The L.A. Odyssey Project at LMU – A Recap of Saturday’s Journey

On Saturday October 18, the William H. Hannon Library partnered with LMU’s Laband Art Gallery and Classics & Archaeology Department, along with the Los Angeles Public Library (Westchester branch) and Otis College for a special program as a part of a month-long, city-wide celebration of Homer’s The Odyssey, sponsored by the Los Angeles Public Library and the Library Foundation of Los Angeles.

(Above photo credit: Nigel Raab.)

Over a five-hour period, over 80 attendees enjoyed the art, history, and culture inspired by The Odyssey.

The day started in University Hall with Classics & Archaeology professor Matt Dillon’s lecture, “The Women of the Odyssey,” where 30 attendees enjoyed a lively presentation and discussion.

Afterwards, everyone was invited to the nearby LMU Archaeology Library for a tour to “Explore the Touch and Feel of the Ancient Mediterranean World!” Children were especially welcome!

Attendees of the morning’s events (and newcomers) then joined Laband Art Gallery Curator, Carolyn Peter, for a guided tour of the exhibition, Following the Prescribed Path. The tour’s audience of 38 included an intellectually-curious Cyclops …

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(Photo credit: Nigel Raab.)

After the gallery tour, our guests transformed into “The Odyssey Travelers” and followed the Cyclops (a.k.a. LMU Programming Librarian Ray Andrade) and Otis College of Art and Design Rare Books Librarian Cathy Chambers on a journey to the Westchester branch of the Los Angeles Public Library. On the way, travelers collected items to use in an art-journaling activity at Otis … and also worked up a great appetite.

At LAPL, Odyssey Travelers (and Cyclops) satisfied their appetites at “The Tastes & Arts of Greece.” While enjoying Greek delicacies such as spanakopita, falafel, tzatziki, hummus, pita, and baklava, the travelers (and many newcomers) enjoyed a fun, abridged shadow puppet play of the Odyssey (see Zeus, below!).

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(Photo credit: Jamie Hazlitt.)

Finally, the Odyssey Travelers embarked on a final journey to the Millard Sheets Library at the Otis College of Art and Design to partake in an art-journaling activity for children of all ages to reflect on the day’s travels. Rest assured, to keep his hunger away from children, the Cyclops was put to work safely behind the library’s Circulation desk…

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(Photo credit: Cathy Chambers.)

The morning lecture, the afternoon art gallery tour, the Odyssey Travelers’ journey from LMU to the “Arts & Tastes of Greece” at the Westchester-Loyola Village Library, the final journey to Otis College of Art & Design for everyone to create a journal of the day’s events, and (of course) the Cyclops, all together made for an educational, cultural, and fun “odyssey” of its own.

For more information about the myriad of Odyssey celebrations throughout Los Angeles, including the finale event this weekend – a marathon reading of The Odyssey and festivities at the central branch of the Los Angeles Public Library – visit The L.A. Odyssey Project at lfla.org/odyssey.