Art of Recovery:

An Initiative of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs

Program Description:

As part of the City of Santa Monica’s Economic Recovery Task Force, Cultural Affairs launched Art of Recovery in November 2020. This grant program harnesses the arts to play a major role in recovery efforts while highlighting Santa Monica as a place of culture and unique experiences. Inspired by the WPA-era’s Federal Art Project, this initiative puts artists to work to implement projects that strengthen and connect Santa Monica. Art of Recovery focuses on three main priorities: economic recovery, community connectedness & restorative justice, and public health & safety.

This program is designed to connect artists to other sectors, by initiating and supporting connections between artists and business improvement districts, neighborhood groups and other entities. By creating stronger cross-sector networks, this program aims to have a major impact on the arts in Santa Monica over the long term.

 

Visit the project on the Cultural Affairs website

Project Locations:

Currently on view to the public.
No longer on view to the public.

Women's Empowerment Project

Artist: Maiwenn Raoult
Description:

The Women’s Empowerment Project is a collaboration between artist Maiwenn Raoult and six women who were in transitional housing at The People Concern, Santa Monica. In the fall of 2020, Raoult spent 8 weeks with the women, having conversations about their experiences of homelessness, their strengths and goals, and the best advice they’ve received.

Raoult took portraits of each woman and provided them with disposable cameras to document what brought them joy and empowerment throughout their day.

The project highlights each individual’s own empowering story and allows the women to see themselves as artists and creators of their own narratives. The project and these stories are meant to be engaging and compelling while focusing on how art can uplift individuals and bring communities together.

This exhibit is the culmination of their work together and features a portrait of each participant with excerpts of their words. The project and stories highlight how art can uplift individuals and bring communities together.

Each woman’s input and artistic vision played a role throughout the artistic process, and they worked with Raoult to determine which excerpts would be paired with their portraits and what writing would complement the images they took. All women received a collaborating artist fee for their participation.

Photos taken by each of the women can viewed to the right.


Host:
Santa Monica Public Library
Location: Santa Monica Public Library – Main Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd. Santa Monica, CA, 90401
Dates on view: October 12, 2023 – November 13, 2023, open during library hours

Deb

Queen

Kelley

Rosa

Deborah

Día de los Muertos Installation

Artist: Ricardo Soltero
Description: Larger than the afterlife sculpture installation for the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) holiday.
Host: The Pier Corporation

Location: Santa Monica Pier
Dates on View: This artwork was on view October 31 – November 2, 2020 and is no longer installed.

Bob Baker's Windows of Wonderment

Artist: Bob Baker Marionette Theater
Description: The Bob Baker Marionette Theater and their precocious puppets took over the merry-go-round windows for a one-of-a-kind installation that celebrated the theater’s most beloved historical productions.
Host: The Pier Corporation
Location: Santa Monica Pier Merry-Go-Round
Dates on View: This artwork was on view 
November 25, 2020 – January 7, 2021 and is no longer installed. 

Rose River Memorial

Artist: Marcos Lutyens
Description:
An exhibition and collective memorial of felt roses, made by community members, each honoring someone from Los Angeles lost to COVID-19.
Host: Building Bridges Art Exchange, Bergamot businesses
Location: Building Bridges Art Exchange
Dates on view:
This artwork is currently on view.

What’s 6 Feet?

Artist: Marni Gittleman. Collaborating artists: Kaveri Singh Artworks​, ​Bobby Z​; Student artists: Katie Irish, Joseph Kahlr
Description: An Instagram pass-it-on challenge of community inspired physical distancing decals for essential businesses and shared public space. A resiliency campaign to highlight our humanness, honor, show & share experiences of living life at a distance during the pandemic and foster connection via participatory street art.
Host: Santa Monica Cultural Affairs

Locations: Santa Monica Pier Carousel, Virginia Avenue Park, Huckleberry, Milo & Olive
Dates on View: This artwork was on view February – July 2021 and is no longer installed.

