Trump continues attacks on the arts: L.A. arts and culture this week

Paintings, sculptures, murals and installations by Millard Sheets, Ed Ruscha, Ray Boynton, Catherine Opie, Dorr Bothwell, John O’Shea, Henrietta Shore, M. Evelyn McCormick, James Turrell, William T. Wiley and Edward Weston are just a few of the artworks owned by the federal government and housed in public buildings across California.

The future of these pieces, along with more than 26,000 other public artworks, was thrown into question earlier this month as the Trump administration moved to fire workers with the General Services Administration tasked with preserving and maintaining the art. Last week, the Washington Post reported that at least five regional offices were closed, and that more than half of the division’s nearly 36 staff members were put on leave.

The GSA’s fine-art collection is, according to its website, “one of the nation’s oldest and largest public art collections,” and its holdings include work from the 1850s to the present day. The government’s Art in Architecture Program continues commissioning new artworks by allotting a portion of estimated construction costs for a federal building for that purpose.

“These artworks were commissioned to adorn and enhance civic architecture, and they were funded by the American people. Therefore, these artworks belong to the nation, and are held in public trust for current and future generations,” the website explains.

The GSA has not yet responded to an interview request by The Times about the artwork it is responsible for in California, but the organization catalogs its collection in a searchable online database that features a picture of each piece, along with the entity that commissioned the work and where it resides. Many of the pieces are displayed in federal buildings and courthouses, including the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building and Courthouse in downtown L.A., and the U.S. Custom House and Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building, both in San Francisco.

The collection has also loaned more than 23,000 paintings, prints and sculptures to museums across the country including Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and San Diego Museum of Art. The bulk of these artworks were created during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Depression-era New Deal, which fostered four public art programs as part of its grand-scale, job-creating Works Progress Administration, and resulted in some unquestionably great public art.

Today, the Trump administration, aided by Elon Musk’s dodgy DOGE operation, is embarking on an anti-New Deal by slashing thousands of federal jobs and shrinking the government to the size of something Grover Norquist could drown in a bathtub. Let’s call it the Raw Deal.

Here’s hoping the states can pick up where the federal government has left off when it comes to taking care of these precious artworks. Without designated curators, or funding for preservation, art has a way of disappearing.

I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, heading to my nearest government building to look at some public statues. Ashley Lee and I are here with your weekly arts news rundown.

Best bets: On our radar this week

Mariana Da Silva and Andres Velez in “Ybor City” at the Actors’ Gang Theater.

(Bob Turton)

‘Ybor City’
After a hit workshop run last year, this fully bilingual play is back at the Actors’ Gang. Written and directed by Mariana Da Silva, the play is set in a Florida town that was a major hub for hand-rolled cigars at the turn of the century, and centers on one factory’s rising tensions and revolutionary beginnings. The production runs through April 5; pay-what-you-can tickets are available at the door of Thursday performances. The Actors’ Gang Theater, 9070 Venice Blvd., Culver City. theactorsgang.com

Ballet Hispánico
The famed New York-based company, known for mixing classical ballet technique with Spanish dance forms, has been traveling the country to perform “CARMEN.maquia,” Gustavo Ramírez Sansano’s Picasso-inspired take on Bizet’s classic opera that fuses contemporary styles with nods to the Spanish paso doble and flamenco. TOArts is offering complimentary tickets to the performance, the tour’s last stop, to anyone affected by the Eaton and Palisades fires. Thursday, 7:30 p.m. Bank of America Performing Arts Center, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks. bapacthousandoaks.com

Tomer Peretz
The Israeli American artist Tomer Peretz debuts eight works presented as an artistic response to the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and created in collaboration with Israeli trauma survivors. Titled “ART WILL S8T YOU FREE,” the exhibition includes an expansive canvas painted on site, plus photographs and videos of front-line emergency response workers by guest artist Kalia Littman. It marks the launch of the Museum of Tolerance’s inaugural artist-in-residence program and is on view through May 30. Museum of Tolerance, Simon Wiesenthal Plaza, 9786 W. Pico Blvd. museumoftolerance.com

— Ashley Lee

The week ahead: A curated calendar

“Roosevelt Hotel,” an 18 x 24 watercolor by Dorothy Rice, circa 1979.

