Getting Your OC Art Fix During the COVID-19 Pandemic

18 May Getting Your OC Art Fix During the COVID-19 Pandemic

With the art world on lockdown, and with many of us desiring, even needing, to feed our art addictions, many visual and performing arts organizations throughout the OC are getting creative with how they remain relevant to the larger OC art scene. Luckily, many art organizations are offering opportunities for the public to still engage and enjoy art digitally, whether it be through live streaming, virtual tours, social media engagement, online art collection browsing, film screenings, videos of recorded performances, or through art-related lectures. This unique time has proven to be a fascinating opportunity for art orgs to step up their digital game or be forgotten in the quiet. Don’t worry, we’ve compiled some of the best resources to get your art fix, so you don’t have to hunt.

Spark OC offers the largest compilation of offerings in their collection of local and cultural events, videos and offerings, like the video to the zoom-filmed OCSA high school musical, the (virtual) Annual Car Show at the Muckenthaler, the “What Day Is It Again?” 24-Hour Video Art Festival, the Huntington Beach Art Center’s Artist Spotlights, and several live events on Zoom, like the Downtown Santa Ana Art Walk. They also stream visual and performing art events and classes. While some of these classes charge fees, the titles, including “Inside the Mind of a Casting Director For Dancers” and “Inside the Mind of a Casting Director For Singers” are tantalizing.

UC Irvine’s Institute and Museum of California Art (IMCA) is still in a virtual state as it raises funds for a massive museum and art institute to be erected on the UCI campus, but it has been fine-tuning its website and online presence to build anticipation when it does finally open. Available online are selections from the museum’s 3,200-piece Gerald Buck collection of modern California art, as well as the Irvine Museum collection. The Gerald Buck collection include works by Peter Alexander, Carlos Almarez, Charles Arnoldi, Joan Brown, Richard Diebenkorn, Roger Kuntz and Ben Messick. Images from the Irvine Museum’s 1,300-piece collection of California Impressionist work include paintings by George Brandriff, Maurice Braun, James Swinnerton, Henrietta Shore, Jack Wilkinson Smith and Guy Rose. Most images can be enlarged and are accompanied by well-written comprehensive descriptions. Art lovers are also invited to explore the museum’s Instagram page, which is updated regularly.

Laguna Art Museum’s (LAM) LAM at Home program provides viewing and learning opportunities for art lovers, film buffs and kids. These include colorful, sensual images from the “Artemio Sepúlveda” exhibition, still installed at the museum, but not available for viewing in-person at this time. The LAM at Home program also offers curator talks about highlighted exhibitions, streaming films like At Eternity’s Gate, a biographical drama directed by Julian Schnabel about Vincent van Gogh, recorded live performances of bands and dance troupes that have graced the halls of LAM, and yoga and meditation videos. There are also links to art-related activities and exercises for children. 

The Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University has also found some ways to engage with the public during this quarantine time. The Hilbert’s current exhibition, “Los Angeles Area Scene Paintings,” will be up through November, and hopefully will be open to the public before it closes. Featuring paintings from the early 1900s to the present day, the show focuses on vibrant scenes of everyday life in and around Los Angeles. Artists in the exhibition are Millard Sheets, Emil Kosa Jr., Rex Brandt, Lee Blair, Dorothy Sklar, Barse Miller and many others. You can enjoy a handful of paintings from this show on the museum’s website, as well as a video overview. The museum’s Facebook and Instagram pages feature one painting per day. Titled “At Home with the Hilbert Museum,” each work is accompanied by an interesting story about the painting and the artist.  

The Orange County Museum of Art’s OCMA Expand  is working hard to provide selections from previous OCMA exhibitions, art shows from foreign museums, meditation classes, opportunities to make art, and even to listen to scholarly art talks, all available on their website. 

The Bowers Museum’s exhibition, “Inside the Walt Disney Archives: 50 Years of Preserving the Magic,” opened just before our state’s lockdown, and contains “more than 400 objects, including original artwork, costumes, and props that tell the story of the Archives, The Walt Disney Company, and Walt Disney himself,” according to the museum website. To entice viewers into the magical history and world of Disney, the museum is encouraging people to take a peek at the weekly episodes of stories capturing the animator’s magical moments available on Disney Plus.

The Irvine Barclay Theater is offering opportunities to view films by National Geographic explorers. The public can stream these films every Wednesday at 10am PST through May on Facebook for a #stayathome experience. Viewers can also view these films later on the National Geographic Live Facebook page. Upcoming films include: May 20, Filipe Deandrade, Wildlife Filmmaker, and May 27, Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant, Carnivore Ecologist.

The Barclay Theater is also providing streaming of the three-hour film “Antony & Cleopatra,” starring Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo. 

Laguna Beach Live’s listen page features short videos of four dozen performers who have worked with the local performing arts organization. The videos include jazz, classical, bluegrass and blues musical styles. 

Since we’re living in a virtual world these days, numerous art venues beyond the OC are providing a plethora of online art shows and videos. Here are a few from our neighboring communities:

The Getty Center’s website features several links to online art, books, and videos, from its page, How to Explore Art While the Getty Galleries Are Closed. These include selections and a film from its recent exhibition, “Michelangelo: Mind of the Master.”

The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles is presenting a variety of streaming and digital opportunities. These include lunchtime art talks, videos of past programs, artist profile films, and visual archives, including the popular exhibition, “Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985,” from the 2017-18 “Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA” art initiative.

UC Riverside, known for screening independent films, is showing three films through its virtual cinema website.  

Durden and Ray, an art gallery in L.A. has gotten very creative with their recent exhibition “We Are Here / Here We Are,” a huge group art exhibition of nearly 100 artists (LA and OC artists) that exhibits artwork in public spaces all over SoCal, all accessible for people to comfortably experience for free. The location and information for each piece is posted on the Durden and Ray Google Map that allows the exhibition to be explored virtually or in real life through June 20, 2020. The works are mostly installed in LA County, but there is one in Fountain Valley!

If you yearn to view art and nature in-person, the Muckenthaler Cultural Center’s (Fullerton) new outdoor sculpture garden will feature several new sculptural works available to visit and tour, with room for safe social distancing. Their first sculptural acquisition is a gorgeous metal sculpture by local OC artist Bret Price.

The cultural center also offers drive-thru art kit pickup for kids; parents can drive through the Muck parking lot and pick up free art kits, with a new project each Tuesday designed by teaching artist Marsha Judd and available for pick-up between 10am-12pm.