Events

Experience the history, architecture and folklore of Old Pasadena with Melting Pot Food Tours. Colorful alleys and secret thru-ways spice up the walk as you seek out spectacular ethnic eateries and sweet stuff havens in historic Old Pasadena. Enjoy all the fascinating stories behind the foods when you explore this historic district, once just a sunny haven of colorful orange groves.

Here's what you can expect on the Old Pasadena Food Tour:

• Cafes and restaurants specializing in world cuisine (Middle Eastern, South American, Indian, Oaxacan)
• An artisan ice cream shop
• A tranquil tea bar and shop filled with teas from around the world
• An exquisite chocolatier
• A California olive oil store and cafe
• A handmade soap kitchen

Whenever possible, you'll be met and hosted by these special merchants who proudly share their incredible offerings. The tour concludes back at the original starting point. The food samples along the way are filling enough so that for most people lunch afterward is not necessary.

Tours run weekly on Saturdays and Sundays from 10:30am-2:00pm.

SPECIAL OPMD DISCOUNT: Save 10% on Adult Tour tickets with the promo code VISPAS - good through December 31, 2018.

 

The Armory Center for the Arts presents Diane Christiansen and Jeanne Dunning's Birth Death Breath, an opera “performed” by inflatable lawn decorations in various stages of inflation and deflation. As the characters rise from the ground and begin to sing, they experience their inflation as a kind of coming back to life, prompting them to ponder great existential questions about life, death, purpose, and meaning through their songs.

Armory galleries are open Wednesdays through Mondays (closed Tuesdays) from 12 noon to 5:00pm. Admission is always free.

Armory Center for the Arts

145 N. Raymond Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91103

626.792.5101
www.armoryarts.org

Fall, 2020: Currently closed due to COVID-19.

The Armory Center for the Arts, housed in Pasadena’s historic 1932 National Guard Building, serves as the city’s hub for art education in its myriad forms. It originated as the education department of the Pasadena Art Museum in 1947 with classes led by artists whose teaching concepts grew out of the museum's exhibitions of modern art. This education program became known as the Pasadena Art Workshops after the museum closed in 1974. Without a permanent space for exhibitions, the workshops used professional artists as teachers and focused on the development of arts programs that presented alternative forms of learning. By working in partnerships with schools, libraries, parks, neighborhood groups, community centers, and city agencies, the museum’s programs brought the arts to new audiences – a trend that continues to this day.

Opening in its permanent space on Raymond Avenue in 1989, the center underwent a $2.4 million transformation in 2002 to create an additional 6,800 square feet of classrooms and studio spaces for drawing and painting, digital arts, and photography. Today it offers a wide range of programs and studio classes for all ages, as well as exhibitions in its galleries, year around.  Galleries are open daily from noon - 5:00pm, and closed on Tuesdays.

After examining vectors of oppression down to the quantum scale, Jennifer Moon returns from her adventures of mapping shame and trauma within forms of identification to present a new musical video installation ignited by a rejuvenated commitment to fantasy and magic.

Inspired by two iconic songs—”How Far I’ll Go” and “I Am Moana (Song of the Ancestors)”—from the 3D-animated musical film Moana, A Breach in the Realm of Beliefs offers a sincere attempt to retrieve lost faith by re-orientating and repurposing Disney’s commodification of feel-good inspirational music to instill an emotional call to revolution that cannot be silenced. Bracketed between these two musical videos is a third video element that will be released in parts, evolving and expanding throughout the exhibition, chronicling the artist’s efforts in “real time” to implement her revolutionary goals in life and love. 

In addition to her solo exhibition in the Armory’s Mezzanine Gallery East, Jennifer Moon has joined forces with the artist laub to create Mr. Snuggles FOREVER, a magic-infused installation in the stairwell of the Armory celebrating the life, death, and afterlife of Mr. Snuggles, Moon’s beloved canine familiar who has become a symbol of revolutionary relational love.

Armory galleries are open daily from 12 to 5 pm (closed Tuesdays). Admission is always free.

Pasadena Museum of History's exhibition Dreaming the Universe: The Intersection of Science, Fiction, & Southern California ventures into the world of science fiction that was created right here in Southern California between the 1930s and 1980s and how it interacted with the advances of science, the changes in technology, and shifts in American society. Curated by Nick Smith, former president of Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, the exhibition will bring together an unusual range of artifacts, fine and graphic arts, books, ephemera, and photographs.

