Folk Art Museum

To visit the Fenyes Mansion is to step back into turn-of-the-century Southern California. Eva S. Fenyes, an arts patron and artist, commis sioned architect Robert Farquhar to build the Beaux-Arts-style estate on Orange Grove Boulevard in 1905. (The architect later became known for his 1927-28 design of Beverly Hills High School and his contributions to the Pentagon in Washington.

Through a series of landmark exhibitions in the 1960s and 1970s, Eudorah Moore blurred the boundaries between art, design and craft - and helped introduce the concept of California design to the wider world. In choosing to present fine wood furniture and pottery alongside such surprising pieces as a bus stop bench or jewelry that functioned as body sculpture, she championed a message of mixed-media inclusiveness. As she cast her eye outdoors, Moore helped cement the notion of design as lifestyle by highlighting the region's fascination with recreation by displaying such items as a canoe, skateboards or a portable cabana.

Though it is called Global Bazaar @ CAFAM, the Craft and Folk Art Museum's sale next Friday and April 4 boasts plenty of local talent. Vendors of handmade, fair-trade goods include Pasadena and Westwood ceramists, Marina del Rey glassblower Liz Marx and Venice recycling artist Aaron Kramer, who weaves coffee stirrers into lighting globes. Kramer will also display "Boats," shown here, a sculptural wall installation composed of 33 easy-to-mount wooden vessels forged from thrift-shop salad bowls.

When the Los Angeles County Museum of Art under director Michael Govan proposed taking over L.A.'s Museum of Contemporary Art in 2008, the art world rallied against it before MOCA turned it down. But reaction has been different to this week's news that LACMA has made another offer, this one at the behest of some MOCA leaders. One reason for the zeitgeist shift is the popularity of Govan, who has overseen an ambitious expansion of the LACMA campus and its art collection since his arrival in 2006.

Maryna Hrushetska, who has served as the director of the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles for nearly six years, will be stepping down from her role effective Dec. 30, the museum said Monday. Hrushetska joined the museum in March 2005 in the midst of a difficult time for the institution, which had gone through five directors in eight years. During her tenure, she helped to stabilize the organization, overseeing 37 exhibitions and helping increase attendance by 67%, with a 38% increase in revenue, the museum said.

High and low culture, the sacred and the profane, the esoteric and the pop collide in the works of Einar and Jamex de la Torre, brothers who have collaborated closely as artists for 20 years. Although they started working in glass, shaping figurative work that often borrowed themes from their Mexican roots, they have moved toward larger sculpture and installation work, several of which anchor their retrospective, "Borderlandia: Cultural Topography by Einar and Jamex de la Torre" at the Craft and Folk Art Museum.

Two shows at the Craft and Folk Art Museum (through Sept. 11) demonstrate how artists can work their magic to make unconventional materials impressive and expressive. Walking into Jennifer Angus' installation "All Creatures Great and Small" is a bit startling, as one realizes the wee components of her work. Insects. About 5,000 of them, pinned to the wall in patterns and posing in display cases. They're in glorious jewel-like colors and obsidian sheens, in the shapes of leaves and in shapes not seen in nature.

"Containers of Ideas," an exhibition of three-dimensional art made by Los Angeles high school and middle school students, is on view at the Craft and Folk Art Museum through Sunday. The artworks, which represent the students and various aspects of their communities, were created as part of the annual FACES (Folk Art as Community Expressions) program sponsored by Neutrogena Corp. The museum, at 5814 Wilshire Blvd., is open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Information: (323) 937-4230.

After less than a year in the job, Peter Tokofsky, executive director of the Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art Museum, has been forced to resign, prompting an exodus of board members. "It was a controversial decision, but the majority ... voted to make the change," said Frank Wyle, chairman of the board. Describing Tokofsky's departure as a result of "differences we couldn't resolve," museum treasurer Wally Marks III said. "It wasn't a perfect match."

As the founder and former director of the Craft and Folk Art Museum, I feel it is important to clarify the reasons for our announced closure (Dec. 6). The museum originally vacated its premises in the late 1980s, rather than undertake required earthquake-related upgrades that would have totaled several hundred thousand dollars. We had plans to build a high-rise on that spot and were offered a temporary home at the Wilshire May Co. Unfortunately, the real estate market plummeted during the late 1980s.

