Past
The Wende Museum and the Southern California chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH/SCC) welcome author Stuart W. Leslie, PhD, for a talk on “The Architecture of Apocalypse: Thinking About the Unthinkable in Style,” based on his contribution to the new anthology Laboratory Lifestyles: The Construction of Scientific Fictions. Leslie's essay on the aerospace and think-tank architecture of the Cold War explores the architectural legacy of local institutions, such as the Rand Corporation and Hughes Research Lab. At this event, Leslie will compare the architecture of three U.S. think tanks with three Soviet think tanks of the same era. Beginning at 6:00pm, a reception including refreshments will be provided in the museum courtyard.
The reception is free and and is open to all registered guests, with the program to follow at 7:00pm.
In conjunction with the exhibition Watching Socialism: the Television Revolution in Eastern Europe, the Wende Museum presents Hotel Dallas. Playfully mixing fiction and documentary, Hotel Dallas is a surreal parable of communism, capitalism, and the power of art.
The Wende Museum of the Cold War, in partnership with the UCLA Alumni Silicon Beach Network, invites you to a reception and screening of acclaimed filmmaker Miloš Forman's 1967 comedy The Firemen's Ball.
Join us on Sunday, July 28th, as we enjoy a special Family Day at the Wende: Try your hand at being a secret agent with fun spy-themed activities for kids, as well as a spotlight talk for all ages on the history of espionage in the Cold War.
The Wende Museum invites you to a screening of short films in conjunction with the exhibition Watching Socialism: The Television Revolution in Eastern Europe. The evening's program includes an animated short film from the Wende Museum's High School Media Workshop alongside contemporary shorts by American and Eastern European artists and filmmakers.
To shed light on the ways Cold War history impacted human lives, the Fiona Chalom and Joel Aronowitz Historical Witness Project has been gathering oral histories from those who lived in the Eastern Bloc during the period from 1945 to 1991.
This event will be a live interview conducted at the Wende Museum between Vladimir Paperny and Mark Valley.
Join us in celebrating Pride Month this Sunday, June 30th with special kid-friendly activities and a spotlight talk commemorating the history of LGBTQ activism during the Cold War.
In honor of Pride month, the Wende Museum and the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles present a screening of the 1989 East German film Coming Out, directed by famed DEFA filmmaker Heiner Carow.
In conjunction with the exhibition Nonalignment and Tito in Africa, the Wende Museum presents a workshop for educators. Curators and scholars Paul Betts (Oxford University), Radina Vučetić (University of Belgrade), and Robeson Taj Frazier (USC) will offer presentations on the Nonaligned Movement and Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito, and invite discussion about how the themes of transnational solidarity and a “third way” beyond the Cold War’s capitalism-communism binary can be meaningfully explored with students and others today.
Please join us to celebrate the opening of our two new exhibitions Watching Socialism: The Television Revolution in Eastern Europe and Nonalignment and Tito in Africa with refreshments, programs and tours of the exhibition!
Join Culver City cultural leaders and scholars for a timely discussion on the hidden history of racism in Culver City and what can be done in the present to undo harm in the future. This event is co-presented with the Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum, located at 4130 Overland Ave, Culver City, CA 90230.
Encounter subversive art across geographic, ideological, and historical borders in a new exhibition at the Wende Museum. Crumbling Empire: The Power of Dissident Voices will present Russian poster designs of the 1980s and early ’90s, from the Wende's Tom and Jeri Ferris Russian Collection as well as the collection of AIGA San Diego, alongside contemporary American street art by Shepard Fairey and a monumental work by Komar and Melamid
The Wende Museum presents the first U.S. museum exhibition of the North Korean dissident artist Sun Mu. Sun Mu – a pseudonym, meaning “no borders” – fled his country (the last remaining Stalinist state on earth) in 1998. Trained as a propaganda-poster artist, he continues to work in the style in which he once glorified the North Korean army and state leaders, ironically turning propagandistic messages on their heads.
Look up! Looming above Los Angeles are haunting relics of panic and fear. Once distinctly prominent and alarming fixtures in the city, civil-defense air-raid sirens still pepper the vast landscape. Installation began during World War II, but the sirens became prolific symbols of the subsequent Cold War. The formerly intimidating objects erected to warn Angelenos of impending danger have morphed into eerie artifacts of a foregone era. Now deteriorated and defunct, the sirens have become camouflaged within the visual fabric of the modern city and have developed their own unique character and look. By photographing environmental portraits of the sirens, some of which have since been removed, Nicole Weingart has created a comprehensive photographic series of Los Angeles air-raid sirens. This exhibition presents a sample of the diversity of the series.
Explore your memories and personal stories in a new intergenerational writing workshop at the Wende. Participants from teens to seniors are invited to engage in inspiring writing exercises that will make connections between Cold War memories and present-day life.