The Social Power of Civic Art in Santa Monica

Artist: Facilitated by Sara Dalieden, Sue Bell Yank
Description: A community conversation exploring the social power of art in our public, civic spaces, imagining its role in the future direction of Santa Monica.
Host: 18th Street Art Center, Santa Monica Cultural Affairs
Location: online
Dates on View: March 11, 2021, 5-6:30pm
 

SHINEOnline

https://vimeo.com/user128783776


Dates on view:
Ongoing

Pico Pop Up Art Gallery

Artist: Cog•nate Collective
Description: An Instagram pass-it-on challenge of community-inspired physical distancing decals for essential businesses and shared public space. A resiliency campaign that sought to highlight our humanness, honor, show and share experiences of living life at a distance during the pandemic and foster connection via participatory street art. Pico Pop Up was envisioned to capture the creativity and art that plays a lively and colorful role in the success of Pico merchants. The storefront space reflected Pico Blvd’s economic and community importance, and highlighted it as a place of culture and unique experiences.
Host: PicoPassport.com

Locations: 2917 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90045
Dates on View: This artwork was on view June 4 – Fall 2021 and is no longer installed.

Very Gay Murals

Artist: Very Gay Paint
Description: One of 13 incredible one-of-a-kind art installations by LGBTQIA+ artists as part of Rainbow Road Art Walk, a month-long art walk that celebrated Pride Month. Very Gay Murals painted two colorful, geometric murals on the Pier driveway and on the K-rail.
Host: Santa Monica Pier Corporation
Location: 200 Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica,CA 90401
Santa Monica Pier bridge: one on the driveway and the other on the south facing side of the K-rail
Dates on View: This artwork was on view June – July 2021 and is no longer installed.

Sea Change Lab

https://vimeo.com/user128783776


Dates on view:
This artwork was on view May 11, 2021 – August 20, 2021 and is now available for viewing online.

Birds in the Moon

Artist: Mark Grey and Júlia Canosa i Serra
Description: Birds in the Moon is a fantastical story with live music, soundscapes and video projections that conveys the urgency and hope that the Bird-Mother experiences as she protects her young daughter from menacing forces that threaten to derail their journey – one that embodies themes of freedom, migration and borders. This is a new, mobile chamber opera performed inside and on top of a specially designed shipping container.
Host: The Broad Stage
Location: This event was presented outdoors on Santa Monica Lot #27, located at the corner of Arizona and 5th Street
Dates on view:
This project was on view September 1 – 4, 2021 and is no longer installed.
Project website: https://thebroadstage.org/showinfo.php?id=378

Ocean Avenue AiR (Artists in Residence)

Artist: Here.LA
Description: The Ocean Avenue Artists in Residence Program (Ocean AiR) was created as an extension of the City of Santa Monica’s ongoing Ocean Avenue Project, which was prompted by the onset of the pandemic and aims to revitalize and enhance public use of the streetspace. Ocean AiR was sponsored by Metro through the City’s Art of Recovery initiative, which funds artistic works and creative projects that strengthen and connect Santa Monica in its recovery efforts. Here LA (HLA) was selected for the residency and led an arts-based community conversation that informed the creation of temporary prototypes that explored how Ocean Avenue could better utilize and bridge its public spaces, support local businesses, and connect with adjacent corridors. The “prototypes” tested solutions that could be made more permanent, whether a program or a physical design solution. View the final report here: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1AaBLgDDZjplA93_cpZzv8EIAmvsKUx9i

Location:Ocean Avenue between Santa Monica Blvd. and Colorado Ave.
Dates on View: Installation December 2020 – still on view; Community Pop Up Event December 4, 2021
Watch video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dwiXKYgFxY

Montana Avenue Tree Art and Light Installation

Artist: Pacific Design Services
Description: The art and light installation spans ten blocks of the Montana Avenue business district and aims to support the economic recovery of the area amidst ongoing challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Each block features a ficus tree that has been transformed into a unique, illuminated work of art with themes that range from whimsical butterflies and flowers to hanging lanterns, chandeliers, and colored panes.

Locations: Montana Avenue between 6th and 17th Streets
Dates on View: This project is currently on view April – September 2022.
Project website: http://montanaave.com/new-tree-art-light-installation/

Experimental Quesadilla Lab

Artist: Teresa Flores
Description: Experimental Quesadilla Lab is an artist-led workshop series exploring identity and wellness in Santa Monica through quesadilla making, art making and movement workshops.
Location: Virginia Avenue Park
Dates on view:
 This project is currently on view May 1 – June 25, 2022.
Project website: https://www.experimentalquesadillalab.com

