Dividing the Light (Claremont)

This outdoor James Turrell work is one of the art installations worth a day trip from Los Angeles. For inhabitants of the SGV, it's only a short drive down the highway, but for anybody farther west, it's essentially a day trip. This Skyspace work invites you to sit down on a bench and look at the sky via a sharply-cut square in a canopy, yet it isn't as engulfing as Turrell's vibrant Ganzfeld series.

To witness the frame pulse through a lighted program with brief chimes of light on the hour in between, arrive approximately 25 minutes before dusk and 100 minutes before sunrise. The Skyspace canopies are lighted in the intervals between the sunset and dawn programs. A quick (3 minute) light chime is heard every hour on the hour.

For the Los Angeles region, precise dawn and sunset hours are available. It alternates between being a lucid lavender and a menacing black tablet. The daylight sky is mirrored by a small pool in the middle of the sky opening, while the night sky is echoed in darkness by the pool. The internationally renowned light artist Turrell has constructed multiple Skyspaces, but only this one is open to the general public in Southern California.

Location: 600 N College Ave, Claremont.

Time: Open Sat–Mon during the school year, daily during the summer.

Entrance fee: Free