Events

LA River X is focused on collecting, amplifying and protecting River Stories. One of our love languages is creating and participating in events in the LA River watershed. 

Long Beach Exhibition and Community Activation with RiverPark Coalition
Expo Arts Center, April 28 2024

Riverpark Coalition hosted an action-packed, free, family-focused event that included kids activities, equestrian activities, documentary movie screenings and interactive booths from various community organizations, including...LARiver X! We were there with some fresh-off-the-presses large-scale vinyl prints of images from the LA River X collection, button making, and live drawing from the one and only Don Terlinden.

Community Activation: Reseda Rising
Reseda Park, March 17 2024

LA River X had a fabulous time tabling and exhibiting at Reseda Park last month, part of a CicLAvia, Council District 3, LADOT, and Council District 4 event that celebrated the opening of safer street infrastructure for cyclists. Big thanks to all our amazing volunteers who made the event such a fun success, to Councilmember Blumenfield's office for inviting us, and to CicLAvia for being such incredible collaborators and organizers!

More about this event, with photos. 

Night of Ideas
House of Cocotte, 29 February, 2024

An initiative of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Night of Ideas is a global celebration crafted by French embassies and consulates worldwide. This year's Los Angeles event was called Outside the Lines: Reinventing the City. A perennially timely topic! LA River X was honored to be invited by the Consulate of France in Los Angeles to be part of a panel moderated by the iconic Patt Morrison, joining fellow panelists Céline Minard and Jenna Didier.

Exhibition: State of the Watershed 2023 
The Autry, Museum of the American West, September 19 2023

LA River X was invited by the Council for Watershed Health to exhibit twenty-one LA River X large-scale images with several hundred delegates to the State of the Watershed event, which happens once every five years. 

More about this event, with photos. 

Exhibition and Tabling: Friends of the LA River RiverFest 2023 
LA State Historic Park, July 23 2023

LA River X partnered with FoLAR and TIL Events to exhibit thirteen LA River X large-scale images and a wall of smaller prints with more than  1,000 audience members at RiverFest at LA State Historic Park in 2023.  LA River X guest host alums were on hand to share information about LA River X - including sharing information about how to become a guest host.

More about this event, with photos. 

Event: A Tale of Printmaking, Storytelling, Creativity and a Concrete River
The Claremont Colleges Library Founders Room, April 19 2023

In partnership with The Claremont Colleges Library, LA River X was proud to present esteemed printmaker Daniel Gonzalez and best-selling author Tim DeRoche in conversation with professor of literature and director of the Harvey Mudd College Makerspace Jeff Groves.

Their 2018 book collaboration The Ballad of Huck & Miguel - a reworking of the classic Huck Finn tale written by DeRoche and illustrated by Gonzalez with intricate linocut prints - reimagines both the original work and the Los Angeles River, in invigorating and thought-provoking ways.

This free event was part of The People’s Archive, a collaboration between LA River X, Pomona College and The Claremont Colleges Library, with generous support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

Event: Exhibition Opening Reception

The Claremont Colleges Library Founders Room and Special Collections Reading Room, March 29 2023

The Claremont Colleges Library and LA River X launched their collaborative exhibition with an opening reception featuring Indigenous culture bearer Tina Calderon (Gabrielino Tongva/Chumash/Yoeme),  photographer Fred Kaplan, fine artist John Kosta, and public historian Tilly Hinton in conversation with Pomona College's  Char Miller - about image making and the Los Angeles River. 

Guests enjoyed refreshments, viewed the accompanying exhibition in the North Lobby Gallery, and perused selected Los Angeles River archival materials in the Special Collections Reading Room.

This free event was part of The People’s Archive, a collaboration between LA River X, Pomona College and The Claremont Colleges Library, with generous support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. 


More about this event, with photos.

