Datebook: Events, exhibits, classes for the week ahead

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Home and garden events are listed below. Suggest your own via reader comments. Submissions should be fewer than 75 words and must be for one-time events with legitimate value to other readers. No store promotions and no frivolous links, please.

Sept. 28: “Sympathetic Seeing: Esther McCoy and the Heart of American Modernist Architecture and Design” opens, exhibiting photographs, texts, documents and videos covering the architectural historian’s work with R.M. Schindler, first as a draftswoman and later as a critic. Also covers her unsuccessful campaign to save Irving Gill’s 1916 Dodge House in West Hollywood. $6 to $7. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. Ends Jan 8. MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House, 835 N. Kings Road, West Hollywood. (323) 651-1510.

Sept. 29: Landscape designer Laramee Haynes presents the illustrated lecture “Arts and Crafts Gardens: Native Plants for Native Homes,” as part of the Thursday Garden Talks With Lili Singer series. 9:30 a.m. to noon. $20. Palm Room, Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden, 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia. (626) 821-3222.

Sept. 29: Marmol Radziner managing principal Leo Marmol speaks at a fundraiser to support the preservation of Richard Neutra’s VDL Research Studio and Residence in Silver Lake. The city of Los Angeles and the National Register of Historic Places have recognized the VDL house as a cultural landmark. 7 p.m. lecture and tour ($20), 8 p.m. reception ($10). All proceeds go to the VDL Fund for Preservation, Maintenance and Stewardship. Reservations required.

Sept. 30: The last in a four-part series covering the basics of converting lawn into a sustainable habitat. Workshop starts at 9 a.m. Free. Tree of Life Nursery, 33201 Ortega Highway, San Juan Capistrano. (949) 728-0685.

Oct. 1: Nature provides the materials for a communal work of art during the Huntington’s second annual Big Draw. Using the lawn as a living canvas, visitors place leaves, twigs, flowers and other materials on the grass to create a giant collage. 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Included in admission of $6 to $20. Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. (626) 405-2100.

Oct. 1: Arborist Jerrold Turney leads a class on tree pruning fundamentals, including trimming fruit trees and controlling disease. 10 a.m. to noon. $25 to $28. Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden, 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia. (626) 821-4623.

Oct. 2: The Glendale Historical Society presents its annual fall home tour, “Glendale Gems: Historic Homes of the Jewel City.” The tour includes a 1926 Spanish Colonial Revival designed by Paul R. Williams, a castle-like French Revival home built in 1926, a 1936 Spanish Colonial Revival with Art Deco influences and an elegant 1936 American Colonial Revival by Merrill W. Baird. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. $20 to $30 per person in advance. Tickets are also available for sale on the day of the tour starting at 10:30 a.m. at the Brand Library; $25 to $35. (818) 242-7447.

Ongoing: Beatrice Wood: “Beatrice Wood: Career Woman — Drawings, Paintings, Vessels, and Objects,” a survey devoted to the noted ceramist. Ends March 3. $3 to $5. Santa Monica Museum of Art, 2525 Michigan Ave., G-1. (310) 586-6488.

Craft show: In conjunction with “Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980,” which involves cultural institutions throughout the region, Freehand Gallery and Craft in America present “The Eighties,” an exhibition of California crafts. Participating artists include Steven Portigal, Tres Feltman and David Wulfeck from the UCLA Ceramics master of fine arts program; Kerry Feldman, who studied with glass artist Richard Marquis at UCLA; and Keiko Fukazawa, who studied with ceramic artist Ralph Baccera at Otis College of Art. Vintage work will be shown in the Craft in America Study Center through Dec. 31, and contemporary work will be shown at Freehand Gallery next door through Oct. 22. 8413 and 8415 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles. (323) 951-0610. (323) 655-2607.

Life at the Miramar: Rare photographs, documents and other artifacts depict life at Santa Monica’s landmark home-turned-hotel from the late 1800s to the present. Ends Oct. 18. $3 to $5. Santa Monica History Museum, Santa Monica Public Library campus, 1350 7th St., Santa Monica. (310) 395-2290.

Maloof exhibition: “The House That Sam Built: Sam Maloof and Art in the Pomona Valley, 1945-1985” showcases about 30 pieces by the acclaimed woodworker with about 80 works by friends and colleagues. Maloof’s circle included painters Millard Sheets, Phil Dike and Karl Benjamin; sculptors Albert Stewart, Betty Davenport Ford and John Svenson; ceramists Harrison McIntosh and Otto and Gertrud Natzler; enamelists Jean and Arthur Ames; wood turner Bob Stocksdale; and fiber artist Kay Sekimachi. Ends Jan. 30. Included in admission of $6 to $20. MaryLou and George Boone Gallery, Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. (626) 405-2100.

— Lisa Boone

Please send listings at least three weeks in advance to home@latimes.com or Home section, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90012.