museum

by Angela Rocco DeCarlo On recent visit "home" we went immediately to again visit The Art Institute of Chicago to see the John Singer Sargent and Chicago's Gilded Age exhibit...and so should you. It is a world-class museum with the latest technology to make all welcome - including TacTiles and Touch Gallery for the visually impaired.  There was a John Singer Sargent exhibit in 1986, which I attended, and it was fabulous. The printed press kit was so beautiful I've kept it. So I was pleased to again be able to view Sargent's beautiful luminous paintings.  Additionally, visitors enjoy the Impressionist Gallery, which features well-recognized master paintings such as Renoir's "Two Sisters" (On the Terrace),  Seurat's "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte" and other great images. I like this gallery better than the major Impressionist museums in Paris.  The 68 Thorne Miniature Rooms enable glimpses into European interiors from the late 13th century to the 1930s. It is charming and should be seen with or without children. The Art Institute offers massive amounts of art from antiquity to modern genres. It is one of my  favorite places - at once enlightening as well as soothing.  The Sargent exhibit ends September 30th so there's still time to see it. Chicago Art Institute 111 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, Ill 60603 phone 312-443-3600 Admission: Adults $25; Seniors$19; Child - age 13 & ...

by Angela Rocco DeCarlo copyright 2017 Laguna Beach, California, resembles the Italian Amalfi Coast - at least to we Italian Americans. So naturally, we wanted to enjoy it with our four DeCarlo grandchildren, aged 12 to 19. Getting them together was a feat we relished. However, we had to be sure there was something for everyone to enjoy. So we concocted an afternoon itinerary which included diving into the frothy surf,  lunch as Las Brisas, with a quick detour next door to the Laguna Art Museum. Actually, I had read a review of the "Ben Messick: Memories of Los Angeles" exhibit and thought it would be wonderful to see and perfect for our little artist, Serritella. But how to entice the baseball and hockey players, Sam and Andrew,  as well as college girl, Michelle? The genius of our plan included the "Holy Grail" of any Laguna Beach visit - a parking space - with apologies to the illustrious legend. While Laguna is gorgeous, traffic and parking are ugly. So we zeroed in on lunch at an old favorite, Las Brisas restaurant, with its valet parking lot and were perfectly located to do everything easily without lost time or much walking. I really appreciated the front desk ...

Muzeo Museum and Cultural Center Anaheim, CA By Angela Rocco DeCarlo "Downton Abbey," one of the most successful television shows, is set in a fictional Edwardian English castle, awash with nobles, paid-servants and enormous upheavals due to war, jealousy and financial ruin. The Muzeo Museum and Cultural Center, Anaheim, CA, is presenting an exhibition of the lovely wardrobe of the show. Seeing the clothing up close is delightful. In every detail the show's six seasons evoked the volcanic disruptions brought on by World War I and its political, societal and financial changes. The Roaring Twenties and the Jazz Age took woman from their corseted floor-length dresses to loose shifts exposing naked shoulders and legs - shocking. "In olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking, now God knows, anything goes." From Noel Coward's song, "Anything Goes." The Downton Abbey era is illuminated through the skillful Julian Fellows' scripts and an array of outstanding good-looking actors who enchanted television viewers. The gorgeous period clothing charmed all. "Dressing Downton - Changing Fashion for Changing Times" featuring nearly 40 of the original garments designed and fitted to the individual actors, can be seen at Muzeo Museum and Cultural Center, Anaheim, California, until May 11. It then ...

THE EVENT:              Excitement continues to build in the air for the 33rdAnnual Wings Over Camarillo Air Show set for the weekend of August 17-18, 2013 at the Camarillo Airport.   This event will be the only air show in Ventura County. The two-day August air show features some of the most involved military aircraft in WWII, and experimental aircraft, that are still flying on the West Coast.   Wings Over Camarillo features CAF SoCal’s Famous Air Rides for the public including rides on the famous P-51 Mustang, At-6/SN, and PT-19. Rides will be offered Saturday and Sunday before and after the air show.  Please call the CAF at 805-482-0064 to schedule.   Guests enjoy an afternoon filled with air rides, food, fun, and live entertainment.  The after party will feature the band Old School, playing hits from the 70’s and beyond!   The event is legendary.  You experience will be too.   THE AFTER PARTY:  Come join the war birds for a night filled with laughter, fun, food, and dancing! Dinner and Dance on Saturday August 17th 6:30-10pm. Cost per person: $25 includes dinner, entertainment and one (1) drink (beer, wine, or soda) Cash bar after your first drink. Phone (805) 482-0064   THE CAUSE:            The Camarillo Wings Association is a non-profit 501(c)(3) ...

