July 2018
KCRW Summer Nights with DJs Garth Trinidad + Aaron Byrd
KCRW Summer Nights at CAAM with KCRW DJs Garth Trinidad + Aaron Byrd Saturday, July 14th 6pm Summer Nights at CAAM is back! Come for a sizzling summer evening featuring sets from KCRW DJs Garth Trinidad and Aaron Byrd, after-hours museum access, food trucks, a beer garden, and more! Dance, hang, and enjoy art, and be sure to check out CAAM’s acclaimed exhibition How Sweet the Sound: Gospel Music in Los Angeles. About CAAM The California African American Museum (CAAM) in Exposition Park explores…
Find out more »October 2019
Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop!
Party like it's 1990 on Wednesday night. That's when CAAM (California African American Museum) celebrates the opening of four new exhibitions, including Cross Colours: Black Fashion in the 20th Century. Cross Colours explores the impact of the urban apparel line founded by Angelenos Carl Jones and T.J. Walker that exploded when Will Smith paraded the bold hues and designs in the 1990 first season of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Curators Tyree Boyd-Pates and Taylor Bythewood-Porter explore the brand's role in breaking color barriers in the…
Find out more »November 2019
LA Blacksmith at the California African American Museum
On view: September 10, 2019–February 16, 2020 In Africa, blacksmiths emerged in 1500 BCE, and were highly regarded—sometimes feared— due to metal working’s magic process. Metallurgy then survived Middle Passage, and was brought to the Americas, where the knowledge was safely guarded and passed down. LA Blacksmith celebrates this historic craft, and focuses on artists in Los Angeles that have infused their own artistic interpretations onto the traditional West African tradition. Some mined the wreckage of the Watts Riots for materials, bringing the…
Find out more »July 2021
CAAM Zine Workshop
In April Bey: Atlantica, the Gilda Region, the artist has layered plants, video, photography, mixed-media paintings, and textiles to tell a story of an imagined world. Using the art form of zines and collage, join Alyssa Olepau, a teaching artist from Able ARTS Work—a nonprofit offering opportunities in the creative arts for people of all abilities—to make a zine that conveys your story. This is an in-person event, masks required. Photo courtesy of caamuseum.org
Find out more »Sanford Biggers at the California African American Museum
“Codeswitch,” Sanford Biggers’ solo exhibition at the California African American Museum includes nearly 50 quit-based artworks. Though the artist works across various sculptural mediums, as well as film and music, the focused selection at CAAM highlights the use of found pre-1900s quilts in his artworks. Biggers began working with quilts after researching their theoretical use in conveying information along the Underground Railroad, and employs antique quilts as bases for his mark making: cutting, painting, glittering, and manipulating their patterned surfaces.…
Find out more »In Conversation: Sanford Biggers, Andrea Andersson, and Sergio Bessa
For more than two decades, Los Angeles native Sanford Biggers has been developing a singular body of work that is deeply informed by African American history and traditions. In Sanford Biggers: Codeswitch nearly fifty of the artist’s quilt-based works seamlessly weave together references to contemporary art, urban culture, sacred geometry, and more. Celebrate the opening of the exhibition at this in-person conversation featuring curators Andrea Andersson, Founding Director and Chief Curator, Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought, and Sergio…
Find out more »POSTPONED: KCRW’s Summer Nights at CAAM with KCRW DJs Aaron Byrd + Novena Carmel
Summer Nights Postponed in July + August It is with the utmost consideration for our community that KCRW has decided to postpone KCRW's Summer Nights events on July 30 (CAAM) and August 14 and 21 (One Colorado). Our wish for 2021 is to throw you the biggest, baddest Summer Nights parties all over the city and dance with you under the summer moon. But with the Delta variant on the rise in LA County, we are exercising caution. First and…
Find out more »April 2022
Troy Montes-Michie at CAAM
Troy Montes-Michie’s solo exhibition, Rock of Eye, at the California African American Museum is a masterclass in layering and collage. The show features collages, woven paper works, sculptural textile pieces, and assemblages. Large scale images pulled from Montes-Michie’s source materials wallpaper the galleries, and this sense of shifting scale causes the eye to shift while viewing the work, always adjusting to a play of macro and micro. The artist’s compositional strategy is alive within the works themselves, which each employ…
Find out more »July 2022
KCRW Summer Nights at CAAM with DJs Novena Carmel + Francesca Harding
Enjoy a warm night and cool vibes with CAAM and KCRW, featuring live sets from KCRW DJs Novena Carmel and Francesca Harding, after-hours museum access to all six of CAAM’s current exhibitions, food trucks, a beer garden, and more! This year’s event will also include a curated marketplace of Black-owned businesses from the FOUND/LA community. SCHEDULE 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM | KCRW DJ Francesca Harding 9:00 PM - 11:00 PM | KCRW DJ Novena Carmel MEMBER DISCOUNTS…
Find out more »February 2023
KCRW Open House at The California African American Museum
KCRW Open House series brings together KCRW and partner audiences for free evenings to enjoy the best of the culture spectrum across the Greater Los Angeles area. Join KCRW and CAAM for a free evening of music, art, and good vibes. Come groove to the sounds of KCRW DJs Francesca Harding and Tyler Boudreaux amidst the joyous burst of colors and concepts in CAAM’s special exhibition, Adee Roberson and Azikiwe Mohammed: because i am that. Pop into the beer garden,…
Find out more »August 2023
Black California Dreamin’: Claiming Space at America’s Leisure Frontier
Black California Dreamin’: Claiming Space in America’s Frontier of Leisure exhibition will be featured August 5, 2023 to March 31, 2024 at the California African American Museum, Los Angeles. Learn about and visit the recent public projects which recognize the African American experience in the history of California and the nation: Belmar History + Art, Santa Monica, CA (2021 Cultural Resource Award, SM Conservancy) and the Angels Walk LA Central Avenue heritage trail. Check out this exhibit on Friday Night as a part of KCRW Summer…
Find out more »KCRW Summer Nights with CAAM ft. KCRW DJs Francesca Harding & Tyler Boudreaux
Celebrate CAAM’s reopening in style! Enjoy a warm night and cool vibes with CAAM and KCRW, featuring live sets from KCRW DJs Francesca Harding & Tyler Boudreaux, food trucks, a beer garden, and more! You’ll have after-hours museum access to all SIX new shows at CAAM (one day before the official opening date), which range in subject from the Great Migration to Black leisure in California, and include both solo and group exhibitions of contemporary art. Let us know you're…
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