This wonderful art deco theatre has had many incarnations and names over the years since it was first built in 1910, The theater was sitting empty when it was restored in 2004 by founder Los Angeles artist Sara Velas and re-opened as the Velaslavasay Panorama which was relocated to this theater from the original panorama location on Hollywood Blvd.
For you that may not know about panoramas, they were an art form which dates back to the early 19th century, a panorama encircles the spectator with a 360° painting of continuous space, most often painted in some sort of landscape imagery.
The Velaslavasay Panorama currently is an exhibition hall, theatre and garden located in the historical West Adams district of Los Angeles and features the only painted, 360-degree panorama created in the United States since the nineteenth century. Artist Sara Velas an LA native originally established the panorama in 2000 at the Tswuun-Tswuun Rotunda on Hollywood Boulevard where it remained until the googie style building was demolished in 2004.
Currently the Shengjing Panorama has been on display since 2019, and it is the third circular painting to be featured at the Velaslavasay. The first was “Panorama of the Valley of the Smokes,” Velas’ rendering of what Southern California might have looked like 200 years ago.

Archival photographic print with a single white matte.