What: The Wende Museum
Where: 5741 Buckingham Parkway, Suite E, Culver City, CA 90230
(until late 2014)

To experience the Cold War in all its questionable glory you don’t have to get cold: nowadays you can just head to sunny California. Since 2002 The Wende Museum has amassed over 75,000 objects from behind the Iron Curtain, including a substantial collection of Cold War-era paintings, drawings, sculptures, graphics, photographs and folk art.

Recently the museum has also made new contributions to the history of Cold War art by commissioning street artists to create works inspired by graffiti on the Berlin Wall. The Wende has also led a number of public art projects to bring Soviet-era artworks to the streets and galleries of Los Angeles.

In 2012 The Wende Museum announced its plans to establish a permanent home at what was the United States National Guard Armory in Culver City. Renovations are currently underway and the new museum is scheduled for unveiling in late 2014. However, if you can’t wait to visit, the current museum at Buckingham Parkway is still accessible with an appointment.

Images (top to bottom): Viktor Makrozhitskii, Growing Wheat – The Air Drop, n.d. Ukrainian, oil on canvas; Ten fragments of the original Berlin Wall on display at 5900 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 2 July 2012. Courtesy The Wende Museum.