From the comic strip space hero Buck Rogers in the 1930s to the dystopian depiction of Los Angeles in Blade Runner (1982), the parallel worlds, alternative universes, and culturally unique societies depicted in science fiction contrasted sharply with cultural and political norms of the day. Science fiction is often regarded as the literature of the imagination, but it was here in Southern California that the worlds of speculation, science, and society overlapped in ways that helped change the world.

Southern California ushered in the Rocket Age in 1936 with the first rocket tests in Pasadena's Arroyo Seco. The growth of the aeronautics industry in the area was closely paralleled by the growth of the creative science fiction community. Dreaming the Universe will examine visionary creators – Ray Bradbury, Octavia Butler, Frank Kelly Freas, Syd Mead, Emil Petaja, and Edgar Rice Burroughs – and the books, fanzines, art, and media they created. Attention will also be given to the fans of science fiction, individuals such as Forrest Ackerman, as well as fan organizations.

Pasadena Museum of History

470 W. Walnut Street
Pasadena, CA 91103

626-577-1660
pasadenahistory.org

The Pasadena Museum of History’s collections, exhibits, and programs provide educational resources for the public to increase understanding and appreciation of history, culture, and science in Pasadena and neighboring communities. Founded in 1924 as the Pasadena Historical Society, the Pasadena Museum of History operates the only Museum and Research Library devoted solely to preserving and educating the community about the history of Pasadena and the west San Gabriel Valley.

The Museum's valuable archival collection includes over 1,000,000 historical photographs, original manuscripts, books, maps, architectural records, costumes, and other artifacts. Spanning the years 1850 to present, this is the largest and most comprehensive collection relating to the history of the west San Gabriel Valley. Significant collections include the Tournament of Roses Collection, Pasadena Black History Collection, Pasadena Star-News historic archives, and the Sylvanus Marston Architectural Collection.

Since 1970, the Museum has been headquartered on the 2.1-acre grounds of the Fenyes Estate, a Pasadena Cultural Landmark that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Museum's 1906 Beaux Arts Fenyes Mansion contains approximately thirteen rooms with original Victorian furnishing and a historically significant painting collection. Named for its founders, Eva and Adalbert Fenyes, the home became a California version of the kind of "salon" popular on the East Coast and in Europe.

 

Gold Bug hosts "Mounts Toward Infinity," an exhibition inspired by Odilon Redon's "Eye-Balloon: The Eye, Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity" and featuring a menagerie of exotic birds prepared by local taxidermist Elizabeth Mills.  

Debuting during BoldPas, the exhibition honors both Poe and Redon and treats visitors to floating, surreal eye-balloons, taxidermy birds, and eye-opening treasures.

The first show at the newly opened Peekaboo Gallery pays tribute to the Mall Arcade of your youth and is entitled, “25¢ a Play: The Art of the Videocade.” This landmark celebration of classic coin-op video arcade games and pinball machines will feature an extraordinary experiential installation.  For the first time in an organized presentation, extremely rare, original Atari commercial artwork will be for sale. These include everything from scarce prototype concepts to final Atari cartridge box art.  Along side the unprecedented collection of art, will be a top-shelf offering of original commercial arcade games. Guests will have the opportunity to view and purchase well-loved and rare titles such as Donkey Kong, Asteroids, Pac Man, Zaxxon, Tempest, Tron and Space Invaders.  Also on offer will be rare, early titles such as the notorious, 1976 Death Race driving game by Exidy, which started the “violence in video games” controversy.  Another rare title will be Atari founder, Nolan Bushnell’s, COMPUTER SPACE from 1971.  This legendary game is credited as being the world’s first commercial coin-op video game. 

25¢ A Play: The Art of the Videocade showcases the greatest arcade games of the 70s and 80s and the best collection of 8-bit amusements, art and ephemera in this category ever seen.

Fresh Pasadena hosts two masterclass skincare events. Join alchemist Maria Rendon to learn new techniques and knowledge to accelerate at-home facials.  Each participant will receive a goodie bag that includes skincare tools and samples.

Two classes offered: Friday, June 8, 6:30–7:30pm and Saturday, June 9, 11am – 12pm.

Limited spaces are available so please RSVP to 626-564-2638 or [email protected].