(Courtesy of the artists’ estate )

TUESDAY
But Did You Die Multihyphenate Jerah Milligan spins a personal tale that turns the audience into active participants.
7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. The Elysian Theater, 1944 Riverside Drive. elysiantheater.com

L.A. Louver Celebrates 50 Years: 1975 to Now The venerable gallery marks a half-century with an exhibition featuring work by John Cage, Nick Cave, Joe Goode, George Herms, Lili Lakich, Richard Long and many others.
10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, through June 14. L.A. Louver, 45 N. Venice Blvd., Venice. lalouver.com

Dorothy Rice The watercolors, oil paintings and silkscreens in the solo exhibit “To Los Angeles With Love” convey the artist’s deep connection to the city.
Noon-5 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, through May 1. 7811 Gallery, 7811 Melrose Ave. 7811gallery.com

Strong Words Hosted and curated by Marlene Nichols, the evening celebrates women and storytelling with performances by Sandra Tsing Loh, Katie Reeves Northlich, Leilani Smith and Cheri Lynne VandenHeuvel.
7:30 p.m. The Ebell of Los Angeles, 741 S. Lucerne Blvd. ebellofla.org

This Place Reminds Me of You A free open house offers an intimate view of the world of dance.
7 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday. Bodytraffic Studios, 3435 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 200, Koreatown. bodytraffic.app.neoncrm.com

WEDNESDAY
Gas Food Lodging A 35-mm screening of Allison Anders’ 1992 indie includes a conversation with the director and author Marya E. Gates, plus a signing of Gates’ new book, “Cinema Her Way.”
7:30 p.m. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. academymuseum.org

One Jewish Boy A North Londoner falls for a mixed-race woman from South London in Stephen Laughton’s play.
8 p.m. pay-what-you-will previews, Wednesday-Friday; opening night, 8 p.m. Saturday, continues through April 28. Echo Theater Company, 3269 Casitas Ave., Atwater Village. echotheatercompany.com

THURSDAY
Can I Be Frank? Morgan Bassichis’ solo performance spotlights the work of pioneering queer comedian, musician and performance artist Frank Maya.
8:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday. 631 W. 2nd St., downtown L.A. redcat.org

Mumford & Sons The Tour Before the Tour marks the folk-rock band’s first headlining shows since 2019, just ahead of next week’s release of new album “Rushmere.”
7:30 p.m. Hollywood Palladium, 6215 Sunset Blvd. thehollywoodpalladium.com

Noir City: Hollywood A nitrate screening of 1948’s “Road House,” starring Ida Lupino and Richard Widmark, launches this year’s series, which also includes 35-mm screenings of “The Last Seduction” (1994), with a Q&A with director John Dahl, and “The Grifters” (1990), with a Q&A with star Annette Bening.
7 p.m. Series runs through March 30. Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd. americancinematheque.com

Culture news and the SoCal scene

Paul Mescal and Anjana Vasan in “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

(Julieta Cervantes)

If you find yourself in Brooklyn, you should not miss Almeida Theatre Company’s production of Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” starring “Gladiator II‘s” Paul Mescal as Stanley Kowalski and Patsy Ferran as Blanche. In a recent review, Times theater critic Charles McNulty calls the show, directed by Rebecca Frecknall, “the best revival of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ of my lifetime.”

Should the Getty and the Getty Villa move to less fire-prone spots in the city? Times art critic Christopher Knight ponders the question in a new column, noting that formerly “unprecedented” fire events have now become more common and that after January’s deadly Palisades and Eaton conflagrations, the phrase “fire hurricane” has entered the lexicon. Maybe the priceless collection would be much safer downtown in the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, which will soon be vacated? Knight doesn’t know for sure, but he believes the time has come to think about it.

Denzel Washington, left, and Jake Gyllenhaal attend the Broadway production of “Othello’s” media day in February at New York’s Tavern on the Green.

(C.J. Rivera / Invision / Associated Press)

A box-office record has been set on Broadway: A revival of Shakespeare’s “Othello” starring Denzel Washington in the title role and Jake Gyllenhall as Iago, grossed $2,818,297 for eight shows in its second week of preview performances. This beat out “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” which earned $2,718,488 for the holiday week ending Dec. 31, 2023. “Othello” also sold out every seat in in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, according to Playbill.

Playwright a.k. payne won the 2025 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for their play, “Furlough’s Paradise,” which is scheduled to run at the Geffen Playhouse from April 16 to May 18; it is about two cousins who grapple with big life questions and haunting family drama when they reunite in their hometown for the funeral of a dear relative. The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize is an international award presented annually since 1978, recognizing “women+ who have written works of outstanding quality for the English-speaking theatre,” according to its website.

The Fountain Theatre announced the rest of its 2025 season under the stewardship of new artistic director Raymond O. Caldwell. The three offerings include the Los Angeles premiere of Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour’s “White Rabbit, Red Rabbit;” the West Coast premiere of “Fly Me to the Sun,” by the two-time Drama Desk-nominated playwright Brian Quijada; and the L.A. premiere of “Poetry for the People: The June Jordan Experience,” which was devised by Caldwell and composer Adrienne Torf, and directed by Caldwell.

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

Behold the rise of the “Red Chip” art collector.