500 Years of Utopia: Exhibition Reception & Panel Discussions

For 500 years, utopia—a word coined by Sir Thomas More to describe the ideal city—has been used as popular shorthand for a perfect world. But what does it mean today in a megacity like Los Angeles, which has been the setting for utopian and dystopian thinking?

A new exhibition at Doheny Library explores the fine line between utopia and dystopia. Join us for the opening reception at 5:30 p.m., followed at 7:00 p.m. with a series of conversations around the theme of utopian thinking in L.A.

At 7:00 pm, Alex Ross, music critic for the New Yorker, explores the relationship between émigré composers in Southern California and utopian thought.

At 7:15 pm, Mia Lehrer, Christopher Hawthorne, Victor Jones, Jeff Watson, and Geoff Manaugh investigate how the utopian impulse relates to design in contemporary L.A.

At 8:15 pm, Claire Hoffman discusses her memoir Greetings from Utopia Park: Surviving a Transcendent Childhood.

Presented by the USC Libraries, USC Visions & Voices, and the Third Los Angeles Project at Occidental College.