Over the past 25 years, super collector Gary Cypres has amassed so much sports memorabilia that he opened an eponymous, 30,000-square-foot museum in downtown Los Angeles. The breadth of his collection - from 18th century tennis rackets to 21st century sports-movie posters - sets Cypres apart from one-sport or one-era specialists. The national pastime is Cypres' passion, and the Bronx-born businessman has curated a new exhibit of hardball holdings titled "Baseball: The All-American Game" at the Craft and Folk Art Museum.

Remember perestroika? It's back — in an exhibition of political poster art. "Deconstructing Perestroika: Soviet Ideology and its Discontents," at the Craft and Folk Art Museum through May 6, offers 24 original versions of posters neatly lined up on walls. But the hard-hitting images are unruly blasts from the Soviet past. Mostly made from 1987 to 1991, they reflect the period when Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring)

In his native Argentina, Máximo González studied the usual prerequisites for an art degree — drawing and painting — but he didn't find his true métier until he delved into other people's garbage. It began in 1991 when he found pieces of wood from a house about to be torn down, He made wall sculptures from them. Then in 1992 he found a tin box full of old coins on the street. He made an installation with them. "I found money in the garbage," the artist says, his mischievous blue eyes dancing behind oversized glasses.

Museum Day 2011 on Sept. 24 means free admission to places such as Storm King Art Center north of New York City and Frank Lloyd Wright's home near Chicago. It's a good excuse to plan a weekend getaway and drop in on a museum you've never visited. The deal: Smithsonian magazine Museum Day 2011 is offered at selected museums around the country. Check out the list at the website and make plans, whether you stay close to home or are on the road. Fill out the ticket request form online to score the freebie.

18th Street Arts Center 1639 18th St., Santa Monica, CA 90404 (310) 453-3711, 18thstreet.org A + D Architecture and Design Museum 6032 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036 (323) 932-9393, http://www.aplusd.org American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA) 399 North Garey Ave., Pomona, CA 91767 (909) 865-3146, http://www.amoca.org Armory Center for the Arts 145 North Raymond Ave., Pasadena, CA 91103 (626)

Two shows at the Craft and Folk Art Museum (through Sept. 11) demonstrate how artists can work their magic to make unconventional materials impressive and expressive. Walking into Jennifer Angus' installation "All Creatures Great and Small" is a bit startling, as one realizes the wee components of her work. Insects. About 5,000 of them, pinned to the wall in patterns and posing in display cases. They're in glorious jewel-like colors and obsidian sheens, in the shapes of leaves and in shapes not seen in nature.

For Robert M. Place, Tarot scholar and illustrator, the main function of the Tarot is not fortunetelling -- instead, a reading can yield self-knowledge valuable for dealing with the future. "When we're using the cards," he says, "we're allowing our unconscious to communicate with us -- perhaps you would say a higher self." The cards also represent an artistic tradition, and the show he's curated for the Craft and Folk Art Museum, "The Fool's Journey: The History and Symbolism of the Tarot" (opening today)

The Museum of American Folk Art in New York earlier this month changed its name to the American Folk Art Museum and moved into new quarters about 10 blocks away from its old home--and four times as large. The $22-million, eight-level building at 45 W. 53rd St. will let the museum display more of its roughly 4,000 objects, culled from traditional folk art of the 18th and 19th centuries through works by self-taught contemporary artists.

Celebrate Nowruz ? Persian New Year ? with the whole family. The kids can keep busy with hands-on art projects while the adults browse the Nowruz Bazaar for Persian jewelry, hand-painted silk pillows, glassware and books. Craft and Folk Art Museum, 5814 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. Free. Noon-5 p.m. Sat. (323) 937-4230, Ext. 22. http://www.womenfound.org .

Maryna Hrushetska, who has served as the director of the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles for nearly six years, will be stepping down from her role effective Dec. 30, the museum said Monday. Hrushetska joined the museum in March 2005 in the midst of a difficult time for the institution, which had gone through five directors in eight years. During her tenure, she helped to stabilize the organization, overseeing 37 exhibitions and helping increase attendance by 67%, with a 38% increase in revenue, the museum said.