Exhibition and Artmaking at Frogtown Artwalk 2022

Happier Camper, Frogtown Artwalk, September 24 2022 with encore openings on September 30 and October 2 2022

LA River X created a hub that celebrated the LA River, with large-scale prints from Tracy Stone, Su Jen Buchheim, Safi Alia Shabaik, Craig Collins, Anthea Raymond, Avital Oehler, Dwayne Grant, Jim Kisiel, Joe Petricca, Laura Vena, T. Chick McClure, Kyle Gerner, and Trinity Zhang along with an incredible illuminated papercut artwork by Amanda Leigh Smith, aka Spatium Natura and LA Is Not A Desert as well as live-drawing by Don Terlinden. Also sound and video work from Ecojustice Radio, Helen Kim, River Delights, JP Orchestra, Projected Visions, and Laura Vena and artmaking stations for kids and adults to tell their own LA River stories.

Virtual event: An Insider's Guide to Photographing the LA River

Online panel discussion, April 17 2022

LA River X alums Sarah G. Grant, Ph.D., Avital Oehler, and Peter Bennett talked with LA River X founder and curator Tilly Hinton about emotional, intellectual, and practical aspects of photographing the Los Angeles River. 

This event was generously supported by California Humanities, a nonprofit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Event: LA River X gift giving and blessing 

Lewis MacAdams Riverfront Park, 27 February 2022

LA River X Guest Host Alums met with Tina and Joe Calderon at the river to recweive gifts of locally grown herbal teas blended by Tina, with packaging drawn by native artist Jess Gudiel. With so many LA River X connections having been entirely virtual because of the pandemic, this was a welcomed opportunity for people to meet safely in person.

Virtual Event: LA River X Guest Host Forum

Online gathering, 23 February 2022

The first ever LA River X Guest Host Alumni Forum, gathered LA River X Guest Host Alums together online for a program of sharing and learning together. The event began with a blessing from Tina Orduno Calderon,  a Culture Bearer of Gabrielino Tongva, Chumash and Yoeme decent, followed by a reading from Laura Vena, a video from Las Fotos Project, and a photo presentation by Jim Kisiel.

Virtual event: Las Fotos Project and the FLOW project

Online conversation, Instagram Live, August 12 2021

LA River X alum Celeste Umana and Las Fotos Project teaching artist Leah Hubbard gave a behind-the-scenes of the FLOW project, a photographic exploration of the Los Angeles River that took a group of young photographers from Los Angeles all the way to United Nations HQ in New York.

Virtual Event: River Talks with Fred Kaplan

Online conversation, Instagram Live, November 15 2020

LA River X alum Fred Kaplan talked with LA River X founder and curator Tilly Hinton about his lifelong relationship with the Los Angeles River, his appreciation of its beauty, and his extensive work in documenting the river in still photography and film.

Virtual Event: Look at the LA River, What Do You See? 

Online panel discussion moderated by Patt Morrison as part of Frogtown Artwalk, October 17 2020

Tilly Hinton, Peter Bennett, Margaret Gallagher, and T. Chick McClure leapt into conversation with the wonderful Patt Morrison (LA Times, Spectrum News) to talk about the importance of collecting and sharing LA River stories.


Event: Tilly Hinton  Talks about the LA River's Emotional History
Los Angeles Breakfast Club, Griffith Park, August 14 2019

As guest speaker at the 94 years old Los Angeles institution that KCET has crowned the "strangest club in Los Angeles," the Los Angeles Breakfast Club, LA River X founder Tilly Hinton presented 'Know your place', a photographic and historical adventure that debunked the idea of the LA River being little more than a concrete drainage channel reflecting nature's demise in urban landscapes. Her presentation was a contemporary emotional history of the river, and a reflection on why nature matters and how paying attention to it positively impacts both our lives and our cities.

Reach out to LA River X Founder/Curator Tilly Hinton if you'd like to attend, host, collaborate, or support upcoming events


email: tilly@goodisbetter.net

cell: 323-536-7998