Santa Monica Arts Center Celebrates Artistic Diversity in a Rapidly Changing Neighborhood Through Bilingual Website and Community Festival

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Sept. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- 18th Street Arts Center, a 30-year-old artist community and residency center in the inland Pico Neighborhood of Santa Monica, launches the Spanish-language website version of Culture Mapping 90404 on October 14, 2017 in conjunction with Pico Block Party: TRANSLATION from 1-4 PM. This community mapping project comprises ambitious oral history collection of long-time neighborhood residents and disappearing cultural treasures of the Pico Neighborhood, which has been heavily impacted by gentrification, rising costs, and ultimately, displacement of its diverse immigrant populations.

To celebrate this growing map project, now with over 60 video interviews, and its Spanish language iteration in the context of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, the Getty-led initiative that examines the contributions of Latin American and Latino/a artists in Southern California, 18th Street Arts Center invites artists, residents, long-time cultural producers, and neighborhood organizations to Pico Block Party: TRANSLATION. This family-friendly community festival will include artist workshops, food trucks, open studios, live music, Brazilian samba dancing, kid-friendly activities, and artist-led tours of A Universal History of Infamy: Virtues of Disparity, 18th Street's contribution to PST: LA/LA in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

FEATURING:

Visitors will create cyanotype flags with artist Amanda Sutton that represent their personal values or the values of their community.

Teresa Flores will conduct her Experimental Quesadilla project at the event, exploring fusion and cultural appropriation while creating and enjoying new foods together.

Melrose Poetry Bureau and a team of on-demand poets will use old-fashioned typewriters to react to the stories of what visitors have lost or found in translation, coming up with new poetry on the spot.

Luciana Abait will teach visitors her signature collage process, conducting a workshop on painting and photographic collage.

Artist Christina Saucedo will conduct screen-printing workshops with visitors, emblazoning designs on t-shirts and posters designed by the youth of the Pico Neighborhood.

Kids on Stage, a 30-year-old Santa Monica theater education organization, will bring costumes and props, and conduct free mini-storytelling workshops for kids.

Artist Gelare Khoshgozaran will conduct exhibition tours of A Universal History of Infamy: Virtues of Disparity in languages other than English, challenging assumptions about communication and language.

Artists Anne Bray and Ami Motevalli bring Dis…MISS to 18th Street, holding roaming conversations with visitors around feminism and gender, armed with artist-made postcards and a series of thought-provoking questions.

On the main stage, live band Cuñao will play Latin alternative folk music throughout the afternoon, punctuated by Brazilian Samba, and dance performances from local youth groups.

OPEN STUDIOS:

Yvette Gellis (Los Angeles)
Luciana Abait (Los Angeles)
Arzu Arda Kosar (Los Angeles)
Aleksandra Walaszek (Poland)
Daan den Houter (Netherlands)
Anique Weve (Netherlands)
I-Chen Lai  (Taiwan)
Đào Duy Tùng (Vietnam)
Henriëtte Brouwers and John Malpede (Los Angeles)
Ichiro Irie (Los Angeles)
David McDonald (Los Angeles)

LINKS:

Event Info and RSVP: http://18thstreet.org/pico-block-party-translation/ 
Bilingual website: http://culturemapping90404.org

Additional information: 18thstreet.org

Press Contact: Sue Bell Yank
[email protected]
310-308-7246

SOURCE 18th Street Arts Center

Related Links

http://www.18thstreet.org