Three performers at The Cortege.
Photograph: Courtesy Visomnia
Photograph: Courtesy Visomnia

Things to do in L.A. this weekend: Oct 17–19

We pick out the best things to do in L.A. this weekend, including our favorite concerts, culture and cuisine

Gillian Glover
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We don’t know about you, but our mind is always focused on the weekend. It can never come soon enough—which is why we’re already thinking about what new restaurants we want to try or where we can drive for the day. Whether you’re looking to scope out the latest museum exhibitions or watch a movie outdoors, you’ll find plenty of things to do in L.A. this weekend.

We curate an L.A. weekend itinerary of the city’s best concerts, culture and cuisine, every week, just for you. We’re already halfway through the month and well into spooky season, but our favorite events aren’t all Halloween-themed. The weather is back to being sunny and warm—like our rainy day didn’t even happen—so consider an alfresco evening at the buzzworthy Cortège, which hosts its last performance on Sunday. You can also ogle L.A. architecture at the Dwell Open House, hit up the Love Shack with the B-52s at the Bowl, fete fall at the Original Farmers Market, see scary movies at Heritage Square Museum or celebrate the Rialto Theatre’s 100th anniversary in South Pasadena. This Sunday is also the season’s last installment of Sunday Afternoon Concerts in the Dome, a mile-high music series at Mount Wilson Observatory where all-female mariachi band Mariachi Lindas Mexicanas will take the stage.

The best things to do in L.A. this weekend

  • Things to do
  • Festivals
  • Griffith Park

The L.A. Zoo’s annual Halloween celebration includes two weekends of spooky decor and up-close-and-personal interactions with some of the zoo’s creepiest crawlers. Look out for trick-or-treating, a spooky storytime, education stations, slime from Sloomoo Institute and photo ops. The animals will get in on the Halloween action, too—from spider monkeys to Tasmanian devils—with pumpkin feedings scheduled a couple of times a day.

  • Things to do
  • Downtown Historic Core
  • Recommended

Every year, Haunted Little Tokyo turns the area into a ghoulish maze of Halloween-themed pop-ups, walking tours and performances. Through October 19, video game Silent Hill f has taken over the neighborhood with photo ops and themed treats and drinks from participating businesses. On October 18, you can explore the haunted history of 1st Street on a ghoulish ghost tour (4:30–6pm, tickets $25). The next Saturday, a full-day Halloween celebration kicks off at Terasaki Budokan with a free, family-friendly scavenger hunt (1–5pm). Then dance the evening away at a 21+ block party with music, a costume contest and full bar (6pm–midnight). RSVP online for the secret Little Tokyo location.

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  • Things to do
  • Film events
  • Montecito Heights

Like a Halloween version of its Yuletide Cinemaland series, Street Food Cinema will turn Heritage Square Museum into a spooky, cinematic playground. On the movie side, you can catch a different double feature each night (picks include American PsychoReady or Not and Scream 2, among others) while embarking on Victorian home tours and adult trick-or-treating and perusing food trucks, a bar and market vendors. 

  • Things to do
  • Rancho Palos Verdes/Rolling Hills Estates

South Coast Botanic Garden’s adorable dog walking hours jumps from a once-a-month treat to an every-weekend affair just during the month of October at Dogtoberfest. In addition to dog-friendly walking paths, the garden will hold an Oktoberfest-style pub crawl (for humans) with four stations of included beer samples (full pours are available for purchase, as are pretzels and Bratwurst). The pup-friendly offerings continue with a “dance pawty” and obstacle course.

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  • Things to do
  • Recommended

The term CicLAvia stems from a similar Spanish word for “bike way,” and in L.A. it’s become a shorthand for the temporary, festival-like closing of L.A.’s streets. The event welcomes bikes, tricycles, skateboards, strollers and basically anything else without an engine to ride a rotating cast of car-free routes. This time around, CicLAvia is celebrating its 15th birthday with a 7.15-mile route covering Westlake, Downtown, Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Arts District and Boyle Heights. Expect music, street performances and food trucks, as well as general whimsy and shenanigans along the way. Shop owners and restaurants along the CicLAvia route also tend to host specials. It goes without saying that you should bike or take the Metro to your desired spot along the route.

