. The Pasadena Playhouse has orchestra seats for half-price. Tickets to upcoming performances of “The Turn of the Screw” are two-for-the-price-of-one at the Los Angeles Opera. And you can catch the Los Angeles Philharmonic for 20% off for selected concerts. Plus, admission to both Gettys, The Hammer and about a dozen other big museums will be free during the last weekend of the month.

Now in its third year, L.A. Arts Month was launched by city government and arts groups to promote local art and culture. It has since expanded to encourage patronage of the arts countywide.

“This is a way for families to get out and see what L.A. has to offer,” says Allison Starcher, taking a momentary break from her job as show manager for the 16th annual Los Angeles Art Show, an anchor event from January 19-23 that is expected to draw some 40,000 visitors to the Los Angeles Convention Center.  “L.A. has amazing museums, incredible theaters and wonderful galleries. There are very few cities where you can experience so much.”

The L.A. Art Show will, as always, run the gamut, opening with a gala benefit and that exclusive after-party hosted by Fairey, with free admission for kids under 17. The show will boast rare images by Henri Cartier Bresson, first-time exhibitions from galleries in China, a Sunday conversation with the punk graphic artist Robert Williams, and installations by street muralists Vox Humana, not to mention tours of the public art in L.A.’s own Metro stations.

Also in town this month will be the 20^th annual International Los Angeles Photographic Art Exposition, the Brazilian dance troupe Grupo Corpo, a Films 4 Change documentary and food tasting at the Broad Stage, and a vast array of ongoing exhibitions and shows.

And that’s not even counting the buildup to the much-anticipated “Pacific Standard Time” exhibition—years in the making—about L.A.’s role in the post-World War II art world. Culture fans will have to wait until October for that one, but it’s already a looming presence. Massive and region-wide, it’s planned as a sort of collaborative blitz of art shows on a single subject, spanning Southern California and involving more than 50 art institutions.

Posted 1/12/11