Fun things to do while staying Safer at Home

FOR THOSE NEEDING ACTIVITIES or ENTERTAINMENT CHECK THESE:

NASA is putting together resources and activities with hands on material for all ages: https://science.nasa.gov/get-involved/nasaathome

Vroman's Bookstore has activities for kids (and adults, too) online. Click here for info. Buy a gift card to support Vroman's while the store is closed. 

1. Cooking classes: New School of Cooking has modified its class schedule and is offering shorter duration classes for adults and kids. Find the info here: https://www.newschoolofcookingla.com/

2. Virtual Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens and more: flinging our virtual gates open wide and inviting you in to EXPLORE, LEARN, LISTEN, and feed your desire for knowledge and beauty. Check out our just-launched podcast series, The Collections, entertain the kids with paper doll Fanny Gray, or just chill with a relaxing visual holiday in the gardens! For kids, they have a downloadable paper doll: Print now 
and a background to color: Victorian interior

You can also enjoy the Huntington'sBotanical Collections Tours - Take a virtual stroll through more than 120 acres of The Huntington's renowned gardens and The Huntington Digital Library - The Huntington Library houses more than nine million items - a fraction of which is available in digitized form, including manuscripts, maps, photos, printed books, prints & ephemera, architectural projects, the Civil War and more.

3. Saybrook University’s Mind and Body Medicine department’s daily mindfulness meditation. Now that we all have to “Stay Safe at

Shop Pasadena
Home”, it can be lonesome and challenging. A daily meditation can help keep our mind  centered and healthy in such trying times.  The event starts at 9:15 am PDT for 15 minutes. Go to: https://www.gotomeet.me/LuannFortune/mindfulness-meditation-moments OR dial in using your phone: 1 866 899 4679 | Access Code: 195-157-605

4. The public is invited to explore the USC Pacific Asia Museum collections online at https://pacificasiamuseum.usc.edu/directory/collection/.

5. The Pasadena Convention and Visitors Bureau has a photography guide to Pasadena. Want to get a nice walk (while maintaining social distancing) and maybe take some pretty photos. Click here for the guide.

6. Get take out and enjoy a meal at home you don't have to prepare for yourself while keeping Pasadena businesses alive. For Pasadena Chamber member restaurants click here. 

7. Things to do from non-Pasadena Chamber members (for adults and kids):

Comedy Night (Saturdays at 5pm PST) and (Fridays at 5pm pst) Drag Queen Bingo (both via Zoom) from Art House Productions (where my daughter works. Hey! Gotta support the kids, too.) It's fun! Click here for info.

Watch LA-centric movies
: Click here for a list compiled by our friends at Discover Los Angeles. (They don't highlight Pasadena (of course): https://www.discoverlosangeles.com/things-to-do/100-hours-of-amazing-los-angeles. (Ok, this could involve Netflix or Amazon Prime, but... )

The Aquarium of the Pacific is offering the Aquarium Online Academy to bring educational programming as well as fun and entertaining activities to the community. Find both on-demand videos and activities for all ages and a schedule of interactive live programs with educators, from grade-specific virtual classroom sessions to engaging segments with the Pacific Pals puppets.

Masters of the American West is the signature exhibition of the Autry Museum, featuring 64 of the top contemporary artists working in the Western genre. Virtual visitors can browse this year's artists and their work,


Experience The Broad from home by browsing the museum's incredible online collection and viewing the various YouTube playlists, including The Un-Private Collection, Summer Happenings, Gallery Talks, and Special Exhibitions.

Opened during the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, the California African American Museum (CAAM) houses a permanent collection of 4,000 objects of art, historical artifacts and memorabilia. CAAM invites you to #MuseumFromHome on their social channels (@caaminla) and via their YouTube channel.

The California Science Center has launched Stuck at Home Science, a family-friendly space to fight boredom and continue your child's science learning with easy to follow activities. 

A hidden gem on the UCLA campus, the Fowler Museum houses collections that feature hundreds of thousands of cultural objects from Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and the Americas - past and present. Browse the Fowler's Digital Collection of more than 2,000 objects by geographic region, culture, date/era and medium.

