More than Knott's Berry Farm: Museums and Southern California

Abstract

WHEN W.E.B. Du BoIs wrote these words in 1913, he was commenting on status and aspirations of burgeoning African American community in greater Los Angeles region. Yet his comments might also describe vibrant and expanding museum community in Southern California, which until recent fiscal crisis seemed ripe with opportunities and possibilities. For most outside of region, Los Angeles is rarely viewed as hotbed of museums. Usually Los Angeles is seen as New Ellis Island, island on land, a city in search of center, the city of future, or la land. Far too often, Los Angeles is depicted as simply series of extremely diverse communities held together by regional boosterism, earthquakes, fads and eccentricities, urban unrest, freeways, and smog. The city's persona seems dominated by Hollywood, beaches, LA lawyers, free-wheeling (or should I say free-wielding) cops and, of course, Disneyland. Yet, as following reviews suggest, Los Angeles region is flush with an impressive array of cultural institutions: fine art museums such as Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Museum of Contemporary Art; historic houses like Gamble House or Rancho Los Alamitos; historical and anthropological museums such as Southwest Museum