Music in the Garden

Wed., 1-3 p.m.

Enjoy the sounds of traditional Chinese music Wednesdays from 1-3 p.m. in the Chinese Garden. A different solo musician will perform each week, playing unamplified melodies on classical instruments including the dizi, sheng, pipa, erhu, and zheng. Let the music transport you to another time and place as you stroll through one of the most magical landscapes in Southern California.

Curator Tour: A Strange and Fearful Interest: Death, Mourning, and Memory in the American Civil War

TOUR FILLED

Wed., Dec. 5

 4:30–5:30 p.m.

Curator Jennifer Watts gives a private tour of the exhibition “A Strange and Fearful Interest: Death, Mourning, and Memory in the American Civil War.” Members: $15. Non-Members: $20. Registration: 626-405-2128.

Painting With Nan Rae

Nov. 21 & Dec. 19

(Wednesdays) 11 a.m.–3:30 p.m.

Artist Nan Rae, author of The Ch’i of the Brush, continues her popular watercolor classes inspired by the art of Chinese brush painting. Each session: $50. Registration: 818-842-6489.

Vance-Swallow

Lesley Vance & Ricky Swallow

Nov. 10, 2012-March 11, 2013

In a dramatic departure from tradition, The Huntington presents the first exhibition of contemporary paintings and sculpture to be displayed inside the Huntington Art Gallery, showcasing the work of Los Angeles–based artists Lesley Vance and Ricky Swallow.

Strange and Fearful

A Strange and Fearful Interest: Death, Mourning, and Memory in the American Civil War

Oct. 13, 2012–Jan. 14, 2013

A major exhibition of more than 200 original photographs related to the Civil War that explores how images explained, reflected, and shaped a national fixation on death and mourning.

Holiday Music in the Gallery

Dec. 5 (Wednesday)

2–3 p.m.

Dressed in elaborate period costumes, the a cappella group Vox Feminae will perform medieval and Renaissance works in an informal concert in the grand hallway of the Huntington Art Gallery. The program will include Gregorian chant, rarely heard medieval carols, Renaissance motets, and traditional carols from these periods. General admission. Huntington Art Gallery

Lecture - Religious Nonconformity and the Quality of Mercy: The Merchant of Venice in English Reformation Context

Dec. 5 (Wednesday)

7:30 p.m.   Free

Ethan Shagan, professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley, explores the bitter Elizabethan debate over whether the penalties of the law ought to be mitigated for conscientious religious dissenters, suggesting that The Merchant of Venice can usefully be read as an intervention in that debate.  Free; no reservations required. Friends’ Hall.

Alpine Skeletons

Alpine Skeletons: Marsden Hartley Silverpoint Drawings

Oct. 20, 2012–Jan. 7, 2013

In 21 rarely exhibited silverpoint drawings from The Huntington's collections, American artist Marsden Hartley rendered the immense Bavarian Alps with delicate lines, transforming them into wispy, airy abstractions he called “skeletons."

Maritime

Britain and the Sea: Maritime Drawings and Watercolors from The Huntington’s Art Collections

This focused exhibition features fifteen rarely seen drawings and watercolors by marine artists such as John Thomas Serres, Charles Bentley, and Samuel Owen, depicting important battles and dramatic, romantic views of wind-tossed ships revealing a nation passing from the threat of war to command a prosperous peace.

Just Cause

A Just Cause: Voices of the American Civil War

Sept. 22, 2012–Jan. 7, 2013

Drawn entirely from The Huntington’s collections of manuscripts and printed materials, this exhibition examines the ways Northerners and Southerners viewed the rationale for the Civil War, which made it, in the words of one war veteran, “a battle of ideas interrupted by artillery.”