Cultural Weekend

Although the pursuit—or serendipitous acquisition—of cultural richness is a part of every week at Thacher, one mid-year weekend is annually devoted expressly to heading off campus for a variety of concerts, plays, art exhibitions, and performances.

 

This winter's offerings lured lots of students to places they’d never been and sights they’d never seen.

 

•The Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Farmers’ Market

•The Getty Museum

•The Norton Simon Museum

•Julieta Venegas

•33 Variations at the Ahmanson

•Spring Awakening at the Pantages Theatre

•The Jungle Book (State Street Ballet) at the Lobero Theatre

•Traces at the Montalbán Theatre in Hollywood (“an acrobatic extravaganza of amazing feats including diving through rings, doing flips on poles, standing one handed on a tower of chairs—all set to music”)

•Stories by Heart (with John Lithgow) at the Mark Taper Forum

•Jazz: Bill Frisell and John Scofield in Santa Barbara, and jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval at the Ventura Music Festival

•Grupo Corpo Brazilian Dance at the Granada Theatre

•Gospel Brunch House of Blues in Anaheim

•A cooking class in Italian cuisine at the Ojai Culinary Academy

•Santa Monica and points south: a biking adventure from through Venice, Marina Del Rey, and Redondo Beach

•The Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels (in which hang tapestries created by Ojai artist John Nava, the largest collection of its kind in a Catholic place of worship in the U.S.)

•Cavalia (the brainchild of Cirque du Soleil co-founder, Normand Latourelle, “a poetic tribute to horses: a multimedia extravaganza features 86 two- and four-legged artists, including the beautiful horses, riders, acrobats, aerialists, dancers and live musicians)

•Santa Barbara Zoo

•Wolf Mountain Sanctuary (“a non-profit, educational organization dedicated to the preservation, protection and proper management of wolves in the wild and in captivity”)

•Piedra Blanca and environs, “In Search of the Chumash”—rock paintings in the Sespe River Wilderness

•The Art of Catching Your Dinner: Steaks and Roping, a Cowboy Tradition

 

Beyond all that red meat, among the foods sampled: Lebanese, Chinese dim sum and dinner, Japanese, tapas, and classic Southern and Cajun brunch offerings.

 

Alternatively, several faculty invited students into their homes for other treats: a Chinese film (The Battle of Red Cliffs, about one of the most famous and decisvie battles in Chinese dynastic history, a fight taht determined the formation of the Three Kingdoms of China) and dinner, two French classics (L'arnacoeu and Amélie), and a Pixar pleaser (Ratatouille) plus cheese (of course) and crackers.

 

Thanks to all the faculty who led trips or hosted students: Rene Duykaerts, Pete Fagan, Kristen Finch, Jennifer Finley, Heather Grant, Greg Haggard, Katherine Halsey, Kara Hooper, Jake Jacobsen, Elizabeth Mahoney, Julie & Bo Manson, Mike McGowan, Sabina McMahon, Maria Morales-Kent, William Okin, Bill Omansiek, Cecilia Ortiz, Molly Perry, Peter Robinson, Peter Sawyer, Eric Shi, Dana Vancisin, Gallia Vickery, and Chris Vyhnal.