This week, you can help plan California’s first wildlife crossing, meet the Crenshaw Cowboy, skate back to 1980s Venice Beach, celebrate multiculturalism and art on Pico, and consider the concept of ‘home.’
1) Caltrans Public Hearing on Liberty Canyon Wildlife Crossing/P22 Day
P22 (pictured above) is probably the most famous mountain lion in the world. Hailed for his successful journey from the Santa Monica Mountains to Griffith Park, he was just doing what mountain lions are supposed to do: leaving his den to form his own pride. In P22’s case however, he had to cross two major freeways without being killed. US-101 divides what was previously a contiguous ecosystem into isolated habitat fragments, resulting in inbreeding, territorial fighting and a decrease in genetic diversity.
So Caltrans is proposing to build a wildlife crossing, for lions and other species, spanning ten lanes of the 101, just west of Liberty Canyon Road in Agoura Hills. The public is invited to attend a hearing this Thursday and see the proposed design (rendering shown above.) The crossing will be the first of its kind in California and the biggest in the world; it is estimated to cost $50 million. Caltrans is working with other stakeholders and a generally supportive public to raise the money and build the bridge. Then on October 22, Angelenos are all invited to P22 Day, an annual festival in Griffith Park. There you can pose with (cardboard) P22, try out a virtual reality experience of a wildlife crossing and the LA River, meet Ranger Rick, view an urban wildlife garden installation and many other treats.
When: Thursday, Oct 12, 6 – 8 pm
Where: King Gillette Ranch Auditorium, 26800 Mulholland Hwy, Calabasas 91302
Tickets: Free; find more information about the project and public response here.
2) Crenshaw Cowboy’s one-man show
Lovell Moore is affectionately known as the Crenshaw Cowboy for the cowboy hat and long duster coat he often wears and for his sometime residence: the Crenshaw Boulevard on-ramp to the westbound 10 freeway. For 11 years, Lovell has been creating sculptures out of the objects he finds in his neighborhood, such as the elaborate recliner chair shown above. Sometimes he himself becomes the sculpture, wearing his objects and entertaining passersby with a Michael Jackson-style moonwalk.
Recently Lovell’s work was removed from the Crenshaw on-ramp and he has been working in an art studio owned by mid-City Neighborhood Council board member Nick Spano. This Friday, you can see the Crenshaw Cowboy dance and display his art and motivational signs in a show at the Re/Creation Café, which organizers hope will help him transition off the street and out of homelessness.
When: Friday, Oct 13, 6 – 10 pm
Where: RE/CREATION CAFÉ, 4502 W. Washington Blvd., LA CA 90016
Tickets: Free; click here for more information.
Learn more about The Crenshaw Cowboy on this DnA segment. And watch this YouTube video here.
3) Metro Art presents L.A. Documentaries at Union Station
This new documentary series celebrates the legacy of telling our city’s story through film. The series kicks off with Roller Dreams, a 2017 documentary about roller dancing in 1980s Venice Beach. Director Kate Hickey will introduce the screening, which will be followed by a Q&A with four of the dancers: Mad, Jimmy Rich, Tyrrell Ferguson and Larry Pitts. Coming up in the series will be Mur Murs, a 1981 Agnès Varda documentary on murals in Los Angeles, airing November 3, and This is the Life, a 2008 Ava DuVernay documentary which chronicles the alternative hip hop movement that flourished in 1990s Los Angeles, airing December 1.
When: Friday, Oct 13, 8-10 pm (doors open at 7:15, open seating)
Where: Union Station, 800 N Alameda Street, Los Angeles 90012
Tickets: Free; click here for more information.
4) Pico Block Party: TRANSLATION
For nearly 30 years, Santa Monica’s 18th Street Arts Center has been on a mission to provoke public dialogue through art. This Saturday it will host the Pico Block Party: TRANSLATION, a festival of interactive performances, cross-cultural exchange, and artists workshops celebrating their PST: LA/LA exhibition A Universal History of Infamy: Virtues of Disparity, created in collaboration with LACMA. Bring the family and take part in tours of the exhibition, art-making workshops, open studios, food trucks, live music and much more. Art activities include cyanotype flag-making with Amanda Sutton, T-shirt printing with Christina Saucedo and collage with Luciana Abait.
When: Saturday, Oct 14, 1 – 4 pm
Where: 18th Street Art Center, 1639 18th St, Santa Monica, 90404
Tickets: Free. Click here for more information.
5) Two Shows Closing This Weekend: “HOMATORIUM III Lost Horizon” and “Home – So Different, So Appealing”
New York-based artist Rebecca Chamberlain toured an array of Modernist residential housing in Los Angeles, including Richard Neutra’s Lovell Health and VDL Research Houses, Gregory Ain’s Dunsmuir Flats, John Lautner’s Rainbow House, Rudolph Schindler’s Fitzpatrick-Leland House, and the William Mead Public Housing project in Chinatown. Out of that came Homatorium III Lost Horizon, the artist’s ongoing investigation into “architecture’s promise to meet psychological needs for safety, possibility and belonging.” Closing Saturday, Oct 14. Charlie James Gallery, 969 Chung King Rd, Los Angeles 90012. Free. Click here for more information.
Home—So Different, So Appealing features U.S. Latino and Latin American artists from the late 1950s to the present who have used the deceptively simple idea of “home” as a powerful lens through which to view the profound socioeconomic and political transformations in the hemisphere. Spanning seven decades and covering art styles from Pop Art and Conceptualism to “anarchitecture” and “autoconstrucción,” the artists featured in this show explore one of the most basic social concepts by which individuals, families, nations, and regions understand themselves in relation to others. Part of PST: LA/LA. You can learn more about the exhibition in our DnA segment here. Closing Sunday, Oct 15. LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles 90036. General Admission $15, free for all county residents after 3 pm weekdays. Click here for more information.
And sign up now for. . .
DIEM at WestEdge: On Friday, October 20th, DnA’s Frances Anderton and designer and writer Mallery Roberts Morgan will co-host a day of discussions on the theme of “disruption.” It takes place on Day 1 of WestEdge Design Fair. Come hear Michael Maltzan on the transformation of the cityscape; Mayer Rus and others on the “green rush” and the rebranding of marijuana; Rose Apodaca and the developers of Platform on navigating the retail revolution; and Francie Stefan, Ashley Hand and Daniel Sturges on LA’s transportation evolution. See the full schedule and line up of speakers here.
DNA friends can receive 50% off the ticket price by using the online promo code DNAGuest here.