I have a confession to make. I used to hate Los Angeles. I moved away at 17 years old, and said I would never live here again, but when, almost five years ago now, a series of life circumstances led me back to the city where I lived out my high school years, I was surprised to find myself quickly growing to love this city. Yes, there are a million reasons to dislike LA. Traffic, smog, and natural disasters have given the City of Angels a bad name for many years, but every time I leave my house, I am reminded of the many reasons I love this city that I now call “home”.
Last night, as I was wandering around Westwood at
dusk, I stumbled across a newly opened space on the corner of Westwood Blvd.
and Weyburn Ave. The stenciled signage
on the window said “Arts ReSTORE LA”, and as if my own curiosity wasn’t enough,
the display of the glass-fronted shop lured me in with its warmly lit glow and
array of unique objects of art that were too enchanting to ignore. As I walked into this little eden of art,
every one of the colors, textures, and shapes around me beckoned to be examined
and explored.
I wandered around the miniature gallery that had
seemingly sprung up out of nowhere, and as I perused the various exhibitions
manned by artists sitting casually at tables or tweaking and adjusting their
work, one artist’s creations, in particular, captivated my attention
instantaneously. Cocoon-like stoneware
lanterns permitted the escape of beams of warm light from a variety of
honeycomb-like apertures and lent an ultra-modern and somehow simultaneously
primitive ambiance to Heather Levine’s section of this tiny gallery. Her ceramic art has an earthy simplicity, and I
immediately wanted to snatch every single lantern in sight and run home to
cover my walls and tables with them until there was no need for light from any
other source. I imagined my little apartment looking like some ancient world from a fairytale where mythical winged creatures soar about like dragonflies among
futuristic architecture. Yeah, I pretty
much totally geeked out.
As always, I felt compelled to speak with the
artist from whose mind these amazing little creations had come, and so I walked
over to the table where Heather Levine sat amongst her trove of hand-crafted treasures. She was kind enough to explain that this
particular space was one of many pop-up galleries in the Westwood Village that
are part of a larger urban renewal project put on by The Hammer Museum and
funded by a grant from the Goldhirsh Foundation with additional support from
UCLA and the Diane and Dorothy Brooks Foundations. The goal of the project is to use The
Hammer’s “incredible network of local talent and expertise
in arts and culture to curate an artisanal pop-up village in Westwood and offer
a long term strategy to turn the neighborhood around permanently” after years of high rates of retail vacancies and rapid turnover of
local businesses. This project is accompanied
by a series of events and performances in the public courtyard of The Hammer
and takes place just as the holiday season opens with the hope that holiday
shoppers will patronize the exhibitions in search of unique gifts and help
jump-start a renaissance of the Westwood Village.
The span of the Arts ReSTORE LA project goes far
beyond the boundaries of the village surrounding The Hammer Museum and includes
fund-raising events that seek to support communities in the broader Los Angeles
area. Levine and a group of 15 Los
Angeles-based ceramic artists will be hosting a “Handmade Bowl & Cup Party”
on November 23rd from 6-8pm.
Tickets to this event are $45 and proceeds go to the Inner City ArtsOrganization, a group that provides arts
education programs to elementary, middle, and high school students in Los Angeles'
poorest neighborhoods in an effort to support their academic and personal
growth and to nurture the creative minds of the future.
As I wistfully drifted out of the little gallery to
continue on with the rest my adventures for the evening, I couldn’t help but
feel the warm stirrings of hope inside me as I pondered the possibilities that
the Arts ReSTORE LA project could hold.
As someone who believes in the immense growth-inspiring and healing
potentials of art and creative work, I feel certain that it is innovative, community-based
projects like these pop-up galleries that are the keys to developing a society
in which structural functionality and social well-being come together in an
organic union. So, when people ask me if
I love Los Angeles, my answer is, without hesitation, an emphatic "yes", because of the constant
access and exposure to so many different creative minds and the opportunity to
take part in inspired events like Arts ReSTORE LA.
Please check out the following link to learn more about the specific
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