Two exhibitions, film, music…
- please distribute -
The Watts Towers Common Ground Initiative:
Art—Migrations—Development
[Conference: October 22-24, 2010]
[Festival: September 25, 2010 – March 19, 2011]
™
Monday, October 18
Istituto Italiano di Cultura*
1023 Hilgard Ave., Los Angeles (Westwood), 90024
6:00 p.m.
© Photographs of "Mama Watts" and Watts Towers courtesy of the Friends of the Watts Towers Arts Center
Fertile Ground: Stories From The Watts Towers Arts Center (Film) 2005; 60 min.
The first visual documentation of the Watts Towers Arts Center, adjacent to Simon Rodia's Watts Towers, a creative hub
in Los Angeles' Watts community which has nurtured young and established artists in all mediums. A former owner of The
Rodia Towers (William Cartwright), five former Directors of the Arts Center, including Noah Purifoy and John Outterbridge,
Curator Emeritus Cecil Fergerson, and other visual and literary artists and community members reveal the dynamic history
of the Arts Center's first 40-plus years. Hosted by Congress woman, Maxine Waters. Executive Producer: Rosie Lee Hooks.
Writer and Director: S. Pearl Sharp. Produced for the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles' Channel 35.
Includes Question & Answer with Rosie Lee Hooks and S. Pearl Sharp.
Free. Followed by Trio Paganini in concert, reception, and exhibition opening:
Sabato Rodia's Towers in Watts. Exhibition opening. Curated by Rosie Lee Hooks, Dir., Watts Towers Arts Center, Jo Farb Hernandez, Dir., S.P.A.C.E.S.
©Portrait by Debbie Marr, www.lazydogstudio.net; ©Photograph of Towers by Luisa Del Giudice
Illustrating the history of the "Watts Towers," built by Rodia from 1921-54, from construction, through abandonment, "discovery," and conservation, up to the present. Soon after being purchased by William Cartwright and Nicholas King organized the Committee for Simon Rodia's Towers in Watts as official guardians of the Towers and mobilized an international campaign to save the Towers from a demolition order. On October 10, 1959, a "load test," devised by Aerospace engineer, Bud Goldstone, proved to municipal administrators, incontrovertibly, that they would stand. As it tells this story, the exhibition also shows how the Watts Towers continue to inspire as well as to present challenges of guardianship and conservation, while the Watts Towers Arts Center (the "heart of Watts") perseveres as the focus of community arts and development efforts.
For other events & programs through Oct 24th, go to www.WattsTowersCommonGround.org
™
No comments:
Post a Comment