Panoramic Vistas, Visionary Dreams

A talk by Sara Velas at the Philoshophical Research Society in Los Feliz Panoramic Vistas, Visionary Dreams At the Philosophical Research Society in Los Feliz 3910 Los Feliz Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90027 Sara Velas, Founder and Director of the Velaslavasay Panorama, presents an overview of the panoramic form through the lens of utopian thought, visionary living and frontier explorations. This illustrated lecture includes information on the only 360-degree panorama painting of Los Angeles - Sara Velas' Panorama of the Valley of the Smokes (2000), which depicts the LA basin in an era of pastoral and agricultural roots, indigenous possibility, and the foreshadowing of westward migrations. Looking at the heritage-mode of panoramas, few are non-battle paintings. Exceptions include works like Early Bourgeois Revolution in Germany (1987) by Werner Tübke in Bad Frankenhausen, an allegorical and surreal depiction of socialism, and the monumental Clear World of the Blissful (1929) by Elisàr von Kupffer. The talk also previews the Velaslavasay Panorama’s new installation opening November 12th, 2026, Florence-In-Ruin: An Excavation, featuring a moving panorama constructed from archives related to art history, the Port of Long Beach, and the Alameda Corridor. Please email [email protected] or phone 323-663-2167 with any questions. Sara Velas is an artist, curator, graphic designer and native Los Angeleno whose work bridges 19th-century spectacle and 21st-century immersive inquiry. She is the Founder and Director of the Velaslavasay Panorama, an institution dedicated to the panorama phenomenon that she established in the year 2000 on Hollywood Boulevard to explore tropes of cinema and visual storytelling in collaboration with a wide range of artists, designers, movie makers, cultural practitioners and more. An Honorary Member of the International Panorama Council, Velas led the creation of the world’s only collaborative USA>IRMA360), a consulting project on immersive art and entertainment. Born in Panorama City, California, Sara Velas studied Painting in St. Louis at the tail end of the 20th century, receiving her BFA from Washington University in 1999. Velas is an avid architectural preservationist and co-wrote the nomination which issued the first instance of cultural historic protection to a trailer park—a testament to her belief that forgotten spaces, like forgotten technologies deserve a second life.