The Autry in Griffith Park offers online experiences while the museum is closed for the COVID-19 outbreak. (Danielle Klebanow Photography)
The COVID-19 virus is wreaking havoc on schools, stores, businesses — and events. As concerts, talks and big gatherings get cancelled and people spend more time at home, LAist is temporarily switching our events column to a “nonevents” column to help us through this time of social distancing.
Until it’s safe to go out again, please consider contributing to your local arts organizations, or to individual artists during this difficult time.
While arts and cultural institutions around the world have shut down to help stop the spread of COVID-19, many are highlighting their works and programs online. We looked at ways Southern California museums are allowing us to get our art fix while we #museumfromhome.
Autry Museum of the American West
The Autry’s extensive collections, which include more than 600,000 objects and cultural materials, are available online. In the coming weeks, the museum’s blog and social media accounts will be bringing an inside perspective and spotlight works.
Bowers Museum
Before the outbreak, the Santa Ana-based museum has just opened a blockbuster exhibition, Inside the Walt Disney Archives: 50 Years of Preserving the Magic, with a number of related events. While in-person visits are on hold, people are still able to take a look at the digital guide to the exhibition. Use a mobile device (phones not computers) to access the material.
The Broad
While the downtown L.A. museum is developing new content for its site (where guests can already explore the collection), The Broad is encouraging visits to its YouTube page for artist interviews and gallery talks. Watch singer Adele discuss how Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room inspired a live performance or check out The Un-Private Collection a series of conversations with people such as Christopher Wool, Kim Gordon and John Corbett.
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California African American Museum
CAAM’s YouTube channel includes a collection of all its full-length and social media videos, from artist interviews (Alison Saar, Candace Reels, Cross Colours) to exhibition tours.
California Science Center
The museum has a Stuck at Home Science section that features activities families do with common household supplies. The projects were meant to stave off boredom and promote science education — even before the COVID-19 outbreak. Learn about light and darkness, ice, plant roots and magic spoons. The activity sheets are free to download in English and Spanish.
Craft Contemporary
Follow the Craft Contemporary museum on Instagram for at-home craft projects along with step-by-step videos in the “Craft At Home” story highlight. The latest project, Flower Pounding, helps release that pent-up quarantine energy.
FIDM/Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising
Like many other museums, FIDM can be found on Google Arts and Culture online, showcasing former exhibitions including The Art of Television Design (2016). The museum also has its entire Unboxing series available in its Instagram highlights, as well as its online collections and blog.
Getty Museum
The Getty’s blog, The Iris, has posted the guide, “How to Explore Art While the Getty Galleries Are Closed,” which includes a “starter kit” of the Getty’s online art, books and videos. Three of the museum’s most popular current exhibitions are online: Michelangelo: Mind of the Master, Assyria: Palace Art of Ancient Iraq and Käthe Kollwitz: Prints, Process, Politics. Visitors can also browse the institution’s art and research collections, listen to art podcasts, watch artist talks and read art books.
Grammy Museum
The museum debuts never-before-released digital recordings of its public programs, releasing a new episode on its website every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. Last week, the museum featured discussions and music sets with Scarypoolparty and Yola. Forthcoming conversations and music include Billie Eilish and FINNEAS, Bob Newhart, Brandi Carlile, Greta Van Fleet, Kool & The Gang, Larkin Poe and X Ambassadors. On Sundays and Tuesdays, the museum will also release educational content and lesson plans on its website, covering topics like electronic music production to music of the Civil Rights Movement.
Hammer Museum
The Westwood museum has digital archives of exhibitions and collections with more than 1,100 works by more than 100 artists who taught or studied at UCLA. The online collection includes an expanded archive from Corita Kent as well as Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles, 1960-1980. The Hammer also has full videos of past programs including artist Paul McCarthy talking about his work, readings by Jamaica Kincaid and Political Advertising in the U.S. On Thursdays at 12:30 p.m., guests can join in the weekly Mindful Awareness Meditation via Zoom.
ICA LA
The museum has a pretty cool virtual tour available in its “visit” section. We checked out Maryam Jafri’s exhibition room from last year’s I Drank the Kool-Aid, but Didn’t Inhale as well as Lucas Blalock’s An Enormous Oar.
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LACMA
The mid-Wilshire museum has extensive online collections and publications as well as great videos on its YouTube channel, including one featuring the late John Baldessari, narrated by Tom Waits. For families with kids at home, LACMA also offers free education resources for all ages. Their robust social media channels feature collection highlights and great memes.
Lancaster Museum of Art and History
MOAH offers Young Artist Workshop tutorials, a virtual tour of its latest exhibition, The Light of Space, and MOAH publications. Follow the museum on Facebook for more art and behind-the-scenes information.
LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes hosted an online walkthrough of its newest exhibition, ‘Carlos Almaraz: Evolution of Form,’ which is available to watch. (Echo Park (Falling Angels) by Carlos Almaraz, courtesy of LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes)
LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes
Downtown L.A.’s LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes hosted an online walkthrough of its newest exhibition, Carlos Almaraz: Evolution of Form, during what would have been its opening reception. The exhibition features early and little-seen drawings, sketches and paintings by the pioneering Chicano artist. The presentation, led by his widow Elsa Flores Almaraz and curator Susana Smith Bautista, is available on LA Plaza’s Facebook.
