What Is a Fun Palace?

How a Once-Defunct Idea for Community-Driven Joy Springs to Life Every Year

This piece publishes alongside the Zócalo/Los Angeles Times program “Would Parliamentary America Have More Fun?,” tomorrow, Friday, February 23, at 7 PM PST. Register here to attend in person or online.

For one weekend in 2014, my local community and I came together and took over Brockwell Lido, an outdoor swimming pool in South London. We put on an entirely free weekend of arts, culture, and science events for our community. There were kayaks in the swimming pool, shadow puppetry, cheerleading, scientists talking about the effects …

by Amie Taylor | February 22, 2024

How Alpine Yodeling Mutated Into American Blackface Minstrelry

Vestiges of the Racist Entertainment Persist in Art and Politics

By Daniel H. Foster and Anne Bramley | December 27, 2016

In 1822 the Austrian emperor Franz I and his ally Tsar Alexander I of Russia held a meeting in a remote valley of the war-torn Tyrolese Alps. They were entertained …

Central Valley Kids, Meet Beethoven

In a Rural California County, We're Bringing the Symphony to a New Generation of Musicians

by Bruce Kiesling | February 4, 2015

One May evening last year, I found myself driving on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in South Los Angeles, away from Exposition Park towards the neighborhood of West Adams. My …

Visalia Opera Founder Rosalinda Verde

She Likes Singing in Empty Theaters and Indulging in a Good Steak

February 1, 2015

Rosalinda Verde is the founder of Visalia Opera. Before participating in a panel on the role the arts play in building communities, Verde talked about mariachi, rock, and opera–as well …

The Man Who Brought Flying Purple People Eaters to Life

Bob Baker Earned L.A.’s Love with Magical Marionettes and Ice Cream after Every Puppet Show

by Charles Phoenix | November 7, 2014

In the last decade, I’ve led dozens of tour groups on my Disneyland tour of downtown Los Angeles. We explore the heart and soul of the city as if it’s …

Segerstrom Center for the Arts President Terrence W. Dwyer

They Call Me Buffalo

March 3, 2014

Terrence W. Dwyer has been president of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California since 2006. Before participating in a panel on whether the arts make us …

performing arts