Opening the afternoon family program, the Heart of LA Big Band sets the tone with an energetic and joyful jazz performance that celebrates collaboration across generations. Featuring musicians from teens to older adults, the ensemble brings new life to iconic jazz compositions that have shaped American music history. Through improvisation and collective expression, each performance becomes a unique, living conversation between past and present. Led by conductor Kevin Robb, the Big Band invites audiences of all ages to experience jazz as a vibrant, inclusive, and communal art form—one that embodies creativity, connection, and the joy of making music together.
Why are video games so fun—and why do they matter so much to kids? In this lively, family-friendly forum, children and parents come together to talk, listen, and learn from one another. Guided by game expert and PhD in cognitive psychology Celia Hodent, kids explain what they love about playing, while parents share their questions and concerns. Along the way, Celia highlights the benefits of gaming—creativity, learning, and teamwork—while opening the conversation about balance, limits, and healthy habits. A fun and thoughtful moment for families to press pause, talk it out, and play smarter—together.
Bob Baker Marionette Theater presents a joyful 25-minute performance in which a single performer brings a dozen handcrafted puppets to life in a fast-moving variety show filled with humor, music, and surprise. Bursting with color and imagination, this spirited performance invites audiences of all ages into a world of playful storytelling and timeless delight.
Discover the science of climate change through play. In this fast-paced, collaborative mini-quiz inspired by the Climate Fresk, participants work in small teams to explore cause-and-effect links within climate systems. Using illustrated cards based on IPCC research, they uncover key climate mechanisms, grasp the urgency of today’s transitions, and imagine pathways toward more sustainable futures. Short, dynamic, and welcoming, this hands-on experience invites participants ages 10+ to learn, discuss, and think creatively—together.
Step into Impulse: Playing With Reality, a groundbreaking mixed-reality experience by Barry G. Murphy and May Abdalla that blends the physical and virtual worlds in striking and playful ways. Voiced by Tilda Swinton, Impulse invites audiences to experience reality as perceived by people with ADHD, offering a powerful shift in perspective through immersive storytelling.
Praised by The Hollywood Reporter for its “truly innovative use of mixed reality,” Impulse has received international recognition, with selections and awards from Venice Immersive, SXSW, and nomination for the Emmy Awards, and more. Come experience this bold exploration of attention, perception, and play—where reality itself feels newly alive.
Join us for a fun, interactive 30-minute tour of the Wende Museum designed especially for kids and families. Led by Head of Education Michael Balot-Garza, this guided walk through the Campus Gallery and Garden invites young visitors to explore art, architecture, and stories from the Cold War in an engaging and accessible way. Along the way, children will encounter the museum’s current exhibitions, including Intersections, featuring architecture from Ghana and Hungary, and The Sextant, which reflects on life and culture in the Caribbean during the Cold War. (ages 8 and up) Extra fun: a treasure hunt awaits—collect clues throughout the museum and earn a prize at the end!
Step into the magic of early cinema with a lively program of French and American silent film classics. From Buster Keaton’s Cops, filmed on the streets of Los Angeles and packed with dazzling physical comedy, to the Lumière brothers’ groundbreaking first films, this screening celebrates the invention of the movies. Discover Georges Méliès’ playful visual tricks, Alice Guy-Blaché’s whimsical La Fée aux choux, Mabel Normand’s fast-paced Mabel’s Busy Day, and the acrobatic spectacle of Kiriki, acrobats japonais. A joyful journey through cinema’s beginnings—accompanied live on keyboard by Cliff Retallick.
Following the screening, audiences are invited to take part in a playful, interactive introduction to film analysis. Using film stills and short excerpts, this session introduces key cinematic concepts—such as framing, on- and off-screen space, and depth of field—through accessible questions and shared observation. Guided discussion and simple reflection tools encourage participants to make connections between films, notice differences and evolutions, and collectively reflect on how cinematic meaning is constructed.
Artist Louis-Paul Caron leads a hands-on digital art workshop that invites participants to draw, experiment, and collaborate with AI as a creative partner. Beginning with simple hand-drawn images, participants will feed their drawings into AI-assisted tools to generate new artworks, exploring how personal style can evolve through digital processes. The workshop demonstrates the expressive and communicative power of digital art in an interconnected world, highlighting how technology can extend—rather than replace—human creativity. Participants are encouraged to bring a smartphone, if possible, to take part fully in the process.
Join the EPFC Collective Family for a hands-on workshop exploring art, cinema, and dreams. Participants of all ages are invited to discover the beauty and magic of 16mm film and animation, experimenting with analog techniques to create an original work to be shared in community. No prior experience is needed—just curiosity and imagination. Come make beautiful films together.
Conceived and created in Los Angeles, this original musical work by Victor Le Masne traces a powerful artistic lineage between France and the United States through the city of Detroit. Founded by a French explorer and later transformed into a global center of musical innovation, Detroit embodies a continuous dialogue across cultures, histories, and genres—from Motown and jazz to techno and French Touch.
Scored for string quartet and synthesizers, the piece weaves acoustic and electronic textures into a contemporary soundscape that reflects Detroit’s industrial past, cultural resilience, and lasting influence on global music. Premiering at Night of Ideas Los Angeles on April 4, 2026—as the United States marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence—the work celebrates Franco-American exchange through a form of expression that transcends borders, languages, and conventions.
Gathered Graces is a piece for three dancers that explores what remains. Through solos, duets, and a trio, the dancers glean fragments of ancestral gestures and traces, reflecting on how memories live in the body and how dignity emerges from what endures.
