The Velaslavasay Panorama

03/18/2026

THE VOLCANO MANIFESTO: Films by Cauleen Smith
Friday, March 20, 2026 -
Velaslavasay Panorama
1122 W. 24th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007
Doors 7:00pm, Program starts 7:30 pm
Tickets: $15 general, $10 students/seniors, free for VPES & Filmforum members
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/panorama/2083251
In person: Cauleen Smith
**Los Angeles Première of The Deep West Assembly**
Velaslavasay Panorama and Los Angeles Filmforum screen five of artist Cauleen Smith's films from the past decade, including the Los Angeles première of her latest, The Deep West Assembly, the third in her Volcano Manifesto trilogy in which she mines a realm of imagistic possibilities on geology, vulcanology, cinema, and more. Other films included in the screening: My Caldera (2022), Mines to Caves (2023) Songs for Earth and Folk (2013) and Triangle Trade (2017).
“The Deep West Assembly” incorporates images from the remarkable “Panorama of the Monumental Grandeur” of the Mississippi Valley, a moving panorama made by John J. Egan in the 19th century and in the collection of the Saint Louis Art Museum, with its imagery manipulated by Cauleen Smith to add peoples underrepresented or forgotten — Indigenous and Black workers and populations of the Valley.








Images stills from Cauleen Smiths' works "Mines to Caves" & "The Deep West Assembly"

03/08/2026

JOIN V.P.E.S TODAY!


The Velaslavasay Panorama wants YOU to help ensure our existence.


https://store.panoramaonview.org/products/membership


Our museum and projects are heavily supported by individual donations. As costs rise heavily and other funding sources decline, now more than ever, membership in the Velaslavasay Panorama Enthusiast Society is what sustains us.


V.P.E.S. Benefits:

Advance notice of upcoming dates for The Man in the Tuskhut

Members-only invites throughout the year

Limited edition first-ever VPES magnet

New members at the $500+ level will receive special access to the Frontier Saloon


We need your help.


To stay open through 2026 we must raise $60,000 of new/ increased individual donations, grants and unforseen income.


Join V.P.E.S. today to ensure the thriving existence of Velaslavasay Panorama!

03/05/2026

http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/314148/60987e539f/1477539277/d770cfabf5/ City of La Legacy Business Program

02/18/2026

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Welcome Year of the Fire Horse!

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#2026

01/06/2026

The Garden & The Theater: Two Films by Zoe Beloff
Thursday, January 9th
6:00pm / Doors Open / 6:30pm / JOSEPHINE THE SINGER OR THE MOUSE PEOPLE / ~ garden reception ~ / 7:00pm / LIFE FORGOTTEN 
Tickets $18 General / $15 VPES
https://buytickets.at/panorama/1995157
Filmmaker Zoe Beloff in Person! West Coast debut of two new films!
JOSEPHINE THE SINGER and LIFE FORGOTTEN take us to a visionary time and place bathing in the warm light of a garden or fading to the monochromatic allure of a motion picture theatre. These two films bring the realness of art to life using luminaries of the past and present with crucial histories and underrecognized yet vital spaces like the New York community gardens of the Lower East Side. Kafka’s short stories and Frank Seiden’s real storefront cinema are rendered with a painterly lens that beautifully captures a cast of unique characters, including actors, hyperlocal non-actors, and legends like graphic drawer/urbanist Ben Katchor and yiddish accordion playing/music Ira Khonen Temple.
Cinematography by Eric Muzzy.
JOSEPHINE THE SINGER OR THE MOUSE PEOPLE by Zoe Beloff
The film is a work of remembrance. It asks but does not answer the question how does everyday art bring people together? One by one, the community that is the Mouse People, recite the text of Franz Kafka’s short story in quiet places on New York’s Lower East Side. 34 minutes. Digital projection. Principle Cast: Kate Valk, Ben Katchor, Maria Perez, Jay Dobkin, Joanie Fritz Zosike, Carol Freeman, Ilana Wallach, Trudi Cohen, Stella Noor Hamza, Eli Fliakos
LIFE FORGOTTEN by Zoe Beloff
Set in New York’s Lower East Side in the early years of the twentieth century, the film centers on a real storefront cinema, Frank Seiden’s Variety Theater. Here silent movies were anything but. Frank and his sons improvised dialog for the films and sang Yiddish ballads to an audience that didn't hesitate to join in or argue back. 50 minutes. Digital projection. Principle cast: Ariel Shafir, Kate Valk, Maria Perez, Spencer Quartin, Lexie Waddy, Jay Dobkin, Miranda Dobkin, Joanie Fritz Zosike, Amaya Montanez, Stella Noor Hamza, Leila Ibragim-Zade, Eli Fliakos, Johnny Anthony.

