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# Take a stroll, buy some art and Park
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/take-a-stroll-buy-some-art-and-park/
- Published: 2007-04-26T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T23:56:05.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Downtown, #archive-import

*By Hamp Simmons The Art Palette*

HAPPY THURSDAY! GOT PLANS THIS WEEKEND? I’M HOPING NOT BECAUSE I’VE GOT A whole list of things for you to do. We’ve got elucidating environmental and educational events and exhibitions; freakily fun family affairs; sensational sales of sophisticated scenes by scintillating artists; and a particularly pleasant park-palooza. This is not the weekend to sleep in. Put on your track shoes and get going!

Santa Monica Museum of Art and Santa Monica High School make a great team, as anyone can see from the artworks produced by students as part of the Museum’s Park Studio Program. This annual spring break contemporary art program is offered to teens residing or attending school in the Pico/Cloverfield neighborhood and funded, in part, by the City of Santa Monica Latino Community Arts Grant Program, along with many other great agencies.

At tonight’s opening, there will be special spoken word performances by Sekou (tha misfit) and Rafael Lopez, along with music mixed by DJ Loomer.

If scouring the pier searching for clues with the family isn’t your scene, try taking a stroll through classic architecture and learning about Santa Monica’s glorious past. Check out the new Saturday morning walking tours of Downtown Santa Monica, presented by the Santa Monica Conservancy. In less than two hours and over the course of six blocks, you will traverse more than 130 years of Santa Monica history. Did you know our sophisticated urban beach community was once a Wild West town with a real saloon? You’ll be amazed at what you can discover on this tour!

Watson Adventures is back in town this weekend with a super duper family scavenger hunt on the Santa Monica Pier. This hunt will uncover secrets of the pier you never imagined. I’ve been on one of these adventures myself, and I promise you, they’re great fun. For this one, all adults must be accompanied by a child... and vice versa.

Once you’ve finished searching for clues and learned all there is to know about the pier or downtown, join the fun at the Celebration For the Arts 2007\. Student performances, local artists and teen celebrities will all be there to support the Education Foundation of Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. Enjoy demonstrations of mural paintings and crafts; shop among the wares of local artisans; learn more about Santa Monica’s many community-focused non-profit arts organizations; and enjoy food prepared by the local restaurants that are making Santa Monica a world-class destination.

Special discounts for Pacific Park are also offered as part of the festival!

The Los Angeles area’s only sustainable “green” garden tour could only take place here in the greenest city in Southern California. The tour’s proceeds support the Virginia

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 26, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/042607.pdf?ref=smdp.com)