Posted Jun 1, 2024, 3:46 AM
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Facebook/ICA LA
ERAS
In a statement of its commitment to artists and to downtown, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles is planning to buy the East Seventh Street building it occupies and improve it with a cafe, outdoor space and studios for a new artists-in-residence program. Since the institution moved from the west side — where it was called the Santa Monica Museum of Art — and rebranded itself with a new name in the downtown Arts District in 2017, Ellegood said, its location has become integral to its identity. “It’s literally a neighborhood named for artists, which is increasingly a neighborhood where artists are not present and can’t afford to be here,” she said. “How can we find ways to bring them back in?” she added. “In Los Angeles, studio spaces are becoming less affordable.”
The building’s $5 million purchase price has been largely covered by a $4.4 million naming gift from the Mohn Family Trust, to be announced on Saturday at the museum’s spring benefit. (The building will be called the Mohn Family Building.)
Founded in 1988, the institute has established a loyal following as a place to see emerging and unrecognized artists. The museum was in the vanguard of presenting artists of color; Pope.L had his first solo West Coast museum exhibition there and Mickalene Thomas’s first solo exhibition in a U.S. museum opened at the institute and subsequently traveled to the Brooklyn Museum. Anne Ellegood said the revamped ICA LA space in the downtown Arts District, and the residency program, will help local artists. “It’s literally a neighborhood named for artists, which is increasingly a neighborhood where artists are not present and can’t afford to be here,” she said.
Given the scope of some museum building projects, this one is modest — $5 million, with an overall fund-raising campaign of about $12 million (more than $7 million has been raised so far). The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles has an annual operating budget of $3.5 million, no endowment and a full-time staff of 12. But the effort is significant for an institution of its size. “We aren’t doing a $100 million expansion of our building,” Ellegood said, referring to the nearby Broad museum’s recent announcement. “But we’re doing a campaign with certain kinds of growth for our institution that are just as meaningful.”
Artists have come to appreciate this museum’s role in the city’s cultural ecosystem. The Institute is “often first on the ground in terms of trends or interests,” said the artist Charles Gaines, who serves on the board. “The big institutions can’t be as nimble.”
At the back of the building, the developer AvalonBay Communities created the artist studios; a landscaped pedestrian-only paseo (walkway) that can be used for outdoor programming, performances, and events; and a plaza for the museum that will contain its new north entrance through a 450-square-foot pavilion. Parking has always been a challenge for the museum, given that it has only eight spaces. Under the renovation plan, the museum is transforming its small parking lot into a gathering area with seating for the new cafe and will encourage visitors to park at a nearby public garage on Industrial Street, which has about 160 spaces. The cafe, which is planned for the Seventh Street side of the building, will feature a residency program for emerging chefs that will allow them to try out menus and collaborate with artists.
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beverlypress.com/SCLA
The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles has announced a transformative renovation of its downtown Los Angeles headquarters that creates a new 299-seat state of the art multi-media and live performing arts and community center.
“Renovating our 22,000 square foot warehouse to support live multi-media performance, as well as building out the functionalities demanded by high tech media production, will enable us to create great art that meets the moment and support other non-profit arts organizations and commercial for-profit entertainment industry enterprises to do the same,” SCLA founder and artistic director Ben Donenberg said.
The world-renowned architect of the project is Zoltan E. Pali, FAIA, Design Principal of SPF:architects. His work is distinguished by over 100 national and regional design awards, including an American Architecture Award in 2014 for the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills and an AIALA Presidential Award for leading the executive architecture team on the $280-million renovation and expansion of the Getty Villa Museum.
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