Undanced Dances Through Prison Walls During a Pandemic

Image of Undanced Dances Through Prison Walls During a Pandemic

Artist: Suchi Branfman
Description: In 2016, choreographer and educator, Suchi Branfman, began a five-year choreographic residency inside the California Rehabilitation Center, a medium-security state men’s prison in Norco, California. The project, dubbed Dancing Through Prison Walls, developed into a critical dialogue about freedom, confinement, and how we survive restriction, limitations, and denial of liberty through the act of dancing. The project abruptly ended in March 2020, when the California state prison system shut down programming and visitation due to Covid-19. The work was rapidly revised, and the incarcerated dancers began sending out written choreographies from their bunks to the outside world. The resulting collection of deeply imagined choreographic pieces, written between March and May of 2020, was dubbed Undanced Dances Through Prison Walls During a Pandemic. With artistic direction by Suchi Branfman and cinematography by Tom Tsai, the dances are powerfully narrated by Marc Antoni Charcas, Ernst Fenelon Jr., Richie Martinez and Romarilyn Ralston (formerly incarcerated movers and organizers) and choreographically interpreted by a group of brilliant choreographers: Bernard Brown, Jay Carlon, Irvin Gonzalez, Kenji Igus, Brianna Mims and Tom Tsai (all of whom have joined Branfman dancing inside the Norco prison). Each team was entrusted with bringing one of the written dances to action. Between them, they are steeped in hip hop, tap, breaking, performance art, quebradita, spoken word, Bhutto and contemporary dance forms. Released from prison during the summer of 2020, Richie Martinez joins the cast as he narrates and performs in Richie’s Disappearing Acts which he wrote while incarcerated at the Norco prison during the pandemic. The virtual event included a film of the written work transformed into embodied dances in sites throughout the Santa Monica civic center area, drawing focus to the nation’s school to prison nexus (Meiners, 2007), followed by a conversation with the eleven artists involved.
Host: Produced by 18th Street Arts Center

Locations: Online
Dates on View:4/16/2021, 6:30 – 8pm

Archive of Hopes and Dreams

Photograph of Paula Goldman's Archive of Hopes and Dreams installed on banners in Downtown Santa Monica

Artist: Paula Goldman
Description: The Archive of Hopes and Dreams is a virtual meeting place for Santa Monicans to share stories and their dreams for a post-COVID world.

Host: ASU School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, Downtown Santa Monica
Location: Online, in addition some stories have been printed on postcards and banners that have been distributed or hung in various locations in Santa Monica.
Dates on View: February 2021 to present

Main Street K-Rail Mural Project 2020

Artists: Gus Harper, Ginoflo, Maybe Sandy, Nicole Sherman, Sara Sandoval, Thread, Ms. Yellow, GIGO
Description: OPA, the Main Street merchants and Beautify Earth collaborated to transform the plain K-Rail concrete safety barriers into a public gallery of vibrant and diverse art by local artists. The flowing horizontal murals help unite and celebrate the streetscape, reflect individual sites, and attract residents and visitors alike to Main Street’s restaurants and retailers.
Hosts:
Ocean Park Association, Main Street Business Improvement Association, Beautify Earth
Location: Along Main Street, between Bay St and Marine St
Dates on view: Currently on view.

Main Street K-Rail Mural Project 2021

Artists: Maya Reese Greenwald, Grant Conboy, Nicole Sherman, Bobby Rodriguez, Shplinton, Jody Zellen, Joy Hallare, Clam Diggin’ (Kevin Johnson and Alexandra Fisher)
Description: OPA, the Main Street merchants and Beautify Earth collaborated to transform the plain K-Rail concrete safety barriers into a public gallery of vibrant and diverse art by local artists. The flowing horizontal murals help unite and celebrate the streetscape, reflect individual sites, and attract residents and visitors alike to Main Street’s restaurants and retailers.
Hosts:
Ocean Park Association, Main Street Business Improvement Association, Beautify Earth
Location: Along Main Street, between Bay St and Marine St
Dates on view: Currently on view.

Maya Reese Greenwald (24 Hours)

Grant Conboy (Social Tapestry)

Nicole Sherman (Chasing California Sunsets)

Bobby Rodriguez (Z's Creation)

Shplinton (Bright Eyes)

Clam Diggin' (Kevin Johnson and Alexandra Fisher) (Ocean Park Gold)

Jody Zellen (Yankee Doodle)

Joy Hallare (Lost Treasure)

Grant Conboy (Dancing in the Moonlight)

Winterlit Holiday-