Local News Briefs

Santa Monica Museum of Art to Leave Santa Monica

Local Drivers encountered a large number of street closures this week, The Santa Monica Museum of Art is leaving Bergamot Station, reports the Los Angeles Times’ Mike Boehm. It will cease operations temporarily to assess its options elsewhere.

Boehm writes, “Executive director Elsa Longhauser and the museum’s eight full-time employees will pack up and starting in June work out of offices in Century City that will become the planning hub for whatever is to come next—with rent paid for by a donor.”

The museum’s decision to leave came about after a year of back and forth with the Santa Monica City Council and private developers. During that, Boehm notes, “the museum’s vision for the part of Bergamot Station that’s owned by the city was derailed, while its relations with the neighboring galleries soured.”

As Artforum.com readers may remember, the museum’s landlord, also a gallery owner, raised rent in part as a protest against the expansion plan envisioned by the city for the museum.

173,000 more acres for SM Mountains National Recreation Area?

The National Park Service is recommends adding 173,000 acres of land around Los Angeles to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in order to protect the vast web of wilderness and recreation areas in the midst of millions of people.

The draft of a five-year study released Tuesday examined a complicated patchwork of private and public lands in and around the sprawling Los Angeles metropolitan area — one of the country’s most densely populated regions.

The various landscapes are currently isolated from each other. The study suggests adding them to the Santa Monica region would create wilderness corridors for wildlife and more recreation opportunities near urban areas.

The study also says it’s not feasible to create a new national park.

The study will now undergo public review.

SM Conservancy Hosts Third Street Neighborhood Tour

The Santa Monica Conservancy will host a docent-guided walking tour of historic structures in the Third Street Neighborhood Historic District in Santa Monica from 1 – 5 pm on Sunday, May 3.

Within just a few blocks, tour participants will visit the interiors of four structures: a restored 1912 Craftsman home with intact interiors, an 1875 church that is now a landmarked residence, The Church in Ocean Park with magnificent stained glass, and a 1906 late Victorian home combining restoration and renovation. Additionally, during the walk, participants will view the Landmark Hostetter House (1893), an early 1920s bungalow court, and newer buildings constructed after the district was designated in 1990.

The Third Street Neighborhood Historic District was initiated by residents who wanted to retain the architecture and character of this unique neighborhood. It is the first of only two historic districts so far in Santa Monica, and was designated to protect a high concentration of historic structures exemplifying the development of Ocean Park from the 1880s to the 1930s.

Check in for the tour will take place at 2621 Second Street. Advance tickets may be purchased on the Conservancy’s website SMConservancy.org. Tickets for the public are $40; $30 for Conservancy members and accompanied children under 12 years of age are free. An additional charge of $5 will be added to tickets bought on the day of the event.