Velaslavasay Panorama

Velaslavasay Panorama is an exhibition hall, theatre, and garden complex in Los Angeles, California, devoted to panorama art, historical forms of visual entertainment, cinema, performance, and educational programming. Artist Sara Velas established the institution in 2000 at the Tswuun-Tswuun Rotunda on Hollywood Boulevard. Its name combines Velas's surname with her mother's maiden name, Asay. The institution's central subject is the panorama: a large-scale visual format that surrounds or unfolds before viewers to create an expansive sense of place. Popular in Europe and North America during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, panoramas occupied a position between painting, theatre, spectacle, and travel entertainment. Velaslavasay Panorama presents the form not merely as a primitive predecessor to cinema, but as part of a continuing history of changing media and public entertainment. Its programs connect painted panoramas with motion pictures, live narration, lectures, music, gardens, and other forms of communal viewing. The first major work shown at the Hollywood site was The Panorama of the Valley of the Smokes. Painted by Velas, it imagined the Los Angeles region as it might have appeared in 1792, the year associated with the debut of Robert Barker's first panorama. The work was developed using historical research and images gathered through the Los Angeles Public Library. It was described as the first newly created panorama exhibited in the United States since the nineteenth century. In 2004, the Hollywood building faced demolition as a result of planned development. The institution moved to the historic Union Theatre in the West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Union Theatre dates from 1910 and had previously served as a motion-picture venue, a theatrical and acting school, a labor-union meeting hall, and a location for an independent film society. The relocation gave Velaslavasay Panorama a setting that combines exhibition space with a historic theatre and garden environment. At the West Adams location, the institution presented Effulgence of the North, a panorama depicting Arctic exploration-era scenes, from July 2007 through September 2017. It also developed the Grand Moving Mirror of California, a long moving panorama based on an adapted nineteenth-century performance text concerning a journey from the eastern United States through South America to California during the Gold Rush era. The project used a newly painted canvas rather than attempting to reconstruct the lost original work. Later projects expanded the institution's geographical and historical scope. Nova Tuskhut, introduced in 2014, recreated the interior of an Arctic trading post and was accompanied by programming on Inuit representation in early Hollywood and silent-era cinema. In collaboration with Parkeology, Velaslavasay Panorama created A Border Peepshow, presenting four views of the San Diego–Tijuana border across different historical periods. From 2012 to 2019, it also worked with artists from China's Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts on Shengjing Panorama, a China–United States collaborative panorama showing Shenyang between 1910 and 1930. The finished work went on display in 2019. Beyond its permanent and temporary visual works, Velaslavasay Panorama has hosted film screenings and festivals, book and poetry readings, illustrated talks, lectures, musical performances, and other public events. Its positioning is distinctive: rather than operating as a conventional cinema or art museum, it uses a historic theatre and garden to preserve and reinterpret panorama culture while placing it in dialogue with film, historical research, cross-cultural exchange, and participatory viewing.

Velaslavasay Panorama was founded by artist Sara Velas in 2000 at the Tswuun-Tswuun Rotunda on Hollywood Boulevard. The institution took its name from Velas's surname and her mother's maiden name, Asay. Its founding project was The Panorama of the Valley of the Smokes, a painted 360-degree view of the Los Angeles region as it might have appeared in 1792. Velas developed the concept through historical and photographic research, including materials from the Los Angeles Public Library. The work was notable as a newly created American panorama in a medium largely associated with nineteenth-century spectacle. Panoramas historically combined painting, architecture, theatrical presentation, and movement to give audiences an immersive view. They were used for landscape views, historical subjects, travel narratives, and popular education. Velaslavasay Panorama treats this history as part of a broader evolution of visual media rather than simply as a stage before cinema. Its programming places panoramic display alongside film, lectures, readings, music, and public events. The original Hollywood venue occupied a 1968 Googie-style building that had previously housed the Chu Chu Chinese Restaurant. In 2004, the building was threatened with demolition because of planned development, forcing the institution to relocate. It moved to the Union Theatre in the historic West Adams neighborhood. Built in 1910, the theatre had been used for motion pictures, theatre, an acting school, a labor-union hall, and community film programming. The building's earlier history reinforced the institution's interest in the relationship between historic venues and changing entertainment forms. The relocated venue opened its next major installation, Effulgence of the North, in July 2007. The Arctic exploration-themed panorama remained on view until September 2017. The institution also developed the Grand Moving Mirror of California. The project began in 2005 after the institution obtained a copy of a text that had accompanied a lost 1855 moving panorama attributed to Dr. L. E. Emerson. The surviving text described travel from the eastern United States through South America and onward to California during the Gold Rush era. Velaslavasay adapted the document by removing material without adding new words, then commissioned a new visual work rather than claiming to reproduce the lost original. Artist Guan Rong spent nearly two years designing and painting a canvas approximately 270 feet long. A smaller traveling version was later shown internationally, including in Berlin and Seoul as part of Clemens Krümmel's Talking Picture Blues exhibition. In 2014, the venue added Nova Tuskhut, an installation modeled on the interior of an Arctic trading post and incorporating a small dioramic exterior view. Its opening included an exhibition concerning Inuit appearances in Hollywood films from the silent period through the 1940s, material associated with early Inuit film performer Nancy Columbia, a lecture by Arctic historians Kenn Harper and Russell Potter, and a polar-film series titled Mush: To The Movies. The institution collaborated with Parkeology in 2017 on A Border Peepshow. The project used four peepshows to represent the San Diego–Tijuana border in 1887, 1927, 1967, and 2017, emphasizing the area's cultural and ecological continuity despite political division. Another major international project was Shengjing Panorama, created between 2012 and 2019 in collaboration with artists Li Wu, Yan Yang, and Zhou Fuxian of China's Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts. The panorama depicts Shenyang, historically known as Shengjing, during the period from 1910 to 1930, highlighting technological change, international exchange, architecture, religion, and social diversity. The large work required multiple studio locations, including a final workspace at Tiexiyu School, where a handover ceremony took place in May 2017. It was exhibited in 2019. Across its history, Velaslavasay Panorama has remained a hybrid institution rather than a conventional movie theatre. Its activities include panorama exhibitions, moving-image programs, illustrated lectures, book and poetry readings, musical events, and film festivals. The venue's historic theatre, exhibition hall, and garden support an approach that combines preservation, artistic production, historical inquiry, and alternative forms of public entertainment.

