Best Things to Do in SoCal and LA This Month: September 2026
Where art, poetry, and protest collide
The Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery presents Susan Silton: Diving into the Wreck, the first major survey devoted to the work of the Los Angeles-based artist. Bringing together more than 150 works spanning multi-media, photography, video, audio, graphic design, and text, the exhibition traces Silton’s influential place within West Coast conceptual, feminist, and queer art and design. Silton also invites five poets to create new works displayed on hand-painted billboards among the park’s pine trees.
4800 Hollywood Blvd
A date with death
Fullerton Museum presents Final Rites: Death, Mourning, and Beyond, a new exhibit exploring how humans have confronted death throughout history. From the hidden dangers of the natural world to the elaborate traditions of Victorian mourning, the exhibition blends science, history, and folklore before venturing into the supernatural world of séances and spirits. Both eerie and enlightening, the exhibit explores our fascination with mortality and the age-old question of what awaits us after the final breath.
301 N Pomona Ave
The art of bearing witness
GYOPO and Amy Kahng present Flesh Witness at REDCAT, a new exhibit featuring 11 contemporary artists whose work examines the lasting impact of militarism across Asia and the Pacific. Focusing on the Korean Peninsula, Okinawa, the Philippines, Hawai‘i, and Samoa, the group exhibition explores how military power and occupation leave their marks on landscapes, bodies, and archives. Spanning work from the 1970s to the present, Flesh Witness moves across video, sculpture, photography, mixed media, and installation to connect histories of imperial intervention with conditions that continue to shape communities today.
631 W 2. Street
The world's biggest photograph
UCR ARTS presents The Great Picture: Making and Showing the Largest Print Photograph. Twenty years after The Great Picture set a Guinness World Record, UCR ARTS goes behind the scenes with photographers Jacques Garnier and Clayton Spada who share the challenges of creating the massive image while curators Dennis Keeley and Tyler Stallings join the conversation to reveal how to put a photograph of this scale on public display.
3824 Main Street
The sound behind the vision
The California African American Museum presents The Sound of Gordon Parks, an exploration of the lesser-known side of the celebrated photographer and filmmaker. Revealing a prolific composer whose music was another extension of his creative vision, the immersive exhibition combines music, video, and rarely seen archival materials to surround visitors with the sounds that shaped Parks’s artistic universe.
600 State Dr
The art of the sell
Marciano Art Foundation presents Pierre Leguillon: Ads & Brands, the Brussels-based conceptual artist’s first exhibition in Los Angeles. Showcasing his practice for collecting, rearranging, and recontextualizing the visual language of advertising in everyday life, the exhibit is presented across the foundation’s Library and Window galleries. The two-part exhibition invites visitors to look differently at commercial imagery designed to persuade.
4357 Wilshire Blvd
Two visionaries, one California
Forest Lawn Museum presents California Visionaries: The Lives and Legacies of Walt Disney and Hubert Eaton, a new exhibit exploring the friendship between Walt Disney and Forest Lawn founder Hubert Eaton. Both Missouri-born dreamers who came west and created destinations that became part of Southern California culture, the exhibit features icons from beloved Disneyland attractions, original sheet music, newly discovered archival photographs, concept art and more.
To learn more about Walt Disney, watch this clip from Lost LA.
1712 South Glendale Avenue
Autumn is looking lit
The Huntington presents the Mid-Autumn Festival in its illuminated Chinese Garden. This family-friendly celebration brings one of the most important festivals in Chinese culture to Liu Fang Yuan where visitors can enjoy live music, decorate paper lanterns. and take part in a lantern send-off beneath the night sky.
1151 Oxford Rd
All you need is L.A.
The Autry presents Love Letters to L.A. - Autry’s Annual Block Party, a community celebration fit for all ages. Enjoy a lively carnival atmosphere with rides, hands-on activities, and a little Wild West fun to Griffith Park. Watch California Art Club artists paint en plein air and live sets from The Midnight Cowgirls, Las Chorizeras, The Volcanics and more, while car lovers can cruise a showcase of classic cars and hot rods. And don’t forget to head inside the museum to explore exhibitions including Life, Liberty, and Los Angeles and Promised Lands.
4700 Western Heritage Way
Back by popular demand
The Hilbert Museum of California Art presents Back by Popular Demand: 10th Anniversary Visitor Favorites from The Hilbert Collection, a greatest-hits exhibition inspired by thousands of comments, requests, and online reviews. The free exhibition reunites audience favorites by celebrated California artists including Millard Sheets, Milford Zornes, Henrietta Berk, Frank Romero, and more. From iconic California landscapes and vibrant city scenes to illustrations, portraits, and contemporary works, the exhibition celebrates the breadth of California art that has delighted visitors since the Hilbert first opened in 2016.
To learn more about Millard Sheets, watch this clip from Lost LA.
167 N Atchison St