  • Things to do
  • Film events
  • Hollywood

For the Record, a live production company known for transforming the soundtracks of favorite filmmakers into immersive musicals, is back with its most impressive display yet: CineVita, the world’s largest Spiegeltent, is FTR’s new home in Hollywood Park, next to SoFi Stadium. After its opening in February, it’s bringing back Tarantino Live, which celebrates 30 years of Pulp Fiction and re-creates memorable musical moments from the director’s films including Kill Bill, Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained.

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  • Movies
  • Hollywood
  • Recommended

What could be a better fit for Halloween than spooky films screened in a cemetery? This October, Cinespia will be showing a 50th-anniversary screening of The Rocky Horror Picture ShowThe Craft, Paranorman and A Nightmare on Elm Street at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Plus, for the first time in a decade, the series is hosting a Halloween-night party in the cemetery itself (it usually hosts a soiree inside a Downtown theater) Catch a screening of Scream on October 31—costumes are mandatory.

  • Things to do
  • Highland Park

Highland Park’s new biergarten is turning 1, and the celebrations are plentiful: First, it’s debuting a new outdoor dining, drinking and playing area dubbed “The Backyard by Kiez.” Second, it’s introducing a new craft cocktail program, and third, it’s hosting its first annual Oktoberfest shindig, transforming the space into a Bavarian beer hall. The sister to Wirtshaus and Rasselbock already serves standout sausages and schnitzel year-round (including veggie options), but every Friday and Saturday through October 25, you can also enjoy food and drink specials, live music, stein-holding contests and costume contests, so come dressed in your Bavarian best.

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  • Puppet shows
  • Highland Park

See the marionette theater’s family-friendly take on Halloween during the two-month return of its Hallowe’en Spooktacular—a refurbished production of its long-running “boo-sical revue” where you can see over 100 silly and spooky puppets take the stage. New this year is a Día de los Muertos sequence that pays tribute to the holiday, as well as a sneak peek of BBMT’s upcoming Choo Choo Revue—its first new show in 40 years. Once October arrives, each show will include a costume parade, so dressing up is encouraged.

  • Shopping
  • Pasadena
  • Recommended

Perhaps the Los Angeles area’s most iconic flea market, this event around the exterior of the Rose Bowl is staggeringly colossal—but what else would you expect from a 90,000-seat stadium? The sheer size and scale of this flea market means that it encompasses multitudes: new and old, handcrafted and salvaged, the cheap and the costly. On the second Sunday of each month, an odd mix of vendors populates the loop around the stadium, but you may have more luck in the rows and rows of old furniture, albums and vintage clothes and accessories that fill the adjacent parking lot.

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  • Dance
  • Ballet
  • Downtown

American Contemporary Ballet opens its 14th season with two new mysterious new ballets—the perfect way for culture vultures to get their Halloween fix. The program consists of “Death and the Maiden,” an otherworldly work set to Franz Schubert’s meditation on death that features opera singers and levitating dancers, followed by “Burlesque: Variation IX,” a follow-up to last October’s “Burlesque”—both performed to live music. You’ll find the hour-and-a-half show at the Bank of America Plaza in DTLA. Stick around afterward for a reception with the dancers and musicians.

  • Things to do
  • La Cañada
  • Recommended

Stroll through a mile-long trail filled with all things Halloween, including an illuminated forest of jack-o’-lanterns, during Descanso Gardens’ annual Carved. For four weeks this fall, the event will line a loop of the botanical garden with thousands of professionally carved pumpkins. For the 2025 edition, Carved is introducing a new route, as well as new vignettes on the Pumpkin Trail, treats at Harvest Acres (order the churro) and new characters carved from logs by chainsaw—plus ghostly wire sculptures haunting a garden filled with twinkling lights. The gardens’ model trains are also illuminated for the event, and the popular neon-hued Rhizome light sculpture is back.

