Craft and Folk Art Museum Can Tease Brains of All Ages

“Puzzles, Old and New,” the Craft and Folk Art Museum’s current exhibit, is one for the entire family. It’s all subtitled “Head Crackers, Patience Provers and Other Tactile Teasers”--so go mentally prepared.

On one wall, there are stacks of newsprint covered with mazes and a bin of pencils nearby. Step right up and try your skills (kids, too), and then take home your sheet. Nearby, visitors are invited to sit at a tiny table and work a wooden puzzle that asks you to move blocks in a square around a dinosaur. Next, two oversized disentanglement puzzles are ready for the solving. All of these will be explained by handy docents when your frustration level has reached its limit. Up in the third-floor gallery, a collection of coffee tables in triangle, parallelogram and square shapes are waiting to be arranged in configurations that seem so easy at first glance. Good luck!

Museum’s Address

The Craft and Folk Art Museum is at 5814 Wilshire Blvd., across from the La Brea Tar Pits. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. Admission is $1.50 for adults, 75 cents for kids. Older children might enjoy a grown-up meal in the museum’s Egg and The Eye restaurant. Younger ones and families on a budget, might opt for the snack stand at the tar pits. There’s also an upscale Marie Callender’s across the street. The exhibition runs through Feb 22.

FILMS

“Brrr, It’s Winter”--This month’s offerings from the Children’s Film and Television Center of America will celebrate winter--maybe not as our children know it but as children in colder climates do. “The Fir Tree” is a Hans Christian Andersen story about an ambitious conifer. “The Snowman” depicts a little boy’s friendship with a snowman-come-to-life. The last two films, “Little Sunshade” and “This Tiny World,” look at the private lives of toys. The 90-minute program begins today at 1 p.m. at the Four Star Theater, 5112 Wilshire Blvd. Admission is $2 per person. Call (213) 743-8632.

THEATER

Cinderella--Little Broadway Productions will take over the 1400-seat Wadsworth Theater, at the Veterans Administration in West Los Angeles, this Sunday afternoon for two performances of the children’s classic. This one-hour musical adaptation begins at 1:30 p.m. and again at 3:30 p.m. It’s intended for school-age children, so those under age 5 will not be admitted. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for kids. Parking is $3. The theater is best reached by going west on Wilshire from the San Diego Freeway. Call (213) 271-6402.

CONCERT

International Children’s Choir--Dressed in elaborate ethnic costumes, the choir will perform at Sunday’s benefit concert for the Long Beach Children’s Museum at the Pan American Community Center, 302 W. 7th St., Long Beach. The program has been selected with children’s interests in mind and is appropriate for preschoolers and older. The Long Beach Ballet will perform an excerpt from “The Nutcracker.” Mimes from The Found Theater will seat the audience. The two-hour program begins at 2 p.m. Admission is $5. Call (213) 431-1084.