Announcing our 2020-2021 Themes & Cultural Partners
artworxLA is excited to announce this year’s three Level 1 Cultural Partners: the California African American Museum, Center for the Study of Political Graphics, and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County! We look forward to working with these wonderful institutions in coming months as we gear up for the 2020–21 academic year. Read on to learn about this year’s programming themes!
California African American Museum
The mission of the California African American Museum (CAAM) is to research, collect, preserve, and interpret for public enrichment the history, art, and culture of African Americans with an emphasis on California and the western United States. CAAM’s recent and upcoming programming inspires both of artworxLA’s workshop themes, providing students the opportunity to explore the exhibitions Enunciated Life, Men of Change: Power. Triumph. Truth., and Sanctuary: Recent Acquisitions from the Permanent Collection.
The Center for the Study of Political Graphics
The Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG) is an educational and research archive that collects, preserves, documents, and exhibits posters relating to historical and contemporary movements for social change. CSPG advances the power of art to educate and inspire people to action. In conjunction with both of artworxLA’s workshop themes, students will explore images from thousands of posters that CSPG has made available online, including online exhibitions like Activists, Artists & Sisters: Posters on Women Fighting for Justice and To Protect & Serve? Five Decades of Posters Protesting Police Violence.
Natural History Museum Los Angeles County
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHMLAC) protects and shares more than 35 million specimens and artifacts, the largest natural and cultural history collection in the western United States. NHMLAC also explores the nature and culture that surrounds us today, both in L.A. and the world. artworxLA students will explore the special exhibition Rise Up LA: A Century of Votes for Women, which commemorates the centennial of the 19th Amendment. In addition, students will learn about the history of NHMLAC’s Nature Gardens, an urban wildlife wonderland with over 600 kinds of plants—including California natives and others from around the world.
Workshop Themes
In addition to providing foundational and transferable arts skills, artworxLA workshops amplify student voices on issues of local, national, and global importance. The workshop themes for this academic year are:
Our Liberty is Bound Together: Art, Antiracism, and Gender Equality
The arts are among the most impactful ways to effect social change. Inspired by exhibitions at the California African American Museum, the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, and the Natural History Museum of LA County, artworxLA students will explore the question, “How can art be an active tool in the fight for equality and justice?” Students will investigate issues of representation, including invisibility and hyper-visibility, and learn how artworks can reflect a community’s history and identity. Students will harness the arts as a communication tool that can engage transformational learning on multiple levels: individual, interpersonal, structural, and institutional.
Grounding in Soil: Building Sustainable Communities
How can the arts help us to radically (re)imagine our communities? Through the lens of gardening and food access, students will explore how artists and communities collaborate to identify and meet community needs. Inspired by the Natural History Museum’s Nature Gardens, a large portion of which was built where a parking lot once stood, students will explore transformation, learn about what edible plants can be grown in Southern California, and see how gardening can be a practice for spaces of all sizes. In addition, students will learn about community-based projects like LA Community Fridge, the Ron Finley Project, Summaeverythang Community Center, Root Down LA, SEE-LA, SÜPRMARKT, and many more.