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  • Art
  • Contemporary art
  • Westwood
  • Recommended

The Hammer Museum’s excellent, ongoing series of biennial exhibitions ups the ante with each edition of its spotlight on emerging and under-recognized L.A. artists. This October’s exhibition—the seventh such show—brings together works from 28 artists, spanning film, painting, theater, photography, sculpture and video, that engage with the city of Los Angeles. A 20-foot-high inflatable, Buggy Bear Crashes Made in L.A. by Alake Shilling, welcomes you to the museum on the corner of Wilshire and Glendon.

  • Things to do
  • Lake Arrowhead

Go pumpkin picking in the pines as a Halloween hits Santa’s Village, the perennially Christmas Lake Arrowhead amusement park. On weekends from October 11 to 26, SkyPark hosts its Pumpkins in the Pines activities, which—you guessed it—sees pumpkins and hay bales covering the grounds of the park. In addition to pumpkin picking and painting, find photo ops, a Sleepy Hollow puppet show, costume contests and trick-or-treating.

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  • Things to do
  • Santa Monica Mountains

Walk across the grounds of the scenic King Gillette Ranch in Calabasas as the Santa Monica Mountains hideaway is illuminated with thousands of hand-carved jack-o’-lanterns. Night of the Jack returns with an on-foot, mile-long trail this year, plus live pumpkin-carving, food trucks and a “Spookeasy,” too. This year, you’ll find new themed environments and multisensory experiences that make use of projection mapping.

  • Movie theaters
  • Outdoor
  • West Hollywood

West Hollywood’s ultra-chic restaurant and rooftop bar E.P. & L.P. is serving much more than handcrafted cocktails and modern American bites. This October, head to the rooftop for dinner-and-a-movie screenings of Practical MagicThe ExorcistSilence of the LambsScream, Halloweentown, Nightmare on Elm Street, It and more, including a midnight showing of Hocus Pocus on Halloween.

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  • Things to do
  • Performances
  • North Hollywood

Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre Group hosts a chilling series of vignettes that’s been named one of Yelp’s top 10 scariest haunts in the country. Armed with a shoddy flashlight to illuminate their path, guests navigate a labyrinth of terror both before and after watching a series of shocking scenes (over the course of roughly 40 minutes) that will unsettle even the most stoic of horror fans. The haunted house-slash-theater experience is celebrating 20 years of scaring audiences.

  • Things to do

This traveling horror-themed Halloween cocktail pop-up will have three locations in L.A. this year: Melrose Umbrella Club in Beverly Grove, the Corner Door in Culver City and the Ordinarie in Long Beach. Halloween lovers can sip expertly mixed cocktails amid metal music and goth decor, including the famous 12-foot-tall skeleton from Home Depot. Drink highlights include the Corpse Flower (tequila blanco, ube syrup, Giffard Banane, lime juice, sherry) and the Creature’s Curse (rice-washed rye and rum, sherry, sweet potato or pumpkin syrup, bitters). Non-alcoholic options will also be available.

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  • Things to do
  • Long Beach

The only thing better than a haunted attraction is a haunted attraction on a giant boat—which has its own haunted history. You’ll find all the usual horrors here—think fog, mazes and countless monsters. What sets Dark Harbor apart is its use of its surroundings; the dark, cramped confines of the Queen Mary are already pretty spooky even without monsters—just be prepared to climb a lot of skinny staircases. The event’s 2025 “Summoned by the Seas” iteration dives further into the ocean liner’s lore with new and reimagined mazes set in the ship’s swimming pool, kitchen and staterooms. When you tire of the terror, take a spin on the carnival rides, sip spirits at secret speakeasies or catch spooky live entertainment.

