The Culture Planet website began as an online resource connected to the Culture Planet retail stores, which operated in the Los Angeles Westside Pavilion and Santa Monica Place malls in the years between 1996 and 2002. The two shops sold folk art, home decorations, musical instruments, ethnic clothing and global gifts from Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico and a few dozen other countries.

Created and managed by Monica Ferreira, a native of Rio de Janeiro, the stores had many notable art events, including an Amazon Indian art & ritual costume exhibit; a J. Borges exhibit, featuring literatura de cordel graphic art from Brazil; the ceramic artworks of Sandra Zebi; and a "Day of the Dead" art exhibit, with the "Dia de Los Muertos" papier maché sculptures of Mexico's Joaquin Villaseñor.

Culture Planet's Amazon rainforest artifacts appeared as part of a museum collection shown in the Paramount Pictures movie The Relic (1997), and its ethnic-flavored clothing was part of actress Sonia Braga's wardrobe in her CBS TV series Four Corners (1997-1998). The store was featured in news segments for KABC Los Angeles and Globo TV in Brazil.

Although Culture Planet closed its doors in 2002, the website lives on and features a vast selection of world music CDs, musical instruments, cultural DVDs, ethnic clothing, and books, cards, and gifts relating to folk art, tribal art, and global culture. The selections are from Amazon.com, organized by us in a way that we hope is of convenience and interest to those who enjoy world culture.

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