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USC Fisher Museum of Art

Through Nov. 8: Group show “Phantasmagoria: Specters of Absence” features work with shadows, alluding to death, the obscure, the unnamable.

823 Exposition Blvd. on the USC campus, (213) 740-4561 or fishergallery.org.

Grammy Museum

Opens Dec. 6: “Songs of Conscience, Songs of Freedom” is the new museum’s inaugural show. It explores the 200-year history of music and politics in America, and music’s role as a political force in society.

L.A. Live, 800 W. Olympic Blvd., (213) 765-6800 or grammymuseum.org.

Grier Musser Museum

Ongoing: A turn-of-the century historic Queen Anne house that displays antique collections in monthly holiday exhibits throughout the year.

403 S. Bonnie Brae St., (213) 413-1814 or griermussermuseum.com.

Museum of Contemporary Art, The Geffen Contemporary

Through Jan. 5: “Martin Kippenberger: The Problem Perspective” is the first major U.S. retrospective of the German artist who died in 1997. It includes key selections and bodies of work from his entire career: paintings, sculptures, works on paper, installations, multiples, photographs, posters, announcement cards, books and music.

Through Dec. 15: “Index: Conceptualism in California From the Permanent Collection” surveys the evolution of conceptual practices in California by highlighting individual works and groupings by more than 60 artists.

152 N. Central Ave., (213) 621-2766 or moca.org.

Natural History Museum

Through Nov. 1: The museum’s annual “Spider Pavilion” is an outdoor exhibit, where visitors can watch the work of hundreds of web-weaving spiders.

Ongoing: A life-sized T. rex and Triceratops roam the museum Wednesday-Sunday. They’re actually puppets — and the Dinosaur Encounters program they star in aims to teach visitors about dinosaur habits and physicality.

Ongoing: “Thomas the T. rex Lab” is a working paleontological lab, wherein museum preparators will work on a T. rex skeleton in full view of the public.

Ongoing: Three diorama halls show African and North American mammals in their natural environments; more than 2,000 gem and mineral specimens are on view in the Gem and Mineral Hall; and the Ancient Latin America Hall covers prehistoric societies including the Maya, Aztec and Inca. And that’s just the first floor.

Natural History Museum, 900 Exposition Blvd., (213) 763–3466 or nhm.org.