What to expect:

Every week, Essential Arts covers the depth and breadth of Southern California's complex cultural sphere: The latest biennial, the avant-garde building design, a ground-breaking opera and the Pulitzer Prize-winning play — along with all the bits of related news emerging from the region and beyond.

This begins with the voices of our award-winning critics, who bring a depth of reporting and experience to the region's cultural scene: Christopher Knight's profound knowledge of art in Los Angeles, Mark Swed's long-time immersion in classical music, Christopher Hawthorne's singular view of our region's landscape and urbanism and Charles McNulty's deep understanding of theater, able to identify the idea that stays with you long after the performance is over.

But it also includes our reporting: Investigations, profiles, interviews, photo essays and explanatory pieces produced by a team of long-time journalists who know what's happening in the creative corners of L.A. — and beyond.