Reflections: How does it feel?
JANUARY - JUNE 2024
“Reflections: How Does It Feel” was a community-driven art project that culminated in a 16-page printed color zine and two free public performances at two locations in LA County, co-produced by LA River Arts and Artist Partner Nancy Lynée Woo, with directorial support from Ann Wellman of Long Beach Community Theater. This activity was funded in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency, with administrative support from the Arts Council for Long Beach. We thank our indigenous brothers and sisters for their past, present, and future caretaking of the river and the land. May we work in community with each other and nature to heal ourselves and the air, lands, waters and extended family of living beings that sustain us.
RETURNING THE RIVER:
A Joyful Intervention
2022 | Returning the River: A Joyful Intervention
Featuring the 2022 Artists-in-Residence:
Tina Orduno Calderon, Kelly Caballero, and Jessa Calderon
A day of action during the Frogtown Artwalk
September 24, 2022 | FSY Architects, 2902 Knox Avenue 90039
Kelly Caballero, Tina Orduno Calderon, and Jessa Calderon discuss their concern with the health of the river. Photo Credit: Liz Getz
In 2022 we brought three Indigenous Tongva Cultural Advisors onto our staff seeking insights and direction in developing programs and best practices to support the First People, LandBack efforts, and centering the health of the River and all her communities in our work. Moving with them in a flow of ideas and energy towards regenerative practices and communal modes of production, the advisors formed a collective Artist Residency to elevate the voices and visibility of the First People of the River.
Developed over six months of an ongoing creative engagement, Returning the River responds to the difficult questions, “How can the people heal when their river is hurting?”, “How can art heal a river and her people? “, “ What does it look like to be in community with the river?”
Lewis MacAdams Prize 2020-21
In honor of Lewis MacAdams (1944–2020), founder of Friends of the Los Angeles River, the LA River Arts Lewis MacAdams Prize was launched. Initiated in the daunting time of the COVID-19 pandemic, the open call to artists, designers, and makers in all media pointedly brought home the need for equitable community experiences of public art and culture. The prompt was to imagine the LA River—the city’s most connected open space—as a public art destination.
The Art Barge
2019
Conceived for the 2018 LA 2050 call for proposals, The Art Barge is a traveling structure, housing an interactive archive of the cultural history of the LA River. It is designed to dock at six to eight community centers, river parks, and cultural sites per year. Site partners benefit from the opportunity to activate supporters and community, expand their range of public event offerings, and increase awareness, enthusiasm, and support for a revitalized LA River.
VIDEO PROPOSAL FOR THE ART BARGE
“. . . a wonderful opportunity to bring the local community to the LA River. We could develop associated events with the Art Barge docking, and work together, reaching out to our stakeholders.”—Karen Barnett, River Committee Chair, Atwater Village Neighborhood Council
Art Talks On The River
June–September 2018
Developed in partnership with Friends of the Los Angeles River (FoLAR), Art Talks on the River was a series of panel discussions presenting artists, curators, and cultural administrators whose work engages with the LA River.
Affirming both the historical precedents and cultural impact of artists whose works respond to the power of the LA River, the program's narrative arc began with the completion of the river's concrete channelization (1960s) and concluded with current revitalization projects.
Collecting Stories: A Social-Cultural History of the River
art talk | JUNE 8, 2018
Rodrigo Ribera d'Ebre, writer and documentary filmmaker, led artists Judy Baca, Chaz Bojórquez, Saber-Fine, and Leo Limón in a discussion about their decades-long engagement with the river through public art, and the spirit and history of the early taggers on the river.
Artists on the River: Site and Response
art talk | JULY 14, 2018
Marc Pally, artist and public art activist, introduced environmental artist Lauren Bon, sculptor Beatriz Cortez, and musician David Rosenboom. Each artist presented their river-based work through slides and narrative.
A Global Perspective: Art in the Landscape
art talk | AUGUST 11, 2018
Raymund Ryan,curator of architecture at the Carnegie Museum of Art’s Henize Center, led a discussion about art in the landscape and the negotiation of public space. The invited participants were architect Edwin Chan, curator Ruth Estevez, and filmmaker Kerry Tribe.
Upstream: A Future River
art talk | SEPTEMBER 8, 2018
Esther Margulies, co-founder of the LA River Arts, led a discussion focused on how public art celebrates the diverse narratives of Los Angeles. Participants were Kristen Gorden, planner for the Destination Crenshaw project, Felicia Filer, Director of the Public Arts Division for the City of Los Angeles DCA, and Sonia Romero, artist.
The Course of Empire
August 13, 2016
In conjunction with the Elysian Valley Arts Collective's tenth annual Frogtown ArtWalk, LA River Arts presented The Course of Empire, an illuminated nighttime installation. This site-specific, interactive installation is a manipulated illumination of riparian vegetation in the river. During daylight hours, it displays the apparatus itself. After sundown, it creates a spectacle of the landscape, brightly lit in the postindustrial context of the river. The Course of Empire is based on American painter Thomas Cole’s 1830s landscape series of the same title, depicting both arcadian and idealized visions of the West.
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Installation design by Tim Durfee. Photographs by Monica Nouwens. Lighting by Robert Pullman.
TEN FEET: Art Meets the River
2015
Over the Rainbow, 2021
James Piatt
Honorable Mention, Lewis MacAdams' Prize 2021
Just eighteen months after forming, the LA River Arts launched its first public event—TEN FEET: Art Meets the River. Since then we have presented and initiated a range of art installations and public events along the river with the intent to elevate the awareness and power of artistic contributions to the river’s descriptive narrative. The duration, scope, and format of our projects are specific to conditions along the river, the history of the arts associated with the river, and community access to the river.
LINK TO 2020 PUBLICATION 2: LA RIVER Publication 2 | 2020
PUBLIC ART PROJECT | 2014–2019
In its first public art endeavor, the LA River Arts commissioned seven artists to develop site-specific work for river-adjacent sites. Ten Feet: Art Meets the River was a proof of concept for public art along the river, developed in response to the City of Los Angeles' planning guidelines for a ten-foot setback on river development projects. Each was designed to bring vibrancy to under-recognized spaces, generate discussion about public art, and showcase work of the creative community.
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Eric Huebsch, GMO Brothers (Hide-n-Seek), Photograph: Eric Huebsch; Ripley Whiteside, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. Photograph: Martha Benedict; Earth Activation Group, LA River Milkweed Corridor, Activation Celebration! Photograph: Earth Activation Group; Tim Durfee, Sticks, Photograph: Tim Durfee; LA River Choir, LA River Milkweed Corridor, Activation Celebration!, Photograph: Martha Benedict; Sandy Rodriguez, Echo Park. Photograph: Sean Boyle; Diana Markessinis, The 4th Tree, Los Angeles River. Photograph: Eric Stoner.
