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    • Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County opens new million ‘front porch’ Nov. 17 – Daily News
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    Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County opens new $75 million ‘front porch’ Nov. 17 – Daily News

    Harry Posted on

    Hoping to get more people coming through their doors, Natural History Museum officials are opening the venue’s new “front porch” on Sunday, Nov. 17, with a free community party that will include live music, food and even a dinosaur.

    “We want to be a place where the community feels like it’s truly for them. That’s why it’s important for us to have a space where people can come in and feel welcome and that they belong,” said Dr. Lori Bettison-Varga during a media preview of the museum’s new wing and community center, called NHM Commons.

    The 75,000-square-foot indoor/outdoor space, which museum officials describe as the venue’s new “front porch,” took seven years and $75 million to complete and consists of an outdoor plaza overlooking a clear glass façade. Inside the glass walls on the first floor of the wing’s indoor section is a multi-purpose theater and an offshoot of South LA Cafe, a well-known coffee shop that opened in 2019 at the corner of Western Avenue and MLK Boulevard. The second floor houses the Judith Perlstein Welcome Center and the 3,000-square-foot Theater Gallery. Admission to NHM Commons is free.

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    The light-filled foyer of the new House of Commons at the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. The new common area will open to the public on November 17. In addition to the dinosaur, the area also includes a mural, a theater and a new food court. (Photo: David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

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    “This whole thing feels light and hopeful, and I think we need hope,” Bettison-Varga said as she stood in the new café, looking out at the interior and the glass walls in the plaza.

    The Nov. 17 block party will feature food trucks, music, live performances, a dance lesson from Queerchata and sets from KCRW’s DJ Tyler Boudreaux and DJ Linda Nuves.

    Most of the celebration will take place in the plaza and garden. museum officials worked with the Native American Advisory Council to create a tranquil yet dynamic space featuring two oak trees and several rock islands adorned with colorful native plants. Plants and rocks symbolize the city’s mountain ranges; The cement road passing through them refers to the Los Angeles river system flowing from the mountains to the ocean through the LA Basin.

    “It’s so exciting to see echoes of the beautiful mountain ranges in Los Angeles,” said Lila Higgins, the museum’s co-senior director of social science. “These are the plants you see in the mountains, in the neighborhoods around Los Angeles, and it’s really exciting to see them at the front door of the museum,” he added.

    In another part of the plaza, there is an area with Native American grinding stones and more native plants. Plaza means entrance to the interior.

    Once inside, visitors will see the Commons Theatre, where a 400-seat space is so far planned to host film series, community events, performances, lectures and more. There is already a schedule of screenings of the new movie “T.REX 3D”, which portrays the life of the T.rex. dinosaurand performances of “Ocean Encounters,” a live show featuring life-size sea creature puppets in a prehistoric undersea tale. Some events at the theater will require purchased tickets.

    NHM Commons also gives people a look at what’s inside the museum at the WM Keck Foundation Theater Gallery. The 3,000-square-foot upstairs gallery displays nearly a dozen large, poster-size digital images of items from the museum’s collection, including fossils, sculptures and animal specimens.

    Next to the gallery is the Judith Perlstein Welcome Center, an airy space with seating next to large windows overlooking the plaza. But people’s attention span is probably huge 75-meter dinosaur skeleton named Gnatalie.

    The skeleton, with its long neck facing the entrance and its tail stretching into the air, spans almost half of the room. Gnatalie is the most complete sauropod skeleton on the West Coast and the first green dinosaur fossil mounted for display worldwide, according to museum officials. Its unusual color comes from green minerals absorbed by the bones, while its name comes from the mosquitoes that plagued excavators working to uncover the fossil in Utah.

    Opposite the dinosaur, which covers an approximately 25-foot wall, is artist Barbara Carrasco’s mural titled “LA History: A Mexican Perspective.” Created in 1981, the colorful mural features dozens of stories woven into a woman’s wavy hair; It depicts the chronological history of Los Angeles, from its original inhabitants to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II to the Zoot Suit Riots and the freeways. There’s even a nod to the Los Angeles Dodgers with an image of legendary pitcher Sandy Koufax next to Dodger Stadium.

    “This space makes me so happy because of the awe you feel, the fascination with that green dinosaur, the great storytelling in the mural, and the recognition of what the history of Los Angeles really is,” Bettison-Varga said.

    The Welcome Center then leads to the museum’s ticket office and entrance.

    “We want everyone to come and explore this place and be a part of it,” Bettison-Varga said.

    NHM Commons Bloc Party

    When: 17 May 09:30-17:00

    Where: Museum of Natural History, 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles

    Cost: Free

    Information: nhm.org

    Harry
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