Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
which specializes in post-1950s pop and conceptual art. To see California-made art at its
most experimental, browse the SoCal gallery scenes in Downtown LA and Culver City,
then check out independent NorCal art spaces in San Francisco's Mission District and the
laboratory-like galleries around SoMa's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
LATINO MURALS: TAKING IT TO THE STREETS
Beginning in the 1930s, when the federal Works Progress Administration sponsored
schemes to uplift and beautify cities across the country, murals came to define California
cityscapes. Mexican muralists Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente
Orozco sparked an outpouring of murals across LA that today number in the thousands.
Rivera was also brought to San Francisco to paint murals at the San Francisco Art Institu-
te, and his influence is reflected in the interior of San Francisco's Coit Tower and scores of
murals lining the Mission District. Murals gave voice to Chicano pride and protests over
US Central American policies in the 1970s, notably in San Diego's Chicano Park and East
LA murals by collectives such as East Los Streetscapers.
Theater
In your California dream you're discovered by a movie talent scout, but most Californian
actors actually get their start in theater. Home to about 25% of the nation's professional
actors, LA is the USA's second-most influential city for theater after NYC. Meanwhile San
Francisco has been a national hub for experimental theater since the 1960s.
Spaces to watch around LA include the Geffen Playhouse close to UCLA, the Ahman-
son Theatre and Mark Taper Forum in Downtown LA, and the Actors' Gang Theatre,
cofounded by actor Tim Robbins. Small theaters flourish in West Hollywood (WeHo) and
North Hollywood (NoHo), the West Coast's versions of off- and off-off-Broadway. Influ-
ential multicultural theaters include Little Tokyo's East West Players, while critically ac-
claimed outlying companies include the innovative Long Beach Opera and Orange
County's South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa.
San Francisco's priorities have been obvious since the great earthquake of 1906, when
survivors were entertained in tents set up amid the smoldering ruins, and its famous theat-
ers were rebuilt well before City Hall. Major productions destined for the lights of Broad-
way and London premiere at the American Conservatory Theater, and San Francisco's an-
swer to Edinburgh is the annual SF Fringe Festival at the EXIT Theatre. The Magic
