Summer is here and it's the perfect time to explore the cultural scene of Los Angeles County. From music and theater to art galleries and iconic dishes, there is something for everyone in this vibrant city. Music lovers can attend the Long Beach Opera, the New West Symphony, and the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra and Pasadena Pops. The Los Angeles Gay Men's Choir will make Pride proud with a selection of Disney favorites, while Inglewood organizes a free music festival filled with jazz, rap, and R&B.
Theatergoers can choose between an outdoor staging of Shakespeare's “Twelfth Night in St. Peter's” or an indoor staging of Sondheim's “Into the Woods” at the Ahmanson. Don't forget to check out the Hollywood Fringe Festival before it closes this weekend. Los Angeles County is home to 841 museums and art galleries, making it one of the most culturally rich cities in the world.
Notable museums include the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (the largest art museum in the western United States), the Getty Center (part of the J. Paul Getty Trust), the Battleship Iowa, and the Museum of Contemporary Art. Art galleries are located on Gallery Row, and tens of thousands of people attend the monthly Downtown Art Walk there. The Los Angeles metropolitan area is also a major site for film and television production, attracting actors, writers, composers, artists, and other creative people to Los Angeles.
This has led to a thriving hip-hop scene in Long Beach and Compton, spearheaded by artists such as Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, 2Pac, and Snoop Dogg. The open-air movement of impressionist landscape painting also found its first supporters in Los Angeles. The literary history of Los Angeles includes legendary authors such as Raymond Chandler, whose harsh detective stories were set in pre-war and post-war eras.
After the change of sovereignty from Mexico to the United States in 1848, major changes took place with the completion of the Santa Fe railway line from Chicago to Los Angeles in 1885. The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra now performs at the Walt Disney Concert Hall after having resided for many years in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and offers summer concerts at the Hollywood Bowl. The diversity of cultures represented in Los Angeles is unparalleled in any other city in America. There are also several gay villages focused on L. A.'s LGBTQ community. It was during this period that contemporary art began to capture international attention from collectors and museum directors alike. The oldest known work of public art in Los Angeles is a 1900 sculpture of a United States soldier made by architects S.
Other iconic works include Urban Light (200 meters in front of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Wilshire Boulevard), by Chris Burden, which has become a tourist destination and popular public space. Los Angeles has many different types of architectural styles scattered throughout its cities and satellite cities. Notable architectural works include The Paul Getty Museum, The Norton Simon Museum, The Huntington Library art collection and botanical gardens, and The Hammer Museum at The University of California, Los Angeles. Los Angeles is also home to some iconic dishes such as Cobb salad (invented at The Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood), French-Dip sandwich (created by Cole's Pacific Electric Buffet or Phillipe's), Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf's coffee drink mixed with ice, and Original Tommy's Hamburger.