“How to Explore Art While the Getty Galleries Are Closed” compiles art books, online exhibitions, podcasts, and videos from the vast collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Grtty Online exhibitionsMichelangelo: Mind of the Master; Assyria: Palace Art of Ancient Iraq; Käthe Kollwitz: Prints, Process, Politics

Getty Art History resources: Online Art History lessons such as Bauhaus: Building the New Artist; Virtual libraries with 350+ Getty Publications and a massive archive of 100,000+ digitized art books dating back to the Renaissance; Getty Art Podcasts: Art & Ideas & Recording Artists

The GRAMMY Museum is debuting never-before-released digital Public Programs from their archive. The Museum’s Public Programs digital series features intimate sit-down interviews with artists and musicians in its 200-seat Clive Davis Theater. A new program will be released every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 11:00 am PST.
Explore the Hammer Mmuseum's Watch + Listen online archive, featuring hundreds of videos from past public programs, from post-screening Q&As to lectures such as:

  • A lecture series on Vincent van Gogh's career with art historian John Walsh
  • Q&As with the actors and filmmakers behind 2019's top films, from Parasite to The Farewell
  • Readings with renowned writers like Jamaica Kincaid and US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo
  • Conversations with artists and Hammer curators

Built 1919-21, the iconic Hollyhock House was Frank Lloyd Wright's first architectural project in Los Angeles. In July 2019, the Hollyhock House became the first LA landmark designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. To increase access, the Virtual Tour allows users to experience all of Wright's masterpiece, including first and second-floor spaces that are mobility inaccessible. Selected objects throughout the house have pop-up descriptions with optional audio, indicated on screen by a + sign.

Founded in 1984 as the Santa Monica Museum of Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA) moved to a 12,700 square-foot facility in Downtown LA that opened in 2017 and features 7,500 square feet of exhibition space. ICA LA invites virtual visitors to explore their #MuseumfromHome online exhibitions - Ree Morton: The Plant That Heals May Also Poison and Ann Greene Kelly.

The largest art museum in the western United States, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) houses a collection that includes nearly 130,000 objects dating from antiquity to the present.

LACMA has revamped their homepage with a nearly endless archive of digital media: Watch - Short films, exhibition walkthroughs, and documentaries; Listen - Curated audio soundtracks, compositions, and live recordings; Learn - Online courses, lectures, and teaching resources; Read - Articles, interviews, and exhibition catalogues; Browse - Artworks from our permanent collection

L.A. Theatre Works (LATW) was founded in 1974 to give voice to underrepresented groups, bring attention to new plays and playwrights, and produce plays that address critical historical, cultural and social issues. Today, LATW is the nation's leading producer of audio theatre. Whether it's classics or the latest hits from New York and London, the LATW audio library has something for everyone. New shows launch every week - stream online or listen to the National Broadcast Series on KPFK in L.A. and on affiliates in more than 50 U.S. markets.

Named “America’s finest chamber orchestra” by Public Radio International, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) is a preeminent interpreter of historical masterworks as well as a champion of contemporary composers. LACO AT HOME allows people everywhere to engage and listen to spellbinding performances — no subscription, sign-up, or payment required. All broadcasts can be livestreamed at laco.org/broadcasts and streamed on-demand at laco.org/on-demand. The streaming lineup launches on March 28-29 with music by Stravinsky and Prokofiev alongside works by Ravel and a West Coast premiere from composer and artist-in-residence Missy Mazzoli. 

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) is launching Virtual MOCA on Monday, March 23. This new daily series will be available on the museum's website and across its social channels. Each day will have a different theme.

From the Edible Garden to exciting special events, the official Natural History Museum of LA YouTube channel is filled with bingeable content for you to enjoy the museum from afar

For car buffs, The Vault at the Petersen Automotive Museum is a bucket list experience - an extraordinary collection of 250 iconic and rare cars from around the world exhibited in a renovated 60,000 square-foot underground space. During the extended hiatus, The Vault is offering Livestreaming Tours led by Collection Manager, Dana Williamson. The 60-minute live tour will take viewers closer than any tour has before, including under the hood and even inside some of the vehicles!

More than 1,200 leading museums around the world have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to create the Google Arts & Culture website and app.