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Posted Apr 10, 2024, 5:38 AM
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Join Date: Feb 2002
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Quote:
Alex Welsh for The New York Times
For decades the effort to revitalize downtown Los Angeles has been tied to arts projects, from the construction of the midcentury modern Music Center in 1964 to the addition of Frank Gehry’s soaring stainless steel Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2003. But the pandemic was tough on downtowns and cultural institutions around the country, and Los Angeles has been no exception.
Its downtown office vacancy rates climbed above 25 percent. Storefronts are empty. Homelessness and crime remain concerns. Many arts organizations have yet to recover their prepandemic audiences. And there have been vivid displays of the area’s thwarted ambitions: Graffiti artists covered three abandoned skyscrapers just before the Grammy Awards were held across the street at the Crypto.com Arena, and some lights on the acclaimed new Sixth Street Viaduct were doused after thieves stole the copper wire.
So it was a major vote of confidence in the area’s continuing promise when the Broad, the popular contemporary art museum that opened across the street from Disney Hall in 2015, announced last month that it was about to begin a $100 million expansion. And it was very much a continuation of the vision of its founder, Eli Broad, the businessman and philanthropist who played a key role in the effort to create a center of gravity in a famously spread-out city by transforming Grand Avenue into a cultural hub. Broad, who died in 2021, helped to establish the Museum of Contemporary Art and get Disney Hall built before opening the Broad to house his own art collection.
Diller Scofidio + Renfro, via The Broad
“As Eli said — and he said this when really almost no one agreed with him — downtown L.A. is the center and this region needs a cultural center,” said Joanne Heyler, the founding director and chief curator of the Broad. “He was right. At least our experience and our audience proves that point.”
The Broad — which offers free admission — says its attendance has recovered to prepandemic levels, as does the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which says it is once again averaging 89 percent attendance. But other presenters have struggled. Last summer, Center Theater Group suspended productions at one of its three stages, the 736-seat Mark Taper Forum at the Music Center complex, citing financial woes.
They are also working to lure audiences back downtown at a moment when office vacancy is up and hotel occupancy is down. “It feels a little hollowed out,” said Christopher Koelsch, the president and chief executive of the Los Angeles Opera, adding that “it is much harder to sell our midweek performances than it used to be.” The opera is projecting that attendance will reach 75 percent of capacity this season, an improvement over the last few years but still down from the 83 percent attendance it had during the last full season before the pandemic.
Traffic congestion remains another hurdle to getting people to travel downtown, and some galleries and arts organization have been expanding into other areas to meet people where they are. Dealers say downtown offers an unusual degree of physical space and creative freedom. “You simply cannot see these shows anywhere else in L.A. or in New York,” said the dealer Susanne Vielmetter, who in 2019 expanded her downtown gallery and closed her Culver City location. Hauser’s downtown space, a sprawling complex that includes a bookstore and the popular restaurant Manuela, says it drew 4,000 people to its recent opening for Jason Rhoades, Catherine Goodman and RETROaction.
Young people who live and work in the Arts District contribute to a liveliness among galleries. “People go out downtown,” said Mara McCarthy, the founder of the Box gallery, which presents contemporary art and performances. “They will go see a show over there and get a beer down here and go get ramen.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last month that his administration would push to expedite construction of a $2-billion, 7.6-acre residential and commercial development called Fourth & Central, which bills itself as “the New Gateway to DTLA.” And Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles has continued to work to address the homeless crisis. And the City Council approved nearly $4 million to remove the graffiti on the abandoned skyscrapers and secure the buildings.
Mark Falcone, the founder and chief executive of Continuum Partners, which is developing Fourth & Central, said that “at the moment, there is the perception that there is more risk in L.A. and San Francisco than there was five years ago” but that he remains “very bullish” on downtown’s prospects. “We believe cultural enterprises are the things that give a community more long-term resilience and stability than anything else,” he said.
The Broad recently hit the highest daily attendance in its history: 6,200 visitors on March 30. (By way of comparison, the nearby Museum of Contemporary Art said its attendance was 1,985 that day.) “There was a feeling in the beginning that downtown was in mothballs,” Heyler, its director, said. “We’ve emerged from that moment fully.”
In another promising development, the Colburn School for music and dance just broke ground on a Gehry-designed expansion to its downtown campus that will include a 1,000-seat concert hall. “There is a need for a medium-size venue in the heart of the cultural district,” said Sel Kardan, the school’s chief executive and president, adding that he hoped the stage would be used during the upcoming Olympics.
And the Los Angeles tourism board has focused its latest — and largest — ad campaign on art and culture. “Most people don’t know that Los Angeles is now home to the most museums and performing arts venues in the country,” said Adam Burke, the board’s president and chief executive.
Hunter Kerhart for The New York Times
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Last edited by citywatch; Apr 10, 2024 at 3:27 PM.
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