By Angela Rocco DeCarlo,copyright, 2011 The Richard Nixon Library and Museum is an intimate facility highly suited to families and children, especially grandparents with young children. It does not overwhelm in size and so is an enticing destination at any time of the year. Every Christmas season we take our grandchildren to enjoy the model train exhibits. Last year there were two rooms of spectacular model train layouts – a densely constructed Lego cityscape with many bridges, buildings and encampments. In the second room was the marvelously imagined tiered landscape with various-sized model trains choo-chooing across a fantasy America dotted with charming towns filled with miniature people. This year’s visit found a smaller, though still interesting, Lego exhibit, which continues until January 28, 2011, with the second room devoted to “Treasures from the Vault:” A collection of valuable gifts given to the Nixon family, but owned by the U.S. government, by many foreign heads of state. The Lego train exhibit is housed in the museum’s lobby all set about with various themed Christmas trees hugging the perimeter of the space. There’s the Presidents’ tree; the First Ladies’ tree; the Asian tree; the USA tree and others. The Lego train curators created a little game with ...

By Angela Rocco DeCarlo, copyright 2009 The ancient city of Pompeii, Italy, has fascinated the world since excavations began in 1748 on this city buried  more than 1700 years ago. Victim of Mt. Vesuvius' cataclysmic volcanic eruption on August 24, 79 AD, it remains one of the world's most important travel destinations. Today, visitors can get a taste of the lost city of Pompeii at Los Angeles County Museum of Art's (LACMA) exhibit, "Pompeii and the Roman Villa - Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples." The show runs from May 3 through October 4, 2009. It is testament to the voracious appetite ancient Romans had for all Greek culture and art. That single-mindedness resulted in priceless treasures being preserved for nearly two thousands of years. Fortunately, we know exactly what happened to the ill-fated people of ancient Pompeii thanks to the scholar, Pliny the Younger, who wrote a detailed eyewitness description of the sudden explosion, in 79 AD, of  Mount Vesuvius on the Bay of Naples, Italy. The powerful volcanic eruption, together with earthquakes and tsunamis, devastated the coastal area and the cities were covered under volcanic rock and nearly forgotten, until 1738 when the royal family of the region initiated ...

California Seen -Landscapes of a changing California, 1930-1970 Long Beach Museum of Art exhibit Nov. 7 – April 5, 2009 By Angela Rocco DeCarlo, copyright 2008 Southern California is as much a state of mind, as it is a real place. It is brilliant sunshine, Sorrento-like ocean views, combined with dynamic enterprise. That’s the story illustrated in the marvelous plein aire (painted  outdoors) paintings at the new exhibit, California, Seen, at the Long Beach Museum of Art, opening Nov. 7th and running until April 5, 2009. Families are welcomed Sunday, Nov. 16th, 1 – 3 p.m., to the Museum’s free Art making Workshops to learn how to make their own plein aire paintings. Museum educators will work with the children to experiment to make their own watercolor creations. All materials and instruction are provided free. The artists on display in California, Seen, were influenced by European art styles of the late 19th century, especially Impressionism. While the majority of the works are watercolors, there are, also, vibrant oils. Paintings such as Ben Messick’s oil circus paintings have the vitality of an Edgar Degas painting, drawing the viewer into the churning scene.  Messick, along with other stellar artists on display, such as Phil Dike, Millard ...

Forget Disneyland. And all the colorful made-up characters. Surprise your grandchildren - introduce them to real genius - Degas, Raphael, Monet, Pissarro and other great artists, whose works are displayed at the singularly splendid Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California. Will they be bored? Perhaps… But more likely they'll be intrigued. Imagine, someone they don't even know collected beautiful things for them to see and placed them all together to be enjoyed over and over. This is a concept even a three-year old can grasp. One day my then-tiny granddaughter, Michelle, looked around at all the old toys I'd saved from my childhood and my children's and said :"Nani, you kept all these for me." She understood! I treasured the items and wanted her to treasure them, too. That's exactly what successful industrialist, the late Norton Simon, did, as he set about collecting works of art he loved. He bought what pleased him and arranged for the display of approximately 1,000, of the 12,000 objects in thecollection, in the eponymous museum on Colorado Boulevard (seen by millions as Rose Parade floats pass by), Pasadena, California. You are right, I told her. Then explained that strangers gathered lovely things for us to see and asked if she'd like ...