The Hammer Museum announces that its 2005 exhibition "THING: New Sculpture From Los Angeles" received the high honor of being named Best Thematic Museum Show Nationally by the International Association of Art Critics (L'Association Internationale des Critiques d'Art, or AICA). The award recognizes the best group exhibition of the year organized by a museum in the United States. Each year, AICA's 400 U.S. members vote for the best exhibitions produced in a variety of categories, giving distinction to the most important work in the visual arts contributed by artists, curators, gallerists, writers, scholars and cultural institutions. Over the years, the winners have represented the nation's most important and innovative art institutions.

"THING: New Sculpture From Los Angeles" was organized by a curatorial team led by James Elaine, curator of Hammer Projects, with co-curators Aimee Chang, exhibition coordinator and assistant curator at the Hammer Museum, and Christopher Miles, an independent curator/critic and assistant professor at California State University, Long Beach.

Praised by Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight as "the best museum survey of new art that I've seen in a very long time," the exhibition included innovative contemporary sculpture by 20 Los Angeles-based artists. Through a broad selection of works addressing a wide range of sculptural practices, "THING" attempted to make sense of the new materials, forms, methods and concerns of a promising generation of emerging Angeleno artists and provided a compelling view into the state of sculpture today.

The Hammer Museum previously was honored by AICA for the 2003 exhibition "Lee Bontecou: A Retrospective," which was co-organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and named Best Monographic Museum Show Nationally.

The Hammer Museum joins other Los Angeles museums to be honored for exhibitions in 2005, including the retrospective "Robert Smithson," organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and recognized as Best Monographic Museum Show Nationally; the retrospective "Tim Hawkinson," co-organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and recognized as Best Monographic Museum Show in New York City; and "Visual Music," organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and recognized as Best Exhibition of Time-based Art.

AICA USA is the United States section of the International Association of Art Critics, founded in 1948-49 in Paris and originally affiliated with UNESCO as a nongovernmental organization. At present there are 72 member nations representing more than 4,000 art critics. AICA USA, headquartered in New York City, is the largest national section, with a membership of more than 400 distinguished critics, curators, scholars and art historians around the country.

Hammer Museum information
For current program and exhibition information, visit http://www.hammer.ucla.edu/ or call (310) 443-7000.

Hammer hours: 11 a.m.-7 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. on Thursdays; and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sundays. The museum is closed Mondays, July 4, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.

Hammer admission: $5 for adults; $3 for seniors (65 and older) and UCLA Alumni Association members; free for museum members, students with identification, UCLA faculty/staff and visitors 17 and under. The museum is free for everyone on Thursdays.

Hammer Museum tours: For reservations and information, call (310) 443-7041.

Museum location/parking: The museum is located at 10899 Wilshire Blvd., at Westwood Boulevard. Parking is available under the museum. Rates are $3 for the first two hours with museum validation, $1.50 for each additional 20 minutes.

Hammer Annex public program location: Due to the construction of the Billy Wilder Theater, Hammer programs will be held at an the Hammer Annex, 1087 Broxton Ave. in Westwood Village, one block north of the museum. Parking continues to be at the museum.

The Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center is operated by UCLA. Occidental Petroleum Corporation has partially endowed the museum and constructed the Occidental Petroleum Cultural Center Building, which houses the museum.

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