Velaslavasay Panorama, Cinema and cyclorama museum in West Adams, Los Angeles, United States.
Velaslavasay Panorama is a cyclorama and cinema space in the West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles, housed inside a theater built in the 1920s for silent films. The building contains a full-circle painted panorama room where viewers stand at the center surrounded by a large painted scene, as well as a separate screening room for films and digital projections.
The Velaslavasay Panorama opened in 2000 on Hollywood Boulevard, but moved in 2004 after construction plans threatened the original location. It found a permanent home in the Union Theatre building in West Adams, which itself dates back to the 1920s.
The painted panoramas on display here belong to an art form that was once the most immersive way to experience a story or a distant place, long before moving images existed. Visitors today can stand inside a full-circle painted scene and then watch a film in the same building, experiencing two very different ways of telling a story side by side.
The venue is open Friday through Sunday, with film screenings happening at set times, so it is worth checking the schedule before you arrive. The garden at the back is freely accessible during opening hours and works well as a place to pause between the indoor exhibits.
The garden behind the building was created on top of what used to be an asphalt parking lot, and it now contains carnivorous plants among its beds. This living collection feels like an extension of the curated world inside, brought outdoors in a very different form.
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