• 2019

  Shengjing Panorama exhibited

  [1]Velaslavasay Panoramaen.wikipedia.org

  The collaborative panorama depicting Shenyang from 1910 to 1930 went on display.

• 2017

  A Border Peepshow presented

  [1]Velaslavasay Panoramaen.wikipedia.org

  A collaboration with Parkeology explored the San Diego–Tijuana border through four historical scenes.

• 2017

  Shengjing Panorama handover ceremony

  [1]Velaslavasay Panoramaen.wikipedia.org

  Collaborating artists and the institution marked the transfer of the China–United States panorama at Tiexiyu School.

• 2014

  Nova Tuskhut introduced

  [1]Velaslavasay Panoramaen.wikipedia.org

  An Arctic trading-post installation opened alongside film and lecture programming.

• 2010

  Grand Moving Mirror of California debuts

  [1]Velaslavasay Panoramaen.wikipedia.org

  The newly created, approximately 270-foot moving panorama was presented to the public.

• 2007

  Effulgence of the North opens

  [1]Velaslavasay Panoramaen.wikipedia.org

  The Arctic-themed panorama debuted at the West Adams location.

• 2005

  Grand Moving Mirror project begins

  [1]Velaslavasay Panoramaen.wikipedia.org

  The institution began developing a new moving panorama from an archival nineteenth-century performance text.

• 2004

  Relocation to West Adams

  [1]Velaslavasay Panoramaen.wikipedia.org

  The institution left its original Hollywood venue after the building was threatened with demolition and moved to the historic Union Theatre.

• 2000

  Institution established in Hollywood

  [1]Velaslavasay Panoramaen.wikipedia.org

  Sara Velas established Velaslavasay Panorama at the Tswuun-Tswuun Rotunda on Hollywood Boulevard and unveiled The Panorama of the Valley of the Smokes.

A specialist cultural venue that revives panorama traditions through large-scale visual installations, historical interpretation, cinema, performance, and public programming.

• Painted panorama · 2000

  The Panorama of the Valley of the Smokes

  A 360-degree painted panorama created by Sara Velas for the original Hollywood venue. It imagines the Los Angeles area in 1792, drawing on historical research and photographs. The work was presented as the first newly created panorama exhibited in the United States since the nineteenth century.

• Painted panorama · 2007

  Effulgence of the North

  A large-scale panorama focused on Arctic scenes associated with nineteenth-century exploration. It was the principal panorama installation at the Union Theatre from its opening in 2007 until September 2017.

• Moving panorama · 2010

  Grand Moving Mirror of California

  A newly painted moving panorama based on an adapted text from an 1855 touring panorama. Its narrative follows a route from the eastern United States through South America to California during the Gold Rush era. The main canvas is approximately 270 feet long, with a smaller version made for travel.

• Immersive historical installation · 2014

  Nova Tuskhut

  A recreation of an Arctic trading-post interior containing a small dioramic view. The installation was introduced with material about Inuit performers and representation in early Hollywood cinema, as well as lectures and polar-film programming.

• Public art and historical exhibition · 2017

  A Border Peepshow

  A collaboration with Parkeology comprising four peepshows depicting the San Diego–Tijuana border in 1887, 1927, 1967, and 2017. The project examines political boundaries alongside the region's longer cultural and ecological connections.

• Collaborative painted panorama · 2019

  Shengjing Panorama

  A China–United States panorama depicting Shenyang, or Shengjing, between 1910 and 1930. Created over several years by Li Wu, Yan Yang, and Zhou Fuxian of the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts in collaboration with Velaslavasay Panorama, it portrays urban change, global exchange, architecture, religion, and cultural diversity.

• 2004

  Relocation from Hollywood to West AdamsStrategy

  Background

  The original Hollywood Boulevard building was threatened with demolition as part of planned development.

  Action taken

  Velaslavasay Panorama moved its operations and exhibitions to the historic Union Theatre in West Adams.

  Aftermath

  The Union Theatre became the institution's continuing exhibition, theatre, and garden venue and hosted subsequent panorama projects.

  Source

1. 1Velaslavasay Panoramaen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Velaslavasay Panorama official websitepanoramaonview.org