Students visiting the Watts House Project
12:30pm
Guest presenter: Edgar Arceneaux
Watts House Project (WHP) is an artist-driven urban revitalization project centered around the historic Watts Towers in Watts, California. Directed by preeminent Los Angeles artist Edgar Arceneaux, WHP is a large-scale artwork-as-urban-development engaging art and architecture as a catalyst for expanding and enhancing community. The neighborhood surrounding the Watts Towers presents a stark contrast to the well-maintained aesthetics of this national monument, and currently the residents have limited means to capitalize socially or economically on this cultural currency. WHP operates with the understanding that social and economic challenges are tied to basic ecological problems and aims to develop an incremental, nuanced and sustainable model that marries ecological concerns and practice with social and cultural remedies. By creating a physical and social infrastructure for creativity, WHP will catalyze artistic production and community pride of place, forming partnerships that can lead to real solutions, hope, and change.
What's fascinating about this project is the realization of the amount of skilled people within a community, that the necessary resource can be found in your neighbor, like a skilled welder and construction worker. It is commendable that WHP are initiating neighborhood redevelopment with these readily available resources, while at the same time bring neighbors together, for many people in Los Angeles alone don't really know their own neighbors.
ReplyDeleteWhen visiting Watts House I could not help but be impressed with how much the art and paintings that were around improved the street and the neighborhood around it. What a shame there are not more installations around the lower income areas. Because in my eyes, what a light it brought to that area.
ReplyDeleteThe more I think about our visit to Watts the more I am reminded about the hope and feeling of change that was there. I have chosen to write a term paper on the Watts Towers and the history of the area and the future of the space. Not only did Simon Rodia bring something mystical to Watts, with his will and passion he brought art to the area forever shaping the outcome of the space and its inhabitants. The Watts House Project is yet another layer in this rich history, and truly gives us hope that art and artists can change the world.
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