12/12/2025

The Gold Rush (1925)
By Charlie Chaplin
Saturdays, December 13th & 20th, 2025
Doors Open 6:00pm / Screening at 6:30pm
Tickets $20 General / $10 VPES
https://buytickets.at/panorama/1979078
Ticket includes chili & vittles!
From out of the snowdrift comes a Lone Prospector teetering on the edge of the Klondike region of the Yukon, amid the 1890s gold rush. He meets a beautiful woman in a bar and finds refuge from the cold inside an Arctic hut, not unlike The Nova Tuskhut, inhabited by a lone man, not unlike The Man in the Tuskhut.
Screening followed by a reception in the Velaslavasay Panorama's latest installation — Frontier Saloon — a Pre-Prohibition-Era boomtown "public house" on the border of the Far North and the Southwest.
The Gold Rush. 1925. USA. Directed by Charlie Chaplin. Starring Charlie Chaplin, Tom Murray, Georgia Hale and Mack Swain. Silent with Intertitles in English. Black and White. Digital Projection. 1 hour 35 minutes.
This screening takes place while other guests have their visit with The Man in the Tuskhut, a sold-out solitary encounter with cutting edge technology in the Velaslavasay Panorama’s famed exhibit, The Nova Tuskhut.




#1925

12/02/2025

WHITE OAKS CABIN, A 19th Century Homesteader’s Residence, Carrizozo Heritage Museum (Carrizozo, New Mexico)
NOVA TUSKHUT, The Only Arctic Trading Post in the Lower 48-States, Velaslavasay Panorama (Los Angeles, California)
In December, THE MAN IN THE TUSKHUT welcomes strangers for a 20-minute, solitary encounter with cutting edge technology in the The Nova Tuskhut.
LIMITED DECEMBER SLOTS AVAILABLE
Thu. 12/11, Fri. 12/12, Sat. 12/13, Sun. 12/14
https://buytickets.at/panorama/1891547
- - Advanced Reservations Required - -
During your visit you will enjoy a short documentary on the mysterious man in the hut and explore the Velaslavasay Panorama's exhibits, including: Shengjing Panorama, the Gardens of the Illustrious Pacific Rim and the VP's latest installation - Frontier Saloon, a Pre-Prohibition-Era boomtown “public house” symbolic of frontier towns of the imaginary Old West, Far North, Far South and Far East.
THE MAN IN THE TUSKHUT is collaboratively presented and created by the Velaslavasay Panorama, IRMA360 (Sara Velas/Ruby Carlson) and Incident (Jason Woliner/Eric Notarnicola).

12/02/2025

11/19/2025

Immersive Research Session: No. 3
Friday, November 21st, 2025
12 noon - 1pm (CMT)
505 12th Street, Carrizozo, New Mexico 88301
Velaslavasay Panorama, Immersive Research Media Associates and MoMAZoZo partner together to present the third iteration of the Immersive Research Sessions, to be held at the historic Lyric Theater (1914) in downtown Carrizozo, New Mexico. 
Complimentary Attendance - No Advance Registration Necessary.Popcorn will be served.

IRS No. 3 - Panelists

Dennis Bateman - Director, Exhibitions at the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburg (Retired)

Paula Wilson & Mike Lagg -  Artists, MoMAZoZo

IRS No. 3 - Hosts & Moderators

Ruby Carlson & Sara Velas - Velaslavasay Panorama & Immersive Media Research Associates
DENNIS BATEMAN
With a BA degree in film, and a 35+ year career in museum education and exhibition development, design, and production in the US and New Zealand, Dennis Bateman’s career first pre-dated and then (reluctantly) included a variety of reactive immersive environments, for a range of audiences, ages, and topics, and budgets ranging from $25 to $2.5M.  He will discuss types of immersive environments for museums - Scenic, Kinetic, Media/Digital. The Former Director of Exhibitions at the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Dennis Bateman is now retired and lives in Carrizozo, New Mexico where he helps share the Carrizozo Heritage Museum with the community.
PAULA WILSON & MIKE LAGG
"Paula Wilson and Mike Lagg each have thriving individual art practices as well as collaborative projects that include the Carrizozo Artist in Residency Program, an arts organization called MoMAZoZo, and the stewardship of three historic buildings in the heart of downtown Carrizozo. Their art practices complement each other; Paula is a printmaker and painter (among other things), and Mike is a woodworker and sculptor." - Angie Rizzo, Southwest Contemporary
Portrait of Paula Wilson and Mike Lagg by Angie Rizzo. Photo of the Lyric Theatre by Richard Bryant.
 
 
 
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10/21/2025

THE MAN IN THE TUSKHUT welcomes strangers for a 20-minute, solitary encounter with cutting edge technology in the Velaslavasay Panorama’s famed exhibit, The Nova Tuskhut.
LIMITED OCTOBER SLOTS AVAILABLE
Fri. 10/24, Sat. 10/25, Sun. 10/26, Wed. 10/29, Thu. 10/30
https://buytickets.at/panorama/1891547
- - Advanced Reservations Required - -
During your visit you will enjoy a short documentary on the mysterious man in the hut and explore the Velaslavasay Panorama's exhibits, including: Shengjing Panorama, the Gardens of the Illustrious Pacific Rim and the VP's latest installation - Frontier Saloon, a Pre-Prohibition-Era boomtown “public house” symbolic of frontier towns of the imaginary Old West, Far North, Far South and Far East.

10/17/2025

URBAN HUMANITIES GLOBAL (UN)CONFERENCE - ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI

On Friday, October 17th 4:00pm - 6:00pm (CST) join Sara Velas, Sloane Sandler & Velaslavasay Panorama colleagues during the publicly-open "poster sessions" in Steinberg Hall at Washington University Sam Fox School of Art.

Registration and details available here:

https://airtable.com/appOzYhdYzGHxqh8m/pagMTRKPEooisEXrS/form