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The Studio Watts Workshop was an arts organization founded in 1964 and based in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, [1] dedicated to providing working space for artists and offering a broad range of arts workshops for the local community. [2]
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The Studio Watts Workshop was an arts organization founded in 1964 and based in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, [1] dedicated to providing working space for artists and offering a broad range of arts workshops for the local community. [2]
The principal organizers of the Studio Watts Workshop were jazz musician Jayne Cortez and accountant and arts patron James Woods. [3] Woods, who worked at a local savings and loan, and his wife Margo Woods, a probation officer, provided the funding for the workshop's initial operating costs, because of their conviction that art could be a tool for social change. Woods found a location for the workshop, renting an empty furniture outlet on 104th Street and Grandee Avenue, and called together a group of eight artists to begin to plan what would become the Studio Watts Workshop. [4] After the Watts riots led to renewed attention on the neighborhood, there were new opportunities for support and donations that led to the group being able to provide training for about 150 students in the visual arts, writing, drama, dance, and music. [5]
In order to work in the Studio Watts Workshop space, artists had to agree to give public exhibitions of their work at least two times a year in Watts and in an artistic space outside the area and also to provide free instruction to any student with, in the words of James Woods, "the initiative and the desire to participate in the creative arts." [6] Some of the early 'masters' to students were sculptor Guy Miller; Bruce Strobridge, a painter and sculptor who also had previously served in the Army with Woods; and Anna Halprin, renowned international dance performer and teacher. A more detailed narrative on the Woods-Halprin collaboration can be found in Robby Herbst's April 2014 article "Ceremony of Us" published in East of Borneo, the Cal Arts School of Art's online magazine of LA contemporary arts. Bill Cosby and celebrated dance performers Marge & Gower Champion were also early supporters. Woods also produced and directed several plays (many original) at the Studio with student actors, to some acclaim. The celebrated poet Wanda Coleman, later known as the "Unofficial Poet Laureate of LA" was deeply engaged with early literary efforts among students at Studio Watts. In the late 1960s the Ford Foundation provided program funding to Woods and the Studio for its diverse initiatives. This was complemented by significant funding from the Doris Duke Foundation. Many Los Angeles professionals were friends of Studio Watts Workshop and donated their time and services to its governance. Others, such as John Blaine, worked as full-time Studio Watts staff. In the early years, UCLA management professor Will Mc Whinney worked with Woods on strategy and leadership issues and LA native Joel Fadem, then a Yale University grad student and later at UCLA, assisted Woods in many foundation fund raising efforts.
In 1971, the Studio Watts Workshop received a $75,000 Ford Foundation grant to study how the arts could be used in low-income housing projects and Woods used the grant, together with a grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and from other donations, to construct a 144-unit complex of rent-subsidized apartments. The Studio Watts Workshop became the Watts Community Housing Corporation, and spaces were set aside for arts workshops and gallery. Beginning in the 1970s, federal arts funding was drastically reduced and the Watts Community Housing Corporation could no longer support arts activity. In 1992, Woods, who was on the board of the Watts Community Housing Corporation, was continuing his efforts to advocate with the Department of Housing and Urban Development for allocating a part of the complex's rent income for arts programming. [7]
One of the studio's best-known projects was an annual Chalk-In, first held in 1968 as a way to encourage community participation in the arts. Young people were invited to draw on a block-long section of sidewalk on 103rd Street. Twelve-year-old Richard Wyatt won the top prize at the first Chalk-In and credits the experience for starting him on his career as a prominent Los Angeles muralist. [8] Other Studio efforts to integrate the arts into the Watts community included design programs, media production classes and facilities, a folk art archive, and dance, theater and other arts productions. [9]
Because of Woods' active involvement in the Watts arts community, in 1968 he was invited by the Los Angeles Music Center to organize the first Los Angeles Festival of the Performing Arts. Even while moonlighting as a doorman at a Hollywood jazz club (Shelly's Manne-Hole), he would go on to organize the second and third festivals (in 1969 and 1970), and artists affiliated with the Studio Watts Workshop were among the participants. [10] During the period when Studio Watts transitioned into low cost housing with artists-in-residence as a component, Woods also was instrumental in organizing "The Meeting at Watts Towers," a venue attracting both the new and old of the Watts community to honor its past, raise awareness on current issues, and celebrate the future. A comprehensive review of community arts in Watts may be found in "Watts: Art and Social Change in Los Angeles, 1965-2002" the 2003 exhibition catalogue of Marquette University's Haggerty Museum of Art, curated by Director, Curtis Carter (complete 68-page catalogue available on line).
The Watts riots, sometimes referred to as the Watts Rebellion or Watts Uprising, took place in the Watts neighborhood and its surrounding areas of Los Angeles from August 11 to 16, 1965.
The Watts Towers, Towers of Simon Rodia, or Nuestro Pueblo are a collection of 17 interconnected sculptural towers, architectural structures, and individual sculptural features and mosaics within the site of the artist's original residential property in Watts, Los Angeles. The entire site of towers, structures, sculptures, pavement and walls were designed and built solely by Sabato Rodia, an Italian immigrant construction worker and tile mason, over a period of 33 years from 1921 to 1954. The tallest of the towers is 99.5 feet (30.3 m). The work is an example of outsider art and Italian-American naïve art.
Watts is a neighborhood in southern Los Angeles, California. It is located within the South Los Angeles region, bordering the cities of Lynwood, Huntington Park and South Gate to the east and southeast, respectively, and the unincorporated community of Willowbrook to the south.
The Watts Writers Workshop was a creative writing group initiated by screenwriter Budd Schulberg in the wake of the devastating August 1965 Watts Riots in South Central Los Angeles. Schulberg later said: "In a small way, I wanted to help.... The only thing I knew was writing, so I decided to start a writers' workshop." The group, which functioned from 1965 to 1973, was composed primarily of young African Americans in Watts and the surrounding neighborhoods. Early on, the Workshop included a theatrical component and one of the founders was the actor Yaphet Kotto. The group expanded its facilities and activities over the next several years with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation. Government files later revealed that the Workshop had been the target of covert operations by the FBI. Writers involved in the Workshop include Quincy Troupe, Samuel Harris Jr better known as Leumas Sirrah, Johnie Scott, Eric Priestley, Ojenke, Herbert Simmons, and Wanda Coleman, as well as the poetry group Watts Prophets.
Self-Help Graphics & Art, Inc. is a community arts center with a mix Beaux-Arts and vernacular architecture in East Los Angeles, California, United States. The building was built in 1927, and was designed by Postle & Postle. Formed during the cultural renaissance that accompanied the Chicano Movement, Self Help, as it is sometimes called, was one of the primary centers that incubated the nascent Chicano art movement, and remains important in the Chicano art movement, as well as in the greater Los Angeles community, today. SHG also hosts musical and other performances, and organizes Los Angeles's annual Day of the Dead festivities. Throughout its history, the organization has worked with well-known artists in the Los Angeles area such as Los Four and the East Los Streetscapers, but it has focused primarily on training and giving exposure to young and new artists, many of whom have gone on to national and international prominence.
Anna Halprin was an American choreographer and dancer. She helped redefine dance in postwar America and pioneer the experimental art form known as postmodern dance and referred to herself as a breaker of the rules of modern dance. In the 1950s, she established the San Francisco Dancers' Workshop to give artists like her a place to practice their art. Exploring the capabilities of her own body, she created a systematic way of moving using kinesthetic awareness. With her husband, landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, she developed the RSVP cycles, a creative methodology that includes the idea of scores and can be applied broadly across all disciplines. Many of her creations have been scores, including Myths in the 1960s which gave a score to the audience, making them performers as well, and a highly participatory Planetary Dance (1987). Influenced by her own battle with cancer and her healing journey, Halprin became known for her work with the terminally ill patients as well as creative movement work in nature.
Watts Station is a train station built in 1904 in Watts, Los Angeles, California. It was one of the first buildings in Watts, and for many years, it was a major stop for the Pacific Electric Railway's "Red Car" service between Los Angeles and Long Beach. It was the only structure that remained intact when stores along 103rd Street in Watts were burned in the 1965 Watts Riots. Remaining untouched in the middle of the stretch of street that came to be known as "Charcoal Alley", the station became a symbol of continuity, hope, and renewal for the Watts community. It has since been declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Tommy Jacquette was a community activist best known as the executive director of the Watts Summer Festival.
Melvino Garretti is an American multidisciplinary artist who works in ceramics, painting, and performance. His visual works are known for their recognizable abstract motif, which often includes a variety of colorful emblematic shapes, and symbols. He is an original member of the Studio Watts Workshop art collective, and a 1978 MFA graduate of San Francisco Art Institute.
Stanley Grinstein was an American businessman, master printer, arts collector and patron, philanthropist, and social activist.
Liam O'Gallagher was an avant-garde sound artist, painter and teacher whose San Francisco studio became an early gathering place for Beat writers and poets in the 1950s. He was integral to the creation of foundations and centers for human growth, including Feathered Pipe Ranch, The Ojai Foundation and the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts.
Ruth G. Waddy was an American artist, printmaker, activist, and editor, based in Los Angeles.
Harry Dolan was a writer for and the director of the Watts Writers Workshop created by Budd Schulberg. He started off as a janitor and became one of the most serious African American writers of his time. Through his contributions and efforts in the Watts Writers’ Workshop he raised awareness in the United States' racial conflict during the 1960s.
The Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC) is a non-profit, 501 (c) 3 organization incorporated in the State of California, in 1965. Its mission "is to improve the quality of life for the residents of Watts and neighboring communities."
Ceremony Of Us was an interracial dance encounter between the Studio Watts Workshop, an African American arts organization, and the San Francisco Dancer's Workshop, Anna Halprin's dance company. The performance took place at the Mark Taper Forum, a venue of the Los Angeles Music Center, on February 27, 1969.
Dale Brockman Davis is a Los Angeles-based African-American artist, gallerist and educator best known for his assemblage sculpture and ceramic work that addresses themes of African American history and music, especially jazz. Along with his brother, artist Alonzo Davis, he co-founded Brockman Gallery in Leimert Park. Through the gallery and his broader community work, Davis became an important promoter of African-American artists in Los Angeles.
Cecil Fergerson was an African-American art curator and community activist. He is widely credited with fostering African-American and Latin-American art communities in Los Angeles for more than 50 years, and was named a "Living Cultural Treasure" by the city in 1999. While working at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Fergerson co-founded the Black Arts Council (BAC) to advocate for African-American artists and support their community. His advocacy at LACMA and BAC led to seminal exhibitions of African-American art in the early 1970s.
Elana Mann is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, California.
Richard Wyatt Jr. is a contemporary muralist best known for his public art in and around the city of Los Angeles. His murals can be found at the Watts Towers, the Capitol Records Building, White Memorial Hospital, the Ontario Airport, the Wilshire and Western Metro station, the Union Station East Portal, and many other locations.
Suzanne Jackson is an American visual artist, gallery owner, poet, dancer, educator, and set designer; with a career spanning five decades. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world. Since the late 1960s, Jackson has dedicated her life to studio art with additional participation in theatre, teaching, arts administration, community life, and social activism. Jackson's oeuvre includes poetry, dance, theater, costume design, paintings, prints, and drawings.