Laguna Art Museum
The museum’s LAM+LAB online series offers art exploration and activities for all ages, inspired by its collection. Download and create the “Magu Map,” a collaborative sculpture inspired by Gilbert Magu Lujan’s Cruising Turtle Island or create Fairytale Zines, inspired by Titi, Nunu, & Klembolo: Helena Modjeska’s Fairy Tale Book. Once finished, artists are asked to post to Instagram and tag LAM.
MOCA
The museum launches #VirtualMOCA today (Monday, March 23) with weekly digital programming, bringing ideas on collaborative education, community support and movie nights. In addition, visitors can already view exhibition images and reading materials on its website, as well as all its public programs, artist interviews and special studio visits available on MOCA TV on YouTube.
MOLAA Art
While the Long Beach museum is dark, they’re highlighting works by female artists in its permanent collection for Women’s History Month on Instagram. The museum is also asking people to share creative projects and ideas through the hashtag #MOLAAConnects.
The Muckenthaler Cultural Center
We’re not sure how this squares with the “stay at home” order, so check with The Muck before you go: Every Tuesday Morning (starting this week), the Fullerton museum will have a drive-through Art Kit Kiosk in the parking lot from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Parents can pick up a new, free art project each week (designed by Muck Master Artists Marsha Judd and Willie Tabata) without leaving the car.
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Natural History Museum, La Brea Tar Pits Museum and the William S. Hart Museum
The L.A. County museums have launched #NHMLAC Connects, a new hub that houses content from the three institutions. Learn about dinosaurs, nature and how L.A.’s streets were named.
Follow the Skirball’s Instagram and Facebook, where over the next few weeks, the center will share collection spotlights, behind-the-scenes looks with curators, art projects, performances by Noah’s Ark gallery educators, shared playlists and recommended readings.
View highlights from the Wende Museum’s ‘The Medea Insurrection: Radical Women Artists Behind the Iron Curtain’ online. (Courtesy of the Wende Museum)
Wende Museum
While the Culver City museum is temporarily closed, online resources for visitors include videos and walk-throughs of its current exhibition, The Medea Insurrection: Radical Women Artists Behind the Iron Curtain. The site also spotlights a collection of Zsolnay ceramics and access to catalogs from past exhibitions. Follow the museum on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for other art highlights.
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
In a case that has sent shockwaves through the Vancouver Island art community, a local art dealer has been charged with one count of fraud over $5,000. Calvin Lucyshyn, the former operator of the now-closed Winchester Galleries in Oak Bay, faces the charge after police seized hundreds of artworks, valued in the tens of millions of dollars, from various storage sites in the Greater Victoria area.
Alleged Fraud Scheme
Police allege that Lucyshyn had been taking valuable art from members of the public under the guise of appraising or consigning the pieces for sale, only to cut off all communication with the owners. This investigation began in April 2022, when police received a complaint from an individual who had provided four paintings to Lucyshyn, including three works by renowned British Columbia artist Emily Carr, and had not received any updates on their sale.
Further investigation by the Saanich Police Department revealed that this was not an isolated incident. Detectives found other alleged victims who had similar experiences with Winchester Galleries, leading police to execute search warrants at three separate storage locations across Greater Victoria.
Massive Seizure of Artworks
In what has become one of the largest art fraud investigations in recent Canadian history, authorities seized approximately 1,100 pieces of art, including more than 600 pieces from a storage site in Saanich, over 300 in Langford, and more than 100 in Oak Bay. Some of the more valuable pieces, according to police, were estimated to be worth $85,000 each.
Lucyshyn was arrested on April 21, 2022, but was later released from custody. In May 2024, a fraud charge was formally laid against him.
Artwork Returned, but Some Remain Unclaimed
In a statement released on Monday, the Saanich Police Department confirmed that 1,050 of the seized artworks have been returned to their rightful owners. However, several pieces remain unclaimed, and police continue their efforts to track down the owners of these works.
Court Proceedings Ongoing
The criminal charge against Lucyshyn has not yet been tested in court, and he has publicly stated his intention to defend himself against any pending allegations. His next court appearance is scheduled for September 10, 2024.
Impact on the Local Art Community
The news of Lucyshyn’s alleged fraud has deeply affected Vancouver Island’s art community, particularly collectors, galleries, and artists who may have been impacted by the gallery’s operations. With high-value pieces from artists like Emily Carr involved, the case underscores the vulnerabilities that can exist in art transactions.
For many art collectors, the investigation has raised concerns about the potential for fraud in the art world, particularly when it comes to dealing with private galleries and dealers. The seizure of such a vast collection of artworks has also led to questions about the management and oversight of valuable art pieces, as well as the importance of transparency and trust in the industry.
As the case continues to unfold in court, it will likely serve as a cautionary tale for collectors and galleries alike, highlighting the need for due diligence in the sale and appraisal of high-value artworks.
While much of the seized artwork has been returned, the full scale of the alleged fraud is still being unraveled. Lucyshyn’s upcoming court appearances will be closely watched, not only by the legal community but also by the wider art world, as it navigates the fallout from one of Canada’s most significant art fraud cases in recent memory.
Art collectors and individuals who believe they may have been affected by this case are encouraged to contact the Saanich Police Department to inquire about any unclaimed pieces. Additionally, the case serves as a reminder for anyone involved in high-value art transactions to work with reputable dealers and to keep thorough documentation of all transactions.
As with any investment, whether in art or other ventures, it is crucial to be cautious and informed. Art fraud can devastate personal collections and finances, but by taking steps to verify authenticity, provenance, and the reputation of dealers, collectors can help safeguard their valuable pieces.
