An Altar for Los Angeles

This altar is on display in NHM's Becoming Los Angeles exhibition. The exhibition tells the story of how Los Angeles transformed from a tiny pueblo to a sprawling metropolis. It’s a 500-year saga of how the land that is now L.A. went from being home to thriving diverse indigenous peoples, to cowboys, and then to cars. It documents which battles raged in its backyards, to how Hollywood was born, and why an aqueduct changed everything.

This colorful altar is an homage to L.A. diversity. Watch the artists discuss how people’s actions intersected with nature, and changed a remote frontier to the L.A. we know today.