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Your essential guide to the arts in L.A.
Get Carolina A. Miranda's weekly newsletter for what's happening, plus openings, critics' picks and more.
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What to expect
Every week, Essential Arts covers the depth and breadth of Southern California’s complex cultural sphere: the latest biennial, the avant-garde building design, a groundbreaking opera and the Pulitzer Prize-winning play — along with all the bits of related news emerging from the region and beyond.
This begins with the voices of our award-winning critics, who bring a depth of reporting and experience to the region’s cultural scene: Christopher Knight’s profound knowledge of art in Los Angeles; Mark Swed’s longtime immersion in classical music; Charles McNulty’s deep understanding of theater, and his ability to identify the idea that stays with you long after the performance is over.
But it also includes our reporting: investigations, profiles, interviews, photo essays and explanatory pieces produced by a team of longtime journalists who know what’s happening in the creative corners of L.A. — and beyond.
Your host
Carolina A. Miranda is a Los Angeles Times staff writer covering a wide gamut of culture, including visual art, architecture and film, not to mention performance art cabaret divas.
Her work often looks at how art intersects with politics, gender and race — whether it’s the ways in which artists are tackling the U.S.-Mexico border or the ways in which art intersects with development and gentrification.
She is a regular contributor to KCRW’s “Press Play” and was a winner of the 2017 Rabkin Prize in Visual Arts Journalism.
Latest Essential Arts newsletters
A visually striking opera about Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Plus the art of WWI and stained glass in honor of civil rights, in our weekly arts newsletter
The Hirshhorn presents work from Simone Leigh’s acclaimed Venice Biennale installation. Plus, Aubrey Plaza takes the stage off-Broadway, in our arts newsletter
U.S. colonial exploits in Puerto Rico, Philippines and Hawaii mapped in art and objects. Plus, ‘Inherit the Wind’ in Pasadena, Tidawhitney Lek at Hammer and in Long Beach.
The Florentine Codex is online and searchable in three languages. Plus, “Spring Awakening” on stage and a painting reclaimed, in our weekly arts newsletter
War in the Middle East upends cultural life in the U.S. Plus, ‘Uncle Vanya’ reimagined and an artist dwells in destruction, in our weekly arts newsletter.
Mexican graphic design gets a broad overview. Plus, the murals of Santa Barbara and an artist takes on the L.A. River, in our weekly arts newsletter
“Made in L.A.” is back in expanded space at the Hammer Museum. Plus, art and Black Sabbath and playwright Annie Baker’s latest in our weekly arts newsletter
Enough with the reductive “fiesta” fonts. Plus, theater in crisis and L.A.’s queer history festival, in our weekly culture newsletter
Curb your enthusiasm for Vegas’ Sphere. Plus, a musical inspired by ‘Soul Train’ and new leadership at the Geffen Playhouse, in our weekly arts newsletter
Even with Beyoncé, the sound at SoFi Stadium needs help. Plus, Meredith Monk’s post-nuclear space opera and MOCA’s big rehang, in our weekly arts newsletter
