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| Rendering of sister dreamer… Courtesy Lauren Halsey and Current Interests |
South Los Angeles has historically been a museum desert. That's changing, particularly as far as open-air public art spaces are concerned. This Saturday, Mar. 14, Lauren Halsey's Egyptian/Afrofuturist sculpture garden, sister dreamer lauren halsey's architectural ode to tha surge n splurge of south central los angeles, opens with a free block party. The artist considers sister dreamer to be the culmination of high-profile related installations at the Hammer, Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Met roof garden. The new space, at the corner of 76th St and Western Avenue, will feature film screenings, vegetable gardens, and wellness activities. More information here.
sister dreamer is about 2.7 miles from "outdoor museum" Destination Crenshaw (with work by Melvin Edwards, Maren Hassinger, Alison Saar, and Kehinde Wiley) and about a 20 minute drive from Simon Rodia's Watts Towers and the adjacent art center. It seems that LACMA is still considering a satellite location in Magic Johnson Park, not too far away; and Mr. Wash has plans to convert his Compton studio into an Art By Wash Studio & Community Center.
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| Rendering of aerial view of sister dreamer |
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| Rendering of Art by Wash Studio & Community Center |
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| Lauren Halsey, sister dreamer…, 2026. Photo: Allen Chen-SLH Studio |
Comments
> is still considering a
> satellite location in
> Magic Johnson Park.
The location on Wilshire Blvd has long *not* generated the type of annual attendance that the big-time museums of the world easily reach without breaking a sweat. I'm sure a branch in South-Central LA will attract as many visitors per year as drop by a....well, actually less than the number who go to the Watts Towers.
The recent Vanity Fair article about the Geffen Galleries noted that "Los Angeles" (presumably referring to LACMA), when it comes to attendance figures, has long lagged a Chicago, Washington DC or San Francisco.
Govan and staff (labor union or not) have enough difficulty managing the buildings next to the La Brea Tar Pits. He also has already stretched LACMA's budget to the breaking point.
Get your priorities in order, people.
Per the Met:
"American artist Lauren Halsey (b. 1987, Los Angeles) has created a full-scale architectural structure imbued with the collective energy and imagination of the South Central Los Angeles Community where she was born and continues to work. Titled "the eastside of south central los angeles hieroglyph prototype architecture (I)," the installation is designed to be inhabited by The Met’s visitors, who will be able to explore its connections to sources as varied as ancient Egyptian symbolism, 1960s utopian architecture, and contemporary visual expressions like tagging that reflect the ways in which people aspire to make public places their own.
It was on view on the roof from April 18th through October 22nd, 2023.
Here's a YouTube video interview of the artist:
https://youtu.be/I4irGrO5ePc?si=9qJ1u_c4yliilcE6