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  • Interactive
  • South Park

This celebrated immersive horror theater event is returning for spooky season at a new location: a century-old Historic-Cultural Monument in DTLA. Delusion, an interactive seasonal event that combines elements of immersive theater with a more story-based approach to a walk-through haunted house, has taken over the Variety Arts Theater through Halloween till November 9. This year’s theme, “Harrowing of Hell,” puts you in the role of a supernatural cult member who must pass a Dante’s Inferno–inspired set of challenges—from escaping Medusa to crossing the River Styx into hell. Tickets don’t come cheap (they start at $113), but for true Halloween devotees, the cost is worth it: Delusion regularly ranks among the best haunted houses in the city. 

  • Things to do
  • Festivals
  • Griffith Park

Far from those kid-friendly rides through a pumpkin patch, this hayride unleashes all sorts of demons and bogeys on Griffith Park. This haunted Griffith Park hayride once again returns to the mid-’80s fictitious town of Midnight Falls. And this year the Mistress of the Dark herself, Elvira, is taking up residence.  The Griffith Park tradition, which has been running for 17 years now, centers on a relatively lengthy hayride. The premise: A witch has summoned creatures that’ve hidden themselves among Halloween decorations in the town’s foothills. This year’s event promises new Elvira–themed takes on the Scary-Go-Round and Trick or Treat attraction, as well as a cozy lounge where apple cider and doughnuts provide a respite from the scares.

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  • Music
  • Jazz
  • Miracle Mile
  • Recommended

One of L.A.’s best free live-music offerings, Jazz at LACMA has featured legit legends over its three-decade run at the museum. Seating for the program is available in the museum’s plaza on a first-come, first-served basis, though you’re welcome to picnic on the grass, too (you won’t really be able to see the show, but you’ll still hear it). You’ll find the series on Friday evenings in LACMA’s welcome plaza (just behind Urban Light) throughout the summer.

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  • Things to do
  • Festivals
  • Venice

Every Saturday (and select Fridays) through October 25, this Venice gastropub is throwing a Bavarian celebration with lederhosen and finger-licking fare. Dive into a savory rattlesnake and rabbit hot link topped with onions and peppers, choose from a selection of German and Belgian beers on draft, and enjoy yodeling and live German music. The best part? Each ticket (with noon or 5pm start times on Saturdays and 7pm start times on Fridays) includes a Wurstküche beer stein, with the first fill-up included. Entry isn’t cheap ($72 and up), but the 12 seatings regularly sell out.

  • Movies
  • Downtown
  • Recommended

The masters of alfresco rooftop movie viewing are awakening the spirits in October with a slate of Halloween favorites at their DTLA rooftop. The festive flicks continue to pick up as Halloween approaches, with plenty of chances to see Hocus PocusThe Addams Family, Scream and Halloween—plus newer picks like Sinners and Hereditary—among others. There’s even a mini marathon of Brooklyn Nine-Nine Halloween episodes.

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  • Things to do
  • Festivals
  • Silver Lake

It feels like Oktoberfest all year round at Silver Lake’s long-running Red Lion Tavern, but it’s especially festive in the fall, when it celebrates the Bavarian tradition on weekends through mid-November. Order the Oktoberfest platter—an epic array of pretzels, brats, schnitzel and sides—alongside a four-liter boot of beer, or a collector’s stein designed by the local Bad Bean Studio. Check the bar’s Instagram for programming updates.

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  • Things to do
  • Festivals
  • Universal City
  • Recommended

Ready or not, spooky season is upon us. The clearest sign? Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights has filled the theme park with haunted houses. Among the highlights: Falloutinspired by the video game franchise and Prime Video TV show, which takes you through the post-apocalyptic Wasteland. You’ll also find a truly freaky maze celebrating 45 years of Friday the 13th’s iconic villain, Jason Voorhees, which re-creates the summer camp, cabin and forest as the hockey-mask-wearing killer goes on a vengeance tour. And a Five Nights at Freddy’s maze brings the creepy animatronic characters to life at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Over on the studio tour—ahem, Terror Tram—you can expect to encounter a host of Blumhouse villains, including M3GAN. 

  • Things to do
  • Festivals
  • La Brea
Don your lederhosen and head to this Fairfax District biergarten, where an extensive selection of German brews gets served alongside traditional German fare like pretzels, sausages and Black Forest cake on Fridays and Saturdays through the end of October. The Oktoberfestivities here also include live music, festive decor and food specials. They’ll also be celebrating with stein-holding contests at their two other biergarten locations: Rasselbock Mar Vista and Rasselbock Long Beach.
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  • Things to do
  • Markets and fairs
  • Downtown Arts District
  • Recommended

Every Sunday, you can find dozens of food vendors at this market at ROW DTLA, a Brooklyn import that boasts a mix of much-loved pop-ups and future foodie stars. Over a dozen new vendors just joined the lineup: Feast on Afro-Caribbean cuisine from withBee, Lebanese street food from Teta, ice cream tacos from Sad Girl Creamery and more. Wash it all down at the family-friendly beer garden. You’ll also find shopping stalls selling everything from framed vintage ads to jewelry made locally with ethically sourced gemstones. Entry and the first two hours of parking are free.

  • Things to do
  • Festivals
  • Huntington Beach

Billing itself as “Orange County’s biggest party since 1977,” the Old World Oktoberfest promises enough beers, brats and bands to make you feel like you’re in Munich—albeit with better ocean views. Every Wednesday through Sunday between September 7 and November 9, this re-created Bavarian village will offer a sausage-filled menu, oompah and German bands, a biergarten, dancing and more. While Old World’s Oktoberfest is 21-plus with a cover charge on Friday and Saturday evenings, it’s open to families and revelers of all ages on Saturday afternoons and other nights. (Entry is free on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday nights, as well as Saturday afternoons, just book ahead online.)

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  • Things to do
  • Festivals
  • Lake Arrowhead

Held in the so-called Alps of Southern California, Lake Arrowhead’s all-ages Oktoberfest runs every weekend from September 20 to October 26 this year, hosting live German American oompah bands, stein-holding and dance contests, children’s games and a daily sausage toss. Although there’s no entry fee, attendees are advised to book picnic (for up to eight people, $100–$150 on Saturdays, $50–$100 on Sundays) or pub tables (for up to four, $50–$100 on Saturdays, $25–$50 on Sundays) to secure seats closer to the stage. This year, the event is being held in a new venue, the picturesque Waterfront Park.

  • Things to do
  • Festivals
  • Big Bear
  • Recommended

Head to the mountains for the annual Oktoberfest at Big Bear Lake, where you’ll be able to clink steins every weekend from September to early November. Beer will be flowing, knockwursts will be cooked up, and dirndls will be worn. The entertainment lineup includes numerous bands—many straight from Germany—and other performances, and one lucky damsel will be named the Oktoberfest Queen when she wins the stein-carrying contest. Others can test their skills with free log-sawing, stein-holding and chugging competitions.

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  • Things to do
  • Anaheim

Well, well, well, what have we here? The Nightmare Before Christmas’s bug-stuffed sack is once again taking over the Halloween duties at Disneyland for Oogie Boogie Bash, an after-hours, specially ticketed seasonal event at Disney California Adventure Park. This five-hour party, held on select nights from late August through October, throws in a bunch of exclusive Halloween entertainment with the promise of considerably shorter wait times for select rides. You’ll find trick-or-treating trails, kid-friendly shows, the Headless Horseman-led Frightfully Fun Parade and the maze-like Villains Grove. The perks of the after-hours event aren’t just Halloween-y: You’ll be able to venture through and hop on rides in most areas of the park, including at Avengers Campus (the Guardians of the Galaxy ride that predates the land will flip to its Monsters After Dark edition). 

  • Museums
  • Movies and TV
  • Miracle Mile
  • Recommended

Don’t go in the water, but do go to the Academy Museum to see the largest exhibition ever dedicated to Steven Spielberg’s original summer blockbuster, Jaws—which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The museum was already home to the last surviving model shark from filming, but now you can go behind the scenes and see some 200 original objects from the film across multiple galleries. Some highlights: a re-creation of the Orca fishing boat, the dorsal fin used both in Jaws and its sequels, costumes worn by the central trio and a room full of vintage film posters and merch promoting the film. There are interactive elements, too: You can have your own Chief Brody dolly-zoom moment (and see the lens used to film the famous shot), play the iconic John Williams two-note score and control a replica of the mechanical shark.

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  • Things to do
  • Exhibitions
  • Hollywood

Japan House Los Angeles is bringing an exhibition of shokuhin sampuruhyper-realistic food replicas that have crossed over from marketing tool to art form (think Is It Cake? but cultural)—to Los Angeles for the first time. See mouthwatering faux food representing each of Japan’s 47 prefectures, from coffee house parfaits to izakaya skewers, as well as Chinese and Western cuisine, and try your own hand at food presentation by filling a bentō box yourself.

  • Things to do
  • Exhibitions
  • USC/Exposition Park

Face your fears and head to the Natural History Museum’s Spider Pavilion, where you can observe several hundred orbweaver spiders in a living exhibit just outside of the museum. Scared the spiders might be hard to spot in the wild? Fret not. In previous iterations, we’ve spotted ones about the size of an adult’s palm. Gulp. (But don’t worry: The scariest ones are in enclosed habitats.) 

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  • Things to do
  • Exhibitions
  • Pacific Palisades

The Getty Villa reopens to the public five and a half months after its Palisades Fire closure with this international loan exhibition dedicated to the Greek Mycenaean civilization and the kingdom of Pylos, which Homer immortalized in the Iliad and Odyssey. It’s the first major museum show in North America devoted to the Late Bronze Age Mycenaeans. See treasures excavators unearthed from Messenia, the Palace of Nestor and burial sites including the tomb of the Griffin Warrior (1450 BCE)—think clay tablets, gold cups, ornate weapons and tiny signets and sealstones adorned with awe-inspiring amounts of detail. 

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  • Art
  • Pop art
  • Westside
  • Recommended

The Skirball’s latest pop culture exhibition takes a deep dive into the six-decade career of legendary comic book artist Jack Kirby. You might know him as the co-creator of Captain America, Black Panther, the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and some of the Marvel universe’s most cosmic characters. But did you know he was also a first-generation Jewish American born to immigrant parents, World War II veteran and family man who split his time between New York and Los Angeles? Learn about his life and see Kirby’s original comic illustrations, as well as other works—many on view for the first time.

  • Museums
  • Movies and TV
  • Miracle Mile

Right on the heels of the release of his new film, Mickey 17, director Bong Joon Ho steps into the spotlight at the Academy Museum’s new exhibition. The first-ever museum show dedicated to the Oscar-winning South Korean filmmaker will trace Ho’s career, creative process and cinematic influences. See over 100 storyboards, posters, concept art, creature models, props and on-set photos from the director’s archive and personal collection. On Sundays, the museum’s on-site restaurant, Fanny’s, is offering an accompanying Korean Sunday Supper series with dishes like bibimbap and galbi jjim. You can reserve a spot here.

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  • Art
  • Pasadena

On the 50th anniversary of the Norton Simon Museum, look back to when Simon took over management of the Pasadena Art Museum in 1975, then ahead to the museum’s exciting future at this retrospective exhibition. See rare photos from the museum’s archives, and learn about the history of its major acquisitions, exhibitions, building and gardens—which are currently undergoing a transformation.

  • Art
  • Installation
  • USC/Exposition Park

The Natural History Museum’s taxidermy dioramas turn a century old this year, and to celebrate the museum is reviving an entire hall of displays that’ve been dark for decades. Expect some fresh approaches to these assembled snapshots of the wilderness, including alebrijes made of recycled materials, a crystalline depiction of pollution and a tech-driven display of the L.A. River.

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