Dancers: Darrél Friidom Dunn, Zelia Zz Tan, Sage Sanchez
Choregrapher Julie Bour and dancers from The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance at the California Institute of the Arts present a series of original dance works created especially for Night of Ideas, performed on the garden stage at the Wende Museum.
In this talk, Refik Anadol explores how creativity can emerge at the intersection of humans and machines. Using data as artistic material—and neural networks as collaborators—he shares his process for transforming archives, environmental signals, and cultural memory into immersive, real-time experiences. Moving from studio experimentation to monumental public works, Anadol reveals how AI can help us see the invisible patterns shaping our world and invites audiences to consider new possibilities for perception, authorship, and imagination in the age of machine intelligence.
In a moment shaped by democratic uncertainty and renewed questions about freedom of expression, this panel brings Tonya Mosley, Annick Cojean, and moderator Alex Cohen together to reflect on journalism today. The conversation examines editorial independence under political pressure, economic disruption in newsrooms, and the erosion of public trust. It explores how journalists can continue to hold power accountable, represent marginalized and silenced voices, and ensure women remain central to public debate. Grounded in Enlightenment values of transparency, truth-seeking, and the public interest, the panel considers how innovation—new formats, collaborative investigations, and community-centered practices—can help rebuild trust and strengthen democratic engagement.
Join Dr. Aurélia Mouzet for a participatory theatre workshop in which audience members are invited to create and explore living images—expressive human tableaux that transform ideas, images, and emotions into dynamic, embodied compositions. Through movement, gesture, and storytelling, participants reveal personal and collective narratives, opening space for reflection, dialogue, and connection in the moment.
Drawing on interactive theatre’s practice of spect-acting, the workshop invites participants to move beyond observation to actively inhabit and shape the work themselves, deepening how we communicate, feel, and imagine together.
This workshop is made possible in part by the Centre d’Excellence of the Department of French & Italian at the University of Arizona.
In this engaging talk, game expert and Phd in cognitive psychology Celia Hodent explores how cognitive biases shape the way we play, decide, and interact—starting with video games and expanding to society at large. Through visuals and interactive moments, she invites the audience to experience common biases in action and understand how they influence perception, behavior, and decision-making. Drawing on her work in ethical game design, UX, and inclusion Hodent broadens the conversation to examine implicit bias in teams, technology, and social systems, offering practical insights into recognizing and mitigating bias in everyday contexts.
Join Dr. Joes Segal, Wende Museum Chief Curator, for a guided tour through three exhibitions that explore memory, architecture, and political imagination across the Cold War world. The tour begins with Enrique Martínez Celaya’s The Sextant, a poetic re-creation of a childhood home shaped by revolution and exile in Cuba. It continues with Intersections, tracing post-independence architecture in Ghana at the crossroads of decolonization, socialism, and global exchange. The tour concludes with Specters of the Red Woodstock, which reveals how international youth festivals were surveilled through newly declassified intelligence files, exposing the afterlives of utopian political gatherings.
This conversation explores how global sporting events—especially the Olympic Games—serve as powerful tools of diplomacy, cultural exchange, and international cooperation. Bringing together Adrien Frier, Consul General of France in Los Angeles, and representatives from the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the discussion examines how sport fosters dialogue between nations, advances shared values, and shapes global narratives. From Paris 2024 to Los Angeles 2028, the Olympics emerge as a unique platform where diplomacy, culture, and civic engagement converge.
In conversation with journalist Josie Huang, artist Enrique Martínez Celaya reflects on a practice shaped by slowness, ethical attention, and philosophical depth. Drawing from his current exhibition The Sextant at the Wende Museum—exploring memory, exile, and the meaning of home—Martínez Celaya discusses art as a space for thinking, doubt, and moral inquiry. Together, they explore how art can resist branding and spectacle in an accelerated world.
Justin Torres and Constance Debré reflect on contemporary literature and its relationship to ethics, power, and responsibility. Drawing on Blackouts and Debré’s Offenses, they discuss writing as a radical practice of refusal, reinvention, and morality, and how narrative forms engage questions of justice, structure, and voice.
Black holes were once purely theoretical predictions of Einstein’s theory of general relativity—but today they are among the most exciting and intensively studied subjects in astrophysics. In this talk, Dr. Joanna Piotrowska explores recent breakthroughs in black hole research, including how gravitational waves, horizon-scale imaging, and advanced simulations are reshaping what we know about these extraordinary objects. From how black holes merge and grow to the role of supermassive black holes in galaxy evolution, she reveals how new discoveries are transforming our understanding of the Universe. Join us for a journey into the gravitational depths, where science is illuminating the darkest regions of the cosmos and pushing the boundaries of space, time, and imagination.
Join Dr. Aurélia Mouzet for a participatory theatre workshop in which audience members are invited to create and explore living images—expressive human tableaux that transform ideas, images, and emotions into dynamic, embodied compositions. Through movement, gesture, and storytelling, participants reveal personal and collective narratives, opening space for reflection, dialogue, and connection in the moment.
Drawing on interactive theatre’s practice of spect-acting, the workshop invites participants to move beyond observation to actively inhabit and shape the work themselves, deepening how we communicate, feel, and imagine together.
This workshop is made possible in part by the Centre d’Excellence of the Department of French & Italian at the University of Arizona.
Gathered Graces is a piece for three dancers that explores what remains. Through solos, duets, and a trio, the dancers glean fragments of ancestral gestures and traces, reflecting on how memories live in the body and how dignity emerges from what endures.
Dancers: Darrél Friidom Dunn, Zelia Zz Tan, Sage Sanchez
Choregrapher Julie Bour and dancers from The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance at the California Institute of the Arts present a series of original dance works created especially for Night of Ideas, performed on the garden stage at the Wende Museum.