Backed by the Santa Ana and Santa Monica mountain ranges, L.A. boasts a Mediterranean climate with just enough rain to avoid being classified as arid - that is, an average of 35 rainy days per year! Most of time L.A. is sunny and warm, the perfect place for an artistic excursion.

ART GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS

L.A. is home to many art museums, and a wide range of other cultural and historical centers.

• Located within Museum Row on Wilshire Boulevard, the A+D Museum, also known as the Architecture and Design Museum, strives to celebrate the existence of three dimensional design in everyday life. They host educational programs, aid the design community, and hold exhibits showcasing the work of artists like Frank Gehry, Lloyd Wright and Ray Kappe, as well as conceptual exhibitions such as L.A. NOW, held in 2002, which displayed visual plans for the future of Los Angeles.

• The Hammer Museum is known for hosting artist-centric exhibits and offering a wide array of free public programming. The museum was founded to house the collection of entrepreneur Armand Hammer in 1990, and has expanded to support local artists with studio space for experimentation. With a collection of around 50,000 objects, the museum is considered an archive for contemporary art. Exhibits include installations, painting, and sculpture, with original pieces by de Kooning, Pollock, Warhol, and many more.

• In considering art, it is important not to overlook the beauty of cultural folk creations, like those showcased at the Craft and Folk Art Museum. In 1965, the gallery that would become the museum was founded by a group of folk artists with a passion for indigenous art. Today, it offers artist-led workshops and educational programs, and is responsible for starting the International Festival of Masks which ran yearly from 1976 to 1998.

• A branch of the Getty Museum, the Getty Center holds an abundant collection of 19th and 20th century art, including painting, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture and photography. Sculptures adorn the 134,000 square foot garden outside the museum, and art from Asia, Europe and America are showcased throughout the center. Receiving more than one million visitors each year, the Getty Center has a number of famous artworks including works by Van Gogh and Gauguin.

• A visit to Los Angeles is not complete without a stop at the Hollywood Wax Museum. Featuring stunningly realistic wax imitations of Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp, Marilyn Monroe, King Kong and hundreds more, getting a picture taken with a favorite celebrity has never been easier. Spend a few hours make believing you're in the presence of the greats.

• Los Angeles County Museum of Art
• Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden
• Barnsdall Art Park
• Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery
• Annenberg Space for Photography
• Ben Maltz Gallery
• Bolton Hall Museum
• Chinese American Museum
• Discovery Cube Los Angeles
• California African American Museum
• Grammy Museum
• Social and Public Art Resource Center
• Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
• Guinness World Record Museum
• Hollywood Heritage Museum
• Korean American Museum

Los Angeles, California

ARTISTIC INSTITIUTIONS

L.A. is home to a wide array of artistic programs for both post-secondary students and those just interested in learning more about art.

• At the Otis College of Art and Design, the first independent professional art school in L.A., students can choose from a wide variety of fields including illustration, graphic design, fine art, landscape design, digital media and toy design. Established in 1918, the building in the Westchester area is well known for its holey, geometric window design. Many art movements were influenced or inspired by the college, including the American Clay Revolution, the Craft-to-Art Movement and the Light and Space movement.

• The Southern California Institute of Architecture offers interested and dedicated students both undergraduate and graduate degrees in the field of architecture. Encouraging both practical and artistic design, graduates can continue their studies with a Masters in Design Research or City Design. In addition to post-secondary programs, the school offers exhibitions and lectures open to the public community.

• Students of the University of California, Los Angeles, better known as UCLA, can study Design and Media Arts, World Arts, Urban Design and Visual Art through the School of the Arts and Architecture. More than 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students grace the halls each year, and are exposed to a wide array of concerts, exhibitions, and symposia.

• The private university California Institute of the Arts was founded in 1961 by Walt Disney himself. It offers students many artistic opportunities with degrees like Acting, Costume Design, Film, Graphic Design and Photography. With undergraduate, graduate and even doctorate programs, CalArts was envisioned as the artistic answer to CalTech, and their alumni include Alison Brie, Ed Harris, David Hasselhoff and Sophia Coppola.

• Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art
• The Art Institute of Los Angeles
• The Art Center College of Design
• LMU LA's schools of Film and Television, Communication and Fine Arts, and Liberal Arts
• Graphic Design, Journalism and Fine Art at Mount Saint Mary's University
• USC Roski School of Art and Design
• Ann Bridges Art Studio
• Brentwood Art Center
• Kline Academy of Fine Art 26/02/2015

NATIVE ARTISTS

Between those born in the city and those who now call it home, Los Angeles is a hub of creative people.

ART AND CURLTURAL EVENTS

Annual Events

• The Pageant of the Masters festival is held each year in July and August. Each evening, a group of people pose in elaborate scenes to depict living versions of the most famous works of art. The event includes professional orchestra, lighting and sets, and narration, to create an immersive art experience that is widely celebrated. The Pageant of the Masters is part of the Los Angeles Festival of Arts.

• Each year since 1929, The Academy Awards have presented an Oscar to the Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Costume Design, and best everything else relating to film. Broadcast from the Dolby Theatre each February, with more than 2,900 Oscars being awarded as of 2015. Today, the ceremony tends to last more than three hours, though the first ceremony took only 15 minutes. Every year the seats of the theatre are filled with celebrities and lesser known important individuals, with "regular people" acting as extras to fill empty seats.

• See great art right at your feet at the Pasadena Chalk Festival, an annual event held in June each year. More than six hundred regional and international artists take to their hands and knees to create hundreds of stunning, professional artworks in chalk on the city streets. Running since 1993, the event is free of charge and draws upwards of 100,000 guests.

• The Abbot Kinney Festival is a community street festival that takes place each September along the Abbot Kinney Boulevard in the Venice neighborhood, which has been called the "coolest block in America". Surrounded by eclectic restaurants, shops and galleries, the streets fill with hundreds of vendors, multiple musical stages and food trucks for just one day. The festival has been running since 1984.

Other Events and Sights to See

• The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival in May
• Film Independent's Los Angeles Film Festival in June
• The Downtown Film Festival in July
• The Mariachi Festival in December
• The LA County Fair in late summer

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