Friday Flights Celebrates the Ingenuity of the Getty Museum

Dyan James

For its third year, Friday Flights returns to the Getty Center bringing artistry inspired by the museum’s current exhibition. A varied group of Los Angeles-based artists will perform or display nearly every art genre inside the galleries and outside in the gardens. This year’s program boasts over 20 performances and art projects and will feature “wild Up,” an experimental classical ensemble, led by artistic director and conductor Christopher Rountree. Much like the theme of Friday Flights, “wild Up” spawns intrinsic, thought provoking events. Also featured will be Highland Park’s “Veggie Cloud,” a lecture series that includes three different programs based on the Getty’s main elements: tram, quarry and collections. 

A plethora of eccentric artists is due to present including Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. Against the backdrop of the setting sun, Smith is set to perform on the Museum Courtyard Main Stage. Enamored with the natural world, Smith incorporates nature into her vibrant sounds created on a rare modular synthesizer developed in the ‘60s. Also on the docket is artist Michael Parker who, along with Wesley Hicks, created a multitude of instruction-based scores performed live by over 30 musicians on handmade ceramic instruments. And composer and sound artist Chris Kallmyer will perform “Circles Circling” in the museum’s Central Garden. “Circles Circling” merges guitar and other live instruments with the sounds of 1,000 live crickets. Amid the architectural shapes in the museum’s courtyards will be a solo performance by Kiani del Valle, a Berlin-based Puerto Rican dancer and choreographer.

Even the Getty Center’s hillside people mover played a hand in this showcase. Lined up is documentary film “Manakamana,” a series of 11 snippets documenting rides on a cable car as it rises up a mountain in Nepal, highlighting the journey of pilgrims to worship at the Manakamana Temple.

Summer at the Getty is in the running for being one of the top hot spots in the city filling the museum on many Friday nights with music, dance, film, poetry and a cash bar to boot. That and more are planned for the ‘16 Friday Flights’ bill and are sure to please the palates of anyone with an appreciation for art.

Friday Flights will be at the Getty Center on various Fridays between June 10 and Aug. 26. No admission fee or reservations are required.