Students of Spanish and Portuguese at USC Dornsife benefit from the rich visual and musical culture of Los Angeles and neighboring cities. An important destination for new artists, musicians and filmmakers, the region also has several world-class museums, a major orchestra, two opera companies, and numerous film festivals held throughout the year.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the largest encyclopedic museum west of the
Mississippi, houses numerous works from Latin America and Spain in its departments of Art of the Ancient Americas, European Painting, Latin American Art and Modern Art. The Spanish old masters are well represented at the J. Paul Getty Museum, on the Westside of Los Angeles, and the Norton Simon Museum, in Pasadena, which also contains works by Picasso, Rivera and other modern artists. With two locations in downtown Los Angeles and one in West Hollywood, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) features works by Tàpies and U.S. Latino artists, while the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA), in Long Beach, is the only museum in the nation exclusively devoted to modern and contemporary art from Latin America.
Located on our own campus, the USC Fisher Museum is the oldest museum devoted solely to the arts in Los Angeles. Its holdings span five centuries, and its contemporary collections focus on California and international art, with an emphasis on Mexico and Spain.
The top musical institutions in the city have important connections to Spain and Latin America.
The Los Angeles Philharmonic, described by Alex Ross of The New Yorker as “the most creative, and, therefore, the best, orchestra in America,” is led by Gustavo Dudamel, the exciting young maestro from Venezuela. Just across the street from the L.A. Phil’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Los Angeles Opera has Plácido Domingo, the Spanish tenor, as its general director, while south of Los Angeles, the daring Long Beach Opera often stages works with Latin American connections.
Presented by Spain’s Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales (ICAA), the American Cinematheque and the Entidad de Gestión de los Productores Audiovisuales (EGEDA), the Recent Spanish Cinema Series is the annual showcase of new films from Spain. More information on the next edition coming soon.
