"Immersive Art and Entertainment: From Panoramas to Disneyland"

Saturday, January 16, 2027

2:00 - 3:30 PM

Join us for a panel discussion on January 16 from 2 PM to 3:30 PM inside the Hall of Crucifixion-Resurrection at Forest Lawn-Glendale.

Led by Laura Hess, an award-winning experience strategist and ROX (Return on Experience) specialist, the panel will discuss the history of immersive artworks, amusement parks, and related media. They will explore the development and impact of 19th-century cycloramas, contemporary theme parks and their predecessors, and immersive digital entertainment, among other subjects.   

About the participants:

Sara Velas is an artist, graphic designer, gardener, curator, and native Los Angeleno. She is the Artistic Director of the Velaslavasay Panorama, a nonprofit museum and garden she established in the year 2000 to present variations on art forms & entertainments popular before the invention of cinema.

Roland Betancourt is Chancellor’s Professor in the Department of Art History at the University of California, Irvine, and a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow. His books include the prize-winning Byzantine Intersectionality: Sexuality, Gender, and Race in the Middle Ages (Princeton) and more recently Disneyland and the Rise of Automation: How Technology Created the Happiest Place on Earth (Princeton).

James Fishburne is the Director of Forest Lawn Museum. He earned his PhD in Italian Renaissance art history from UCLA, and he has taught courses on ancient Roman, Renaissance, and Baroque art history. James joined Forest Lawn in 2018 and has curated multiple exhibitions on subjects ranging from aerial photography to puppetry to stained glass. 

Laura Hess is a founding member of the World Experience Organization and founder of Reuleaux. Utilizing her interdisciplinary background, Laura's work includes experiential marketing, themed entertainment, participatory theatre, film, VR, and installation art across physical, digital, and hybrid environments. She converts audience insights into measurable strategies that drive engagement, affinity, and business outcomes.

The panel discussion will be followed by a curator-led tour of “California Visionaries: The Lives and Legacies of Walt Disney and Hubert Eaton,” and a book signing by Roland Betancourt, whose 2026 book Disneyland and the Rise of Automation: How Technology Created the Happiest Place on Earth (Princeton) will be available for purchase. 

 

 

The event is free and open to the public. No RSVP required. Light refreshments will be provided. 

 

Address and Directions:
1712 S. Glendale Ave.
Glendale, CA 91205

Enter the main gate and proceed up the hill. Follow signs to the museum at the top of the hill. There is plenty of free parking.