LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A pair of Exposition Park museums will reopen their doors today after year-long closures prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but capacity will be limited and advance tickets are required.
The California Science Center and California African American Museum will both welcome back visitors, subject to health protocols.
The Science Center will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with capacity limited to 25% and timed entry reservations for all guests.
“We are thrilled to reopen and invite guests to enjoy the power of real experiences. Science is core to everything we do and our reopening protocols reflect the guidance of state and local health agencies as well as the Science Center's public health and infectious disease expert advisers,'' Science Center President Jeffrey Rudolph said.
The Science Center's IMAX theater will also reopen, showing the films “Hubble'' and “Under the Sea.''
Exhibitions at the Science Center include “The Art of the Brick,'' built entirely from LEGO bricks, “Space Shuttle Endeavour'' and “Kelp Forest.''
Two new exhibitions will also premiere soon. “All in This Together'' will explore the facts about COVID-19 and the science behind the most powerful public health tools for fighting the pandemic. The exhibition, which opens in April, features a special display from the COVID Memorial Quilt honoring individuals lost to the virus.
Opening in June will be “Life! Beginnings,'' in which guests can experience the human journey from conception to birth inside an immersive “womb room'' and explore real fetal specimens. More information can be found at https://californiasciencecenter.org.
The California African American Museum, meanwhile, will also reopen with 25% capacity. Admission is free but advance reservations must be made at caamuseum.org.
“This has been a long, hard year for many in our community,'' Executive Director Cameron Shaw said. “As CAAM is an important space of reflection and affirmation, we are pleased to welcome visitors back. Most of the exhibitions on view have never been seen by the public in person since they were initially slated to open during our extended, pandemic-related closure, so all of the artists, curators and the entire CAAM staff are excited to share them.''
The museum's current exhibitions are: -- “Sula Bermudez-Silverman: Neither Fish, Flesh nor Fowl,'' the first L.A. solo exhibit of the locally based artist, exploring social structures through a conceptual and multidisciplinary practice that examines economic, racial, religious and gendered systems of power''; -- “Nikita Gale: Private Dancer,'' in which the Los Angeles-based artist “takes the common, shared experience of music concerts as a starting point for questioning more abstract ideas of spectacle, desire, and refusal''; -- “Men of Change: Power. Triumph. Truth,'' profiling “revolutionary men'' such as Muhammad Ali, James Baldwin and Kendrick Lamar who have altered history and culture; -- “Sanctuary: Recent Acquisitions to the Permanent Collection,'' exploring “concepts of safety and refuge as they relate to the African- American experience; and -- “Enunciated Life,'' in which “Black spiritual beliefs ... operate as a point of departure for considering modes of surrender.'' Copyright 2021, City News Service, Inc.
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