When the gargantuan, specially built transporter hauling the 340-ton boulder pulled up to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art at 4:30 in the morning on March 10, 2012, it was greeted by a crowd of excited onlookers.
They were excited because the huge rock had made a much publicized journey from a quarry in Riverside to the Miracle Mile art institution, and rising before dawn — or staying awake all night — seemed like the right thing to do for many an art-loving Angeleno.
But those same Angelenos likely never supposed they'd rise again, before sunrise, to view artist Michael Heizer's epic artwork, as it is on view, every day, for free, all year long.
Rise people shall, though, when the museum hosts "Local: Break," an event tailor-made for its LACMA Local Program, which launched in early 2016.
The program, as its name suggests, gives area art lovers fresh and offbeat experiences, beyond the tried-and-true museum stroll-through.
And sunrise at "Levitated Mass" definitely qualifies as offbeat, as you'll watch the sun come up over the famous boulder, like a scene, one imagines, from a highly cinematic movie.
In fact, "2001: A Space Odyssey" may spring to many a movie-obsessed mind here.
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The Saturday, June 25 gathering isn't just about the admiring of the sunrise, though; a yoga class, led by Modo Yoga instructor Carolina Phipps, is part of the admission price of twenty bucks for members, $60 for non-members. (As is a LACMA Local Mat.)
That $60 admission also nets you a LACMA Local membership, in addition to the sunrise soiree. Good stuff. (How it all shakes out: $20 for the event, $40 for membership.)
Start time? Five in the a.m. in the morningtime.
If yoga isn't your thing, you are welcome to simply soak up the sun show and then stay for coffee, tea, and hobnobbing, which will all go down at the up-with-the-birds hour of 5:45.
Parking, by the by, is free.
It's a wake-up party that's got the spirit of the summer solstice, only a few days late. A bonus? That there's a local angle to LACMA's event, too, giving Angelenos a place to meet new neighbors, even if those neighbors live across town.
What could be more bonding than communing with a giant, mystic boulder at sunrise? It'll be on the quiet side, but we imagine that a few attendees may have "Thus Spake Zarathustra" playing in their head, "2001"-style.
To find out info on joining LACMA Local, to procure a ticket, and to sign a waiver, click.
