SoCal Minds

Trojans appoint provost Nikias as 11th president

From USC & the Autry National Center of the West

Just taking note of a giant change at the top of a major Southern California educational powerhouse and for a museum and research center that has flourished and aroused some antipathy, too, when it did so. The major media, of course, will detail the succession of C.L. Max Nikias as the 11th Trojan president, replacing the increasingly legendary and retiring Steven B. Sample. Nikias, who was Sample's No. 2 and served as the engineering school dean during a period of its explosive growth, is a Greek Cypriot who did his undergraduate work in Athens and earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at SUNY Buffalo before appointments at UConn and Northeastern. He's an accomplished scholar, fund-raiser and emerged from a field of 75 candidates and seven finalists, all of them top dogs at big universities. Meantime, over in Griffith Park, John Gray has said he will retire as CEO of the museum and research institution founded by country western star Gene Autry and his wife, Jackie, and Monte and Joanne Hale. The Autry since has merged with the beleaguered  Southwest Musuem in Mt. Washington, a marriage that brought with it an often fractious supporters suspicious of the proven better stewardship of the folks in Griffith Park.

Nikias, former engineering dean and Steven Sample's No. 2, ascends to top post

The LA Times take on appointment of Nikias

Chief of Griffith Park museum, research institution retires 

The LA Times take on retirement of Autry CEO John Gray

Exhibit, sale focuses on art by western masters

From the Autry National Center of the West

Some of the leading, contemporary painters, sculptors and other artists will display and sell their fine wares this weekend as the Griffith Park museum conducts its annual juried, 'Masters of the American West' program. This will be the 13th year for the exhibition and sale, which will feature 75 chosen artists whose work is inspired by the Western experience. Information on each of the artists, including photos of their work, can be viewed on the 'Masters' web site. There will be a range of events connected with the exhibition, for which there is a hefty fee for registration. This program also will affect the public hours some at the institution, just this weekend.

Photo: from 2009 show, Tucker Smith, 'Wyoming Sky' / the Autry

Click here to learn more about 'Masters of the American West' 

Click here to see note, lower left rail on Autry hours this weekend

How do women artists respond in hard times?

From the Autry National Center of the West

In the midst of hard times, like the current economic crash, women artists have risen to the challenge and tapped into unique resources to fuel their muses, says Linda Gordon, a distinguished author, NYU professor and an expert in historic issues that have confronted women and families. But how? And in exactly what ways?  And what examples exist that tie the present and the past? That's what she'll probe on Sunday at 2 p.m. as part of a museum series on that challenges conventional wisdom and looks at novel ideas about the past. The program is free with museum admission.

In series challenging conventional wisdom, a look at historic reaction of women artists

A major display of Native American baskets

From the Autry National Center of the West

More than 250 objects -- from onetime tourist trinkets to giant repositories of precious seeds -- will be on display, starting this weekend, as the folks in Griffith Park show off prime pieces from what they say is one of the world's largest and most important collections of Native American baskets and basketry. The shown works will represent 11 regions and more than 100 cultural groups. They will be drawn from the 14,000 baskets in the century-old collection of the Southwestern Museum of the American Indian, which is now part of the Autry National Center. This also happens to be the weekend of the big Intertribal Arts Marketplace at the Autry, where native craftsmen sell jewelry, artwork and collectibles. This has been a big fall for basketry fans, with the Fowler focusing on African and African-American artists.

Photo: 1913 lidded basket by Elizabeth Hickox, (Karuk-Wiyot) / Susan Einstein for the Autry

250 display items drawn from 14,000 pieces in Southwestern collection

Seeing splendors of nature, the West and Gullah

From the Autry National Center of the West, the Huntington, Pepperdine and UCLA

Lots to see and do, always, in the Southland, including taking in some recently opened exhibitions or ones that will soon close:

In Griffith Park, besides Harry Brant Chandler's display of portraits, there's also a showing of two Western professor's contemporary re-envisioning of historic panoramas of the Grand Canyon. The exhibit by Mark Klette and Byron Wolfe opens today (Friday) and the duo will be in Los Angeles in mid-October to discuss their work.

Photo: Rock formations on road to Lee's Ferry/ Mark Klette, Byron Wolfe @ the Autry

'Charting the canyon' show opens at Autry

In San Marino, speaking of the Grand Canyon, better hurry to catch a show of Karen Halverson's "Downstream," her images of the Colorado River area, interspersed with photos from the museums historical holdings documenting the discovery, exploration and navigation of the great Western waterway. This exhibit closes on Sept. 28.

Photo: Davis Gulch / Karen Halverson @ the Huntington

'Downstream' exhibit by Karen Halverson closing Monday

In Malibu, the Frederick R. Weisman foundation displays selections from its collections, focusing on the four elements that long have inspired artists: earth, air, fire and water. This exhibition opened in mid-August and will be up until December. Some of the artists who are showing recently visited campus for a reception.

Photo: Torben Giehler's 'Mount Blanc' / Pepperdine

'Elements of Nature' from the Weisman collections

In Westwood, photographer Greg Day explores the unique Gullah-Geechee Coast and the distinctive African-American culture and traditions that have thrived there. With geographic isolation and a special language tradition of their own, the West Africans who were enslaved and brought to this East Coast region, among other things, carried out their own basket-making traditions. The museum has been exploring this African craft and how it made its way around the planet. First Lady Michelle Obama traces her roots to this U.S. region.

Photo: Gullah-Geechee coast resident with sweetgrass basket / Greg Day @ Fowler

Seeing Gullah-Geechee Coast as part of exploration of African basketry

Photos capture 54 'Dreamers in Dream City'

From the Autry National Center of the West

He's a fifth-generation member of a family whose name once was synonymous with power, untold wealth, and civic isway. But Harry Brant Chandler, of the noteworthy Brant and Chandler families, has chosen another way of seeing Southern California -- as an artist and photographer. And now he's displaying portraits, personal insights and biographies of 54 accomplished, colorful souls in the City of Angels, his "Dreamers in Dream City."  The exhibit opens Friday in the museum in Griffith Park.

Photo: Jim Morrison in Elysian Park / Harry Chandler

Portraits of 54 'Dreamers in Dream City' to go on display

50th anniversary honors for TV's 'Bonanza'

From the Autry National Center of the West

Holy cow, Hoss: "Bonanza" will be celebrating its 50th anniversary. The folks from the Ponderosa have been seen by an estimated half billion people in 80 countries during the second-most popular television show's 14-year run, which ended in 1973. To mark its anniversary, key folks from the show will gather Sunday for ceremonies, including showings of some of the series' best, most beloved episodes with Lorne Green, Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker, Michael Landon and Victor Sen Yung. David Dortort, creator of Bonanza and "The High Chapparal," also is scheduled to be present, to be honored and to announce a gift to the museum and the donation of his archives, adding considerably to publicly accessible materials on the history of the TV western. Events free with paid admission to the museum and the RSVP deadline has past for the panel discussion with Dortort and others.

Day of events to honor 'Bonanza,' an iconic Western TV show

Click here for more information on 'Bonanza Day' 

For Long Holiday Weekend, Lots for the Calendar

From Autry National Center of the West, USC, UCLA, Japanese American National Museum, Art Center College of Design

It's a long, last holiday weekend of the summer so take advantage of the drop in heat and smoke from the wildfires to get around. Put a few things on the calendar:

In Griffith Park, there will be lots and lots of attention paid to the stoic and iconic Western movie hero Gary Cooper, who will be honored with a commemorative stamp that will be unveiled Thursday.  His daughter will be present for the free, public ceremonies for the actor who appeared in more than 100 movies and who won two Oscars, one of which, for the box-office hit "High Noon," will be on display. That movie also will be screened.

Free, Public Ceremonies for Unveiling of Gary Cooper Commemorative Stamp

In Westwood, the first of three fall exhibits that will give insight into African and African-American life opens Sunday, focusing attention on the myriad ways that people across Africa employed basketry techniques to create other kinds of objects, including masks, combs, fish traps and beer straps. These all had the same complex social, religious and political aspects that wooden and other objects carried. The other exhibits, opening later, will display photos of the basket-making gullah people -- East Coast Americans of African descent who, because of geography, language and other circumstance, did not assimilate as many of their contemporaries did; there also will be a major display of coiled basketry, explaining how this African art spread through and influenced the Americas.

African and African-American Baskets, Basket-Making on Display

In downtown Los Angeles, musician and artist Mike Shinoda gets the spotlight on his latest creations -- paintings, digital works -- and, yes, a custom Honda Fury. This show, "Glorious Excess (Dies)," which already has opened, is a followup to a previous exhibit, "Glorious Excess (Born)." While better known probably as a member of the band Linkin Park, Shinoda studied at the Art Center College of Design and has been active in charitable and community endeavors, including in creating the custom, fund-raising cycle which has only a little more time at bid on E-Bay.

'Glorious Excess (Dies),' an Exhibit by Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda

Click Here for E-Bay Fund-Raising Sale of Shinoda-Custom Honda Fury

Shinoda on His Art Center Experience and Who Is Mike Shinoda?

In Exhibition Park, over on the Trojan campus, there will be the promised memorial concert for clarinet icon Mitchell Lurie. The deadline has passed to RSVP for the Sunday afternoon program, for which there is a suggested donation of $25, with money going for scholarships and to issue a heritage release of the clarinetist's notable recordings. Lurie, discovered as a teen-ager by conductor Fritz Reiner, was principal clarinetist for the Pittsburgh and Chicago orchestras before moving to LA, where he taught for decades at USC and became the top studio clarinetist, playing on soundtracks for countless movies.

Memorial Concert for Clarinetist Mitchell Lurie

Who Was Mitchell Lurie? The Times Obit

Autry Halts Its Big Griffith Park Expansion Plan

From the Autry National Center of the West

A long-running conflict over the future of two facilities ends abruptly, unhappily with the halting of major expansion plans for the Autry building in Griffith Park and an uncertain fate for the Southwestern Museum in Highland Park. Lots of ugliness had broken out in discussions on this topic; just see the blogosphere comments.

Autry Letter to LA Officials, Halting Griffith Park Expansion Plans

LA Times Culture Blog on Autry 

LA Observed with Councilman Huizar's Reaction

Bad Economy Axes 41st Annual Indian Pow Wow

From the Autry National Center of the West & the Southern California Indian Center

It was listed as a major social and cultural event on the calendar of the Griffith Park museum of all things Western. But the 41st annual Pow Wow abruptly has been cancelled, the victim of a drop in donations linked to the nation's bad economy. Representatives of the sponsoring Native American group will be at the Autry on Aug. 1-2 to tell their story and maintain a presence. But the traditional dances, competitions and socializing that drew thousands, especially Native Americans from across the country, have been called off, the sponsors said. The Autry will put on its planned related programming, including its Native Voices performances and tours of its facilities focused on Native American life. At its blog, under the heading, "Plight of the Urban Indian," the folks at the Indian Center emphasized that grants and donations, which have withered, had underwritten the Pow Wow. And contrary to wide misperception, they said the nonprofit does not benefit from Indian gambling money or extensive government assistance programs; neither do most Native Americans, especially those off the reservations and living in metropolises like LA, they added. 

Photo: A young dancer at earlier Indian Pow Wow / SCIC

Indian Pow Wow Scratched from Autry August Calendar

Indian Center Blog on Pow Wow Cancellation