In the month to be thankful, remember the bounty of arts and culture you enjoy in Greater Palm Springs. Our staff’s monthly recommendations are particularly tasty in November, with the opening of three season-long art exhibitions, a pair of outstanding locally produced plays, and a variety of film, heritage, and pride festivals. Mark your calendar and enjoy some of these great events.
Above: Andrea Zittel’s Prototype For Billboard at A-Z West: Body in Space with Object #3 (2011), greets visitors to Lines in the Sand, a season-long exhibition at Palm Springs Art Museum. Photograph courtesy Palm Springs Art Museum.
ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
WALKER GUEST HOUSE: Tour a replica of the Paul Rudolph’s Walker Guest House, an icon of Sarasota modernism, in downtown Palm Springs through March 2020. Info
ART OF REUSE: Scraps: Fashion, Textiles, and Creative Reuse continues through Jan. 14, 2019 at the Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture and Design Center in downtown Palm Springs. The show presents three designers’ alternative approaches to the high human and environmental costs of textile industry waste. Info
FESTIVALS & HERITAGE
PRIDE FEST: Greater Palm Springs Pride celebrates the LGBTQ community Nov. 1-4 in downtown Palm Springs. It includes a free, two-day festival, which unfolds on Palm Canyon Drive between Amado and Baristo roads, as well as a dramatic parade and many more events. Info
STREET: The fourth annual free festival celebrating street art, music, food, and fashion unfolds Nov. 2, from 5 to 11 p.m., on the third-level of the parking structure at Westfield Palm Desert. Info
KEWET: The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians presents Kewet Native American Learning Day and Market on Nov 3 at Palm Springs High School. The free features bird singers and dancers; demonstrations and hands-on activities such as basket weaving, beading, and gourd rattle making; traditional games; food; and a Native American Market. Info
DIA DE LOS MUERTOS: Raices Cultura hosts its 13th annual Dia de los Muertos event Nov. 3 in downtown Coachella. The free celebration, which includes a Calavera art walk, altars, and vendors, offers a unique artistic and cultural experience for the whole family. Info
FILM
CINEMA FRANCAIS: New, award-winning French-language films come to Palm Springs Cultural Center Nov. 9-11. Desert Film Society organized the weekend-long festival, and all screenings include English subtitles. Info
MUSIC
SYNERGY FEST: The free music and arts festival, organized by Culturas Music & Arts, is set for Nov. 10 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Dateland Park in Coachella — across from the 1,000-foot mural depicting the history and struggles of Chicano/Mexican people. Info
3 PIANOS, 6 HANDS: A trio of Waring Internation Piano Competition prizewinners return for an exciting performance Nov. 14 at McCallum Theatre. Info
THE TEN TENORS: The most popular group in the history of the McCallum Theatre (30 sold-out shows) returns Nov. 20-25 with a new show loaded with vocal prowess and Australian humor. Info
THEATRE & STAGE
HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE: Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play — through Nov. 18 at CV Rep in Rancho Mirage — is a funny, surprising, and devastating tale of survival as seen through the lens of a troubling relationship between a young girl and an older man. Info
CHURCH & STATE: Three days before his bid for reelection, a U.S. senator makes an off-the-cuff comment to a blogger that gets leaked on “the Twitter,” calling into question the senator’s stance on guns and God. Dezart Performs presents the “serious comedy” by Jason Odell Williams Nov. 9-18 at the Pearl McManus Theatre at the Palm Springs Woman’s Club. Info
CHOREOGRAPHY FEST: Emerging and established dancemakers take center stage in Nov. 10-11 at McCallum Theatre’s popular festival, featuring exciting original dances in a number of styles performed by companies from across the nation and abroad. Info
VISUAL ART
ART FAIR: The monthly Desert Mountains Art Faire is set for Nov. 18 at the Santa Rosa & San Jacinto Mountains National Monument Visitors Center in Palm Desert. You’ll find photography, paintings, ceramics, hand-painted silks, and more by local artists. Info
UNSETTLED: This sweeping exhibition (through April 30, 2019) at Palm Springs Art Museum features more than 75 artists living or working in the Greater West, including Ed Ruscha, Gerard Murillo, Sonia Falcone, Ana Teresa Fernández, Edgar Arceneaux, Andrea Zittel, Nicholas Galanin, Georgia O’Keeffe, Agnes Pelton, and Phillip K. Smith III. Info
FLIGHT PLAN: The Birds of Sunnylands, the new, season-long exhibition at Sunnylands Center & Gardens in Rancho Mirage, exhibits 52 photos of some of the more than 130 species of birds that migrate here every year, all photographed at the Annenberg estate over the past two years by wildlife photographer and ornithologist Tim Laman. Info
LINES IN THE SAND: The exhibition at Palm Springs Art Museum explores the history of the desert through for themes: land, light, people, and place. It features highlights from the museum’s collections of indigenous art, depictions of the California desert through painting and photography, and contemporary art inspired by the physical and cultural environment of the state. Info
DESERT PHOTOGRAPHY: Journey Through the Desert – The Road Less Traveled, a survey of photography from the early 20th century to today, continues through November 25 at Palm Springs Art Museum in Palm Desert. The show includes Stephen H. Willard, John Divola, Lee Friedlander, Karen Halverson, Wanda Hammerbeck, Richard Misrach, and Mark Ruwedel. Info
