Culture over couch: one young adult's Saturday morning spent looking at art instead of her TV screen

Abstract art from MOCA's permanent collection.

The MOCA in downtown L.A. provides an alternative to the usual weekend activities.



Get up, eat some breakfast, check Facebook, mess around online, read the paper. These are typical ways young people spend a Saturday morning. If some homework creeps in the mix, we're doing good.

Cultural considerations are seldom present in weekend plans of young adults unless required by a class or implemented by family. However, a trip to a museum can be more than an experience where you wait until it's over.

Last Saturday, I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Los Angeles with a friend and saw the museum's permanent collection and the current exhibit featuring Arshile Gorky.

With my student I.D. I bought a discounted ticket at $5 and entered the museum with no expectations.

Mirrors along a hallway in MOCA.

The museum's permanent collection offers a first-time visitor an impressive selection of contemporary art arranged chronologically from abstract impressionism to the most modern "light and space" art.

The first room greets you with blocks of color on canvas, as I expected to find in a contemporary art museum. Continuing through the different rooms, the art merges from the expected to the intriguing. Creative mixed media in the form of thought-provoking collages with interactive, 3-D elements keep your eyes and mind busy.


I spent several minutes examining vintage photographs decoupaged to a structure that encased a stuffed rooster and a pair of shellacked dress shoes in separate shelves.

A patron views the
Robert Frank photography exhibit.

High-profile pieces such as abstracts by Jackson Pollock and photographs by Diane Arbus and Robert Frank are included in the permanent collection, and it was gratifying to see pieces I recognized from popular culture and art history courses.

All-in-all, I felt the trip was well worth my time, and a worthwhile substitution for the usually mundane Saturday-morning activities.

Maybe next weekend I'll explore LACMA, or something else that Los Angeles culture offers.