Hammer Museum

On May 15th, 2011 the Hammer Museum hosted its second annual K.A.M.P. (Kids' Art Museum Project), an event imagined by artists for kids. Painters, sculptors, photographers, and other creative pros led inventive workshops and experiences for kids of all ages in the carefree atmosphere of the Hammer courtyard. All K.A.M.P. proceeds support the Museum's growing Hammer Kids public programming. (No sound. Run time: 4 min., 30 sec.)

Ana Prvacki's Public Engagement project, Greeting Committee, concerned with hospitality and welcoming, evolved over the course of four days at the museum. Welcoming foods from different cultures were offered to guests. Mindfulness and etiquette instructors spoke with groups about how to make others feel at ease. Visitors were invited to observe or participate in interventions encouraging gestures of welcoming. (Run time: 2 min.)

5/4/11 --- In his role as chairman of the Cordoba Initiative, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf directs projects that aim to heal conflict between Islamic and Western communities. As Imam of Masjid al-Farah, a mosque located twelve blocks from Ground Zero in New York City, he preached a message of understanding among people of all creeds. His books include Islam: A Search for Meaning, Islam: A Sacred Law (What Every Muslim Should Know About the Shariah), and What's Right With Islam: A New Vision for Muslims and the West. Q&A moderated by Reza Aslan.

3/29/11--- Gedi Sibony often uses basic found materials associated with architecture or construction, including drywall, wood, cardboard, paint, and carpet. Hung from ceilings, draped over doorways, slumped or leaned against walls, Sibony's work is as much about its arrangement in space as it is about the objects themselves. Sibony alters our perception of our surroundings, encouraging us to view both the spaces that we occupy and the materials used to make them in a different way. (Run Time 1 hour, 2 min.)

5/5/11 --- Charline von Heyl is a painter who lives and works in New York. She has had solo exhibitions at Le Consortium, Dijon; the Dallas Museum of Art; and the Vienna Seccession. She has participated in many group exhibitions, including Oranges and Sardines at the Hammer and Make Your Own Life: Artists In and Out of Cologne at the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania. (Run time: 1 hour, 27 min.)

Lunchtime Art Talks take place every Wednesday at 12:30pm. The Hammer's curatorial department leads free and insightful 15-minute discussion about works of art currently on view or from museum collections. This talk was led by Corrina Peipon, curatorial associate, on Hawkins's "House of the Mad Professor" (2008). (Run time: 4 min, 58 sec.)

2/10/11---Robert Pinsky, former U.S. poet laureate and jazz enthusiast, will read poems with accompaniment by renowned jazz musician Bobby Bradford and his Mo'tet (Bobby Bradford on cornet and trumpet; Vinny Golia on winds; Roberto Miranda on bass; Chris Garcia on drums). (Run Time 1 hour, 6 Min.)

Paul Thek: Diver, a Retrospective is the first retrospective in the U.S. devoted to the legendary American artist Paul Thek (1933-1988). A sculptor, painter, and one of the earliest artists to create environments or installations, Thek was first recognized when he showed his sculpture in New York galleries in the 1960s. (Run time: 1 min.)

4/26/11 --- With four Wall Street banks controlling half the assets of the nation's banking system, average investors are outmatched by high-speed computer trading and disadvantaged by private equity insiders and hedge funds that are first in line to reap greater rewards. Finance journalist Felix Salmon will explain how the "too big to fail" bankers are driving the disparity of wealth at home while creating a new global elite abroad. Salmon is the award-winning blogging editor for Reuters and a regular contributor to NPR's Marketplace. (Run time: 1 hour, 21 min.)

4/5/11 --- In his new solo-performance, post-Mexican writer and performance artist Guillermo Gomez-Pena deals with the end of the Bush era and articulates the formidable challenges facing Obama. He also denounces the anti-immigration hysteria and assaults the demonized construction of the US/Mexican border---a literal and symbolic zone lined with Minute Men, rising nativism, three-ply fences, globalization, and transnational identities. (Run time: 1 hour, 45 min.)

3/30/11--- As a new nation is formed from the division of Sudan, Africa's largest country, will the oil-rich South and the diminished North resume hostilities or coexist peacefully? Scholars Amal Hassan Fadlalla, Lako Tongun, and Sondra Hale join us to assess the future of Southern Sudan. Professor of African Studies and Women?s Studies at the University of Michigan, Fadlalla is currently working on health and development issues in her native Sudan. Hale is professor of Anthropology at UCLA and has studied Sudan for the last five decades. Tongun is a professor of International and Intercultural Studies and Political Studies at Pitzer College. (Run Time: 1 hour, 40 min.)

3/8/11 --- Tadao Ando is the only architect to have won the discipline's four most prestigious prizes: the Pritzker, Carlsberg, Praemium Imperiale, and Kyoto Prize. His award-winning designs can be seen throughout Japan, as well as in France, Italy, Spain, and the U.S. Taschen's recently published comprehensive monograph of his work is entitled Ando's Complete Works to Date 1975-2010. (Run time: 1 hour, 24 min.)

3/15/11 --- Susan Meiselas is a documentary photographer best known for her coverage of the insurrection in Nicaragua and her documentation of human rights issues in Latin America. Her awards include the Robert Capa Gold Medal, Leica Award for Excellence, and Maria Moors Cabot Prize. William T. Vollmann is the author of, among others, Imperial, Europe Central, winner of the 2005 National Book Award for Fiction; The Atlas, winner of the 1997 PEN Center West Award; and Rising Up and Rising Down, a finalist for National Book Critics Circle Award in nonfiction. (Run time: 1 hour, 8 min.)

This October the Hammer Museum will present Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960-1980, a comprehensive exhibition that examines the incredibly vital but often overlooked legacy accorded to the city's African American visual artists. Now Dig This! comprises 140 works from 35 artists that have rarely been shown in a museum setting and includes early pieces by now well-established artists as well as works once considered "lost." The exhibition will be up October 2, 2011-January 8, 2012.

In conjunction with "Greeting Committee" at the Hammer Museum, April 7 - 10, 2011 (Run time: 12 min., 56 sec.)