5 Design Things To Do This Week (and Memorial Day Weekend)

Your week in design events from DnA.

1. Innovation Conference at Walt Disney Concert Hall

Architectural Record magazine brings its Innovation Conference to Los Angeles on May 21. Thom Mayne, Christopher Hawthorne, Doug Aitken and other smart thinkers and designers from LA and beyond will be part of a day-long conference entitled “Breakthrough: Design at the Intersection of Art, Science and Technology,” that takes place at Walt Disney Concert Hall. While aimed at architects, some topics and personalities will appeal to a broader audience.

When: May 21, 2014; 7:15AM — 6:30PM

Where: Walt Disney Concert Hall; 111 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles

Tickets: Click here for tickets.

2. L.A. River Rec Zone Opens Memorial Day Monday

Following a successful pilot program last year, a stretch of the LA River will open annually for summer recreational fun, starting Monday, May 26. Managed by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, the river from Fletcher Avenue/Rattlesnake Park to Confluence Park will be open for kayakers, bird watchers, anglers and hikers, from sunrise to sunset, seven days a week. Curbed LA reports funding for the project is still required, but it seems it’s time to dust off the kayaks.

When: Opens Monday May 26

Where: LA River, from Fletcher Avenue/Rattlesnake Park to Confluence Park

Tickets: N/A

Click here for more information.

3. June Wayne: Paintings, Prints and Tapestries at PMCA

This Memorial Day weekend check out three exhibits celebrating different phases and aspects of California artistic heritage.

Pasadena Museum of California Art celebrates the life’s work of June Wayne, artist who worked in many media but is especially noted for her printmaking and the founding of the Tamarind Lithographic Institute in Los Angeles in 1960. “June Wayne: Paintings, Prints and Tapestries” on Sunday. The exhibit is a survey of Wayne’s range of media and styles over her 75-year career. She was also a feminist who led workshops for women artists.

When: Exhibit open until August 31, 2014

Where: Pasadena Museum of California Art

Tickets: Included in price of admission. $7 for adults

Click here for more information.

4. Then And Now: 100 years of Plein-Air Painting

Take time out this Memorial Day weekend to remind yourself of the beauty of California’s light and landscape, as captured in the state’s Plein Air movement that dates back to early part of the last century and was revived in the 1980s by artists. The Irvine Museum, dedicated to the preservation and display of California art of the Impressionist Period (1890-1930), has just opened an exhibition of California Plein Air painting from its early and more recent phases.

When: Exhibit runs until October 2, 2014

Where: The Irvine Museum

Tickets: Museum admission is free.

Click here for more information.

5. Edward Biberman, Abbot Kinney and the Story of Venice

Venetians were very sad to lose their post office as part of the postal service’s sale of properties, but new owner Joel Silver committed to preserving its New Deal-era mural Abbot Kinney and the Story of Venice, painted by Los Angeles artist Edward Biberman in 1941. Now the restored mural gets a wider showing in a special installation at LACMA about Venice in the “context of a narrative about the artist’s long-termengagement with public art and fascination with Southern California culture.”

When: Exhibit runs until November 16, 2014

Where: LACMA

Tickets: Exhibit included in price of admission; $15 for adults

Click here for more information.

And don’t forget to listen to our most recent DnA, “Putting the ‘Cool’ Back in L.A. Mobility.”

If you would like an event to be considered for DnA’s weekly 5 Design Things post, please email all information about your event and jpegs to caroline.chamberlain@kcrw.org by the Wednesday prior to the week of your event.