Long Beach’s Art Theatre — the oldest, and only remaining independent film house in the city — is celebrating its 100th birthday all throughout 2024.
The yearlong celebration will culminate in a January 2025 showing of “The Siren of Seville,” the first film ever shown at the theater upon its opening in 1925.
But before that screening, the Art Theatre will kick off its centennial celebration by hosting its annual Red Carpet Oscars Fundraiser on Sunday, March 10, which will coincide with the Academy Awards.
The Art Theatre, constructed in 1924, was originally dubbed The Carter Theater. But it was seriously damaged during the massive 1933 earthquake, which also left much of Long Beach destroyed.
But the building was salvaged — and by the next year had been remodeled in the Art Deco and Streamline Moderne styles and given its new name.
“This is an exciting time for The Art Theatre as we begin celebrating its 100 year anniversary” president of the theater’s nonprofit Richard Lewis said in a recent news release. “Since construction began the theater has made many memories and enjoys a rich history with guests, community and cinema aficionados. We’re grateful for everyone’s support.”
Guests at next Sunday’s red carpet gala, meanwhile, will be treated to a star-studded evening featuring local celebrities, a live telecast of the Academy Awards on the theater’s expansive screen, specialty food trucks, and more.
Cinephiles and community members alike are invited to support the Art Theatre’s centennial celebration starting with the gala. Tickets are priced at $100 for non-members and $75 for members.
“This is Not a Pipe: What is Reality?”
The Long Beach Creative Group will celebrate the enigmatic and imaginative world of surrealism at the Rod Briggs Gallery this weekend — and you’re invited to join.
The exhibit dubbed “This is Not a Pipe: What is Reality?,” which opens on Saturday, March 2 and coincides with the 100th anniversary of French poet André Breton’s “Manifesto of Surrealism,” promises to investigate the very nature of art and language itself.
Taking its name from artist René Magritte painting of a pipe with the words beneath it “Ceci n’est pas une pipe (this is not a pipe)”, this exhibition hopes to play with reality in the same way, challenging viewers to think outside of normal frames of reference.
Indeed, the surrealist movement in literature and art — including Magritte and other art mavericks — promoted the power of the unconscious mind in shaping the windows we think we see through and the world we think we live in.
To that end, the works of 36 diverse visual artists from across Southern California — -selected from over 170 submissions by jurors Annie Stromquist and Nirav Solanki— navigate surrealism in all sorts of thought-provoking ways.
Two opening receptions will kick off this exhibition: One on Saturday, March 2; the other on Sunday, March 3.
There will also be a free screening of the 2018 documentary “Salvador Dali: In Search of Immortality,” offered on Friday, March 8 at 7 p.m.
The exhibition welcomes visitors every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., and will close on Saturday, March 30.
Be sure to mark your calendars for this 100th anniversary celebration of a powerful and playful artistic movement.
Long Beach Symphony Orchestra and Camerata Singers
How should humanity respond to the vastness of the cosmos?
Next week, Long Beach Symphony Orchestra and the Camerata Singers present one possible approach to the wonder of the universe.
The LBSO, under the baton of Maestro Eckart Preu, will join forces with the Long Beach Camerata Singers for an evening of musical transcendence and profound response in the face of the cosmos on Saturday, March 9 at the Long Beach Terrace Theater.
The groups will perform pieces including Guillaume Connesson’s “Cosmic Trilogy,” Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Serenade to Music,” and Johannes Brahms’ powerful “A German Requiem.”
Connesson’s “Cosmic Trilogy,” composed in 2010, blends Indian raga and modernist elements to create a sonic tapestry that speaks to the interconnectedness of reality.
Williams’ lovely “Serenade to Music,” meanwhile, also speaks to the nature of reality.
Taken from a gorgeous passage in playwright William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice,” this staple of the choral repertoire captures the feeling of awe and wonder in the face of universal beauty.
In fact, when first performed, this piece reportedly brought audience member and renowned Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff to tears.
Finally, Brahms’ monumental “A German Requiem” will offer listeners a profound meditation not just on life — but on death.
Although written during a time of immense personal tragedy for Brahms, the piece itself is more consoling, more uplifting, and more humane than other settings of the Requiem Mass by other major classical composers.
In fact — in his dramatic harmonies and powerful choral setting of his chosen German text — Brahms seems to say that living life as best we can, here and now, might be the best way to honor those who have passed.
The voices of soloists Elissa Johnston and Kevin Deas perform in this piece, alongside the Long Beach Camerata Singers and members of the Long Beach Symphony.
Don’t miss your chance to be a part of an evening of cosmic connections. Tickets start at just $32 and can be purchased online at longbeachsymphony.org.
