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
PAST PROJECTS
RETURNING THE RIVER: A Joyful Intervention
September 24, 2022
Featuring the 2022 Lewis MacAdams’ Prize Artists-in-Residence:
The Course of Empire, 2016
Tim Durfee, Installation Design
Robert Pullman, Lighting
Monica Nouwens, Photography
Public Art Camp Pilot:
El Río de Aventura
2022
In this successful pilot project our campers learned about how social and ecological justice go hand-in-hand, how we are all connected, that Los Angeles was called Tovangaar for thousands of years by its First Peoples, how the river came to be channelized, and that public art can be transformative!
Our curriculum encouraged 50+ kids to think in words and pictures by drawing from river-related word banks they generated with our teaching artist, the poet, A.K. Toney, as they created their own hand-made poetry books.
Knowledge became embodied as they played games foregrounding our interconnectedness, moving and improvising with our lead artist, Marc Herbst, through the riverside landscape, discovering its animal residents from the present and past whom we hope to welcome back to the river one day by being better stewards and collborators with our environments.
Our director, Jenna Didier, guided an approach to public art and place making grounded in site and community-based considerations: encouraging kids to think about the animals human and otherwise that would experience -and maybe make homes in - their work as they traced solar paths, felt the wind, imagined where water flows when it rains and learned the cardinal points at the site as they built new works of art using debris the river left behind.
Our Indigenous Advisors, Tina Orduno Calderon and Kelly Caballero guided our principles and approach towards regenerative building practices like using found objects and biodegradable attachment methods. Their stories remind us that we are not the center of the world, that the First Peoples understood this and lived in a way that nurtured the land and the waters, acting as caretakers, treating all Nature as part of their vast family, resulting in a lush landscape supporting multiple forms of life.
Watch for an expanded Public Art Camp coming Summer 2024!
Partners and Sponsors
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.
CLICK ON THUMBNAIL FOR FULL SIZE IMAGES
Installation design by Tim Durfee. Photographs by Monica Nouwens. Lighting by Robert Pullman.
TEN FEET: Art Meets the River
October 10, 2015
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.
CLICK ON THUMBNAIL FOR FULL SIZE IMAGES
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.
LINK TO TEN FEET: ART MEETS THE RIVER | PUBLICATION 1 | EXHIBITION CATALOG | 2016
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