Arts Community Rallies Around ‘Tattered’ LACE : Artist-Run Associations Will Nurture Diversity
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As members of the curatorial staff at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), we consider Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) a valuable resource. We have been informed and invigorated by the diversity of its programming. LACE and other Los Angeles artist-run organizations are integral threads in the fabric of the arts community in Los Angeles.
Implicit in Allan Parachini’s April 9 article, “Mending a Tattered LACE,” is the question: Should organizations like LACE exist? The answer we give is a resounding yes .
Over the past 13 years, LACE has consistently represented artistic diversity, served as a catalyst in the community and provided a venue for serious and intelligent work by emerging, controversial or activist artists as well as more established artists who have not always been represented by larger institutions. LACE has injected (and hopefully will be able to continue to inject) new ideas about art and culture into the public realm through its programming.
Too often it is the small-budget, artist-run or activist-oriented art spaces that are most threatened by the financial setbacks which are inextricably tied to the current political and economic climate.
For example, “decency” and “obscenity” issues surrounding art content have recently sparked heated public debate and made headlines. We think these debates reflect more intricate concerns related to fear of the unfamiliar, racism, sexism and elitism. Since many arts organizations have closed in the recent past, the muting of yet another voice would be a loss to the region, not just the arts community.
Organizations like LACE provide venues for the public to become familiar with diversity--to contemplate, confront, consider and hopefully to help us appreciate difference.
The community must support organizations that focus on integrating cultures and disciplines and that are nonhierarchical by choice.
We want to express our support for not only LACE, but for all artists and risk-taking arts organizations at work in this city.
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