This page is an article about local cultural highlights throughout our neighborhood and beyond.
What is culture? Culture (Latin: cultura, lit. “cultivation”)[1] is a term that has many different meanings.
Excellence of taste in the fine arts and humanities, also known as high culture. An integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning. The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization, or group- it all means the basis of culture however I believe, it’s a lifestyle, beyond just practices and characteristics, culture is what you make of your days and beyond. It’s family, friends, children, parents, neighbors, doings, things that create value and are set in precious stone in our lives. lagroveliving is our culture, we thrive amongst one another, we taste, get active, see, hear and reinvent ourselves through experience that define this extraordinary community.
Who says Los Angeles doesn’t have an incredible art scene?!
Art Districts in LA – Four Areas Not to Miss
Sixth Street in San Pedro
If you’re in town, join old Downtown San Pedro (San Pedro) for its renowned First Thursday art walks. Otherwise, check out the art on your own time — you won’t be disappointed.
Chung King Road (Chinatown)
It’s all about the funky boutique galleries here. Find hidden treasures in tucked away alleys and amidst paper lantern shades.
Downtown Arts District (Downtown)
Sometimes you can’t wait once a month for great art. Visit the Downtown Arts District for its art walk every Wednesday. Drop in on working artists who have made this area their haven for creative genius.
North Hollywood (NoHo) Arts District
Clustered along Magnolia and Lankershim Boulevards, the NoHo arts district features an eclectic blend of photography, theater, dance and poetry. Note: don’t miss the great restaurants in the area.
Art Museums in LA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
One of the most well-known museums in the area is the Los Angeles County Museums of Art (LACMA), which has an astounding array of permanent collections ranging from Near Eastern art to modern photography. It boasts world-famous artists at multiple locations on Wilshire Boulevard.
The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)
If you’re an art lover, you can’t miss The Museum of Contemporary Art. In Downtown, The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA has avant-garde exhibitions including contemporary fabricated houses, living spaces by Andrea Zittel and wordscapes — paintings composed of written words — by Alexandra Grant.
Autry National Center
Put on your cowboy hats and get ready for a wild ride. For an immersion in art from the American West, the Autry National Center brings together several museums where you can explore artifacts, stories and cultures.
Bergamot Station
Here’s a whopping eight acres that hosts a number of contemporary art galleries, including the Santa Monica Museum of Art. Named for the Red Line trolley stop that ran from LA to Santa Monica Pier, Bergamot features a modern art scene that’s hard to beat.
Thank you to Discover Los Angeles! All info provided by discoverLosAngeles.com – Los Angeles Tourism
Want more? Dig into Discover Los Angeles’ 100 Free Things to Do
Exhibits/ Neighborhood Culture
Annenberg Space for Photography, current exibit May 21- Nov 27, 2011
I visited this space this past Aug 12th weekend, you cannot miss the documentary: Beauty in it’s honesty. It gave me a few laughs as well. Stunning classic pieces from Patrick Demachelier, Tyen, Albert Watson, Melvin Solkosky, Gilles Bensimon, Herb Ritts, to name a few.
MUSE.
Los Angeles did not have a comprehensive museum of art until 1965, when LACMA opened its doors. At about the same time, La Cienega Boulevard became home to many art galleries, most notably Ferus, featuring works by artists who lived in the area. Although Andy Warhol was New York based, the famous “soup cans” were first exhibited at Ferus. A local exponent of pop art was Ed Ruscha, some of whose work was representational, others consisted of simple slogans or mottoes which were usually humorous, being so far out of the context where such statements would normally appear. David Hockney, an English immigrant, produced figurative paintings set in idyllic Southern California locales, such as swimming pools in the bright sunlight, belonging to modernist houses. Although these paintings are representational, they seem to be composed of small color patches, somewhat like collages. It was during this period that the contemporary arts scene in Los Angeles began to command the attention of collectors and museum directors internationally.
Some of the most respected art museums in the world can be found in Los Angeles. They include the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Norton Simon Museum, the Huntington Library art collection and botanical gardens, and the Hammer Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles. Los Angeles is known for its expansive collections of contemporary art- the Museum of Contemporary Art has three separate incarnations: the Geffen Contemporary, for larger installation pieces by more renown artists, the MOCA Downtown, its standard collection, and the Pacific Palisades, a large, multi-purpose building in modernist style that houses offices as well as stores and showrooms for contemporary graphic design, architecture, and interior design. Other smaller art museums in the city include the Craft and Folk Art Museum. The growth of Los Angeles as an art capital is being documented in a series of exhibitions partially funded and spearheade by the Getty, but held at all major museums during the Fall of 2011.
The trendy bohemian neighborhoods of Silver Lake and Los Feliz are home to numerous smaller galleries, showcasing local or underground art and Gallery Row downtown has become the homebase of the Downtown LA Art Walk, http://downtownartwalk.org/downtown-artwalk/
3rd and Beverly
West 3rd Street and Beverly Boulevard are first-rate destinations for boutique shopping and upscale wining & dining between Robertson Boulevard and The Grove. The two streets bracket the multistory Beverly Center, which is home to YSL, Prada, Tiffany’s, Burberry, Gucci and more. Stores like H&M also draw shoppers of all ranges and types. Obika Bar in the center is a place to put your bags down, have a glass of wine and enjoy tasty tapas and fresh mozzarella.
A hip restaurant row on Beverly Boulevard includes Eva Restaurant from owner Mark Gold, Angelini Osteria, Playa, BLD, Kings Road Cafe, Cobras & Matadors and the sinfully delicious cafe MILK. Upscale boutiques include Beige, Calleen Cordero and not to mention the vast variety of home design boutiques like DWR and West Elm. Fashion-forward boutiques on West 3rd Street east of the Beverly Center include Satine, Lotta Stensson, Eggy for high-end children’s clothing, Polkadots and Moonbeams for vintage/contemporary pieces and Pyrrha, Alexis Bittar or M.Cohen for jewelry.
Fine Foodies head to Tasca, The Little Door and A.O.C. to dine and Magnolia Bakery for cupcakes, Fonuts for “faux” baked donuts and let’s not forget brunch row: Toast, Doughboys, Quality and Joan’s on Third. West 3rd street also has a variety of international restaurants like Izakaya by Katsu-ya, Sushi Roku, Robata Jinya and for a true Bollywood experience head to Electric Karma(and have the Chicken Nirvana).
Electric Karma
Beverly Grove
Where is Beverly Grove and what is it?
it’s a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles in the Central L.A. region of Los Angeles County.
located in one of the most exciting, trendy areas of Los Angeles.
The intersecton of La Cienega and Beverly Blvd. is known as The Studio Zone.
“In the film and TV locations business, contrary to the tenets of astrophysics,
there actually is a center of the universe and it’s at the corner of La Cienega and Beverly Boulevards.
Where the Beverly Center meets the Beverly Connection is the dead center of
Hollywood’s so-called Studio Zone.” —Christopher Grove, Variety
Beverly Grove Areas
Stretching west to Robertson Boulevard, north to Santa Monica Boulevard, east to La Brea, and south to Pico Boulevard, Central LA is a vast and amorphous area in the heart of the city, known primarily for its shopping, quaint residential streets, delectable restaurants, and bustling though scattered nightlife.
The neighborhood is home to professionals, post-grads, and young families, as well as a large and visible Hasidic Jewish population and the ethnically entrenched Little Ethiopia that runs down Fairfax Avenue near Central LA’s southern boundary.
By day, boutique shopping and quaint al fresco dining options abound on posh and trendy Robertson Boulevard and its super-stylish sister, Third Street. The areas are flanked by two of LA’s biggest shopping centers – the Beverly Center and The Grove – and La Cienega Boulevard’s Restaurant Row, which features posh sushi joints, expensive steakhouses, and a big enough variety of cafés and restaurants to suit just about any budget.
Nearby Farmers Market and its astounding number of ethnic cuisine options is a favorite of the city’s food aficionados, while the cultured set heads to the many Central LA museums along Wilshire Boulevard’s Miracle Mile.
When the sun goes down, certain pockets of the sprawling region come alive, especially on Third Street and La Cienega when young professionals and well-heeled scene-seekers hit up the myriad bars, lounges, clubs, dives, and leading-edge restaurants that may not rival Hollywood in terms of quantity, but that go toe-to-toe in terms of quality.
(information by PartyEarth)
FAIRFAX DISTRICT
Fairfax Ave
Historic Farmers Market built in 1934 by E.B Gilmore and offers some 100 open-air produce stalls, shops and restaurants at Fairfax Avenue and 3rd Street. The original Farmer’s market, E.B. Gilmore also owned Gilmore Stadium and Gilmore Field where Pan Pacific Park/The Grove now lies. Gilmore Stadium/Field was home to Los Angeles’s first football team(the Bulldogs), a baseball team( Hollywood Stars, a minor league professional baseball team of the Pacific Coast League, owned by Bing Crosby, Barbara Stanwyck, and Cecil B. DeMille) it also held rodeo events, wrestling events and had an incredible race track specially designed for midget race cars.
Car Show, Pan Pacific Park in the mid 1930′s
The Grove(lagroveliving!), a retail-dining-entertainment mecca inspired by a grand old downtown, features stained-glass street lamps, a trolley, a multiplex movie theater and retailers such as Nordstrom, Michael Kors, Kiehl’s, Anthropologie, and Fresh. Rising stars and starlets are often spotted shopping and experiencing the joy of this incredible epicenter with neighborhoodies and visitors from all over the world. Annually, the Grove tallies more visitors than Disneyland!
Across the street is a gorgeous, upscale living community, the Palazzo and adjacent is Park La Brea, which has stood for more than 50 years.
Park La Brea
Click Here for a detailed map of West Hollywood.
Larchmont Village is a quaint and friendly shopping district in the center of a bustling city. It is located in one of the oldest and most historically significant neighborhoods in Los Angeles and is bordered by some of the most well preserved older homes in the city, ranging from 1920′s California bungalows to grand old estates. Larchmont Village serves as a Main Street retail district to Hancock Park, Windsor Square and nearby Paramount Studios. Larchmont maintains a small town feel and serves as a lovely community gathering place. Enjoy the charm of a day spent on Larchmont experiencing a variety of wonderful ethnic restaurants, sidewalk cafes and upscale boutiques.
NEIGHBORHOOD HISTORY
Windsor Square
Sometime between 1900 and 1910 a gentleman named George A.G. Howard envisioned a beautiful tranquil park as a setting for family homes such as one sees in the English countryside. He pushed the early city fathers to make his vision come true, and in 1911, Mr. Robert A. Rowan initiated a unique residential development and called it Windsor Square.
The original “Square” ran from Wilshire Blvd. to Third Street, and from Plymouth Blvd. to Irving Blvd. The English flavor was enhanced by street names: Irving, Windsor and Plymouth. Lorraine Boulevard took its name from the developer’s daughter Lorraine Rowan. Nurseryman Paul J. Howard designed and planted most of the magnificent gardens of Windsor Square and supervised tree planting.
Windsor Square was later expanded to the north, east, and west. Today, Windsor Square runs from Wilshire to Beverly Boulevards, and from Arden Boulevard to Van Ness Avenue. This is inclusive of the one-block strip of Larchmont Village, between First Street and Beverly Boulevard. Windsor Square is often mistakenly called “Hancock Park,” even by long-time residents. But in fact, Hancock Park is the neighborhood immediately to the west.
Windsor Square consists of approximately 1,100 homes, and it is one of the oldest – most well preserved neighborhoods in Los Angeles. With its broad lawns, mature trees and central location five miles west of downtown, Windsor Square is a garden oasis in the heart of a world-class city, with Larchmont Village as its community gathering place.
Hancock Park
Hancock Park, directly to the west of Windsor Square, owes its name to developer-philanthropist G. Allan Hancock, who subdivided the property in the 1920s. Hancock, born and raised in a home at the La Brea tar pits, inherited 440 acres, which his father, Major Henry Hancock had acquired from the Rancho La Brea property owned by the family of Jose Jorge Rocha.
Some 71 oil wells were operating at capacity on the land from 1905 to 1910. Nine years later Hancock subdivided the property into residential lots. He leased 105 acres to the Wilshire Country Club with an option to buy. The Hancock Park development was started on Rossmore Avenue and moved west to Highland Avenue in 1921.
Architects such as Paul Williams, A. C. Chisholm and John Austin were hired to design homes for many of the city’s pioneer families. The list of families who moved into Hancock Park’s first homes reads like a “Who’s Who” of California-Doheny, Chandler, Huntington, Van Nuys, Crocker, Banning, Newmark, Van de Kamp and Duque, were some of the early residents.
Hancock Park is approximately 2.2 square miles and consists of about 1,200 homes. Its boundaries are Rossmore to Highland Avenues, and Melrose Avenue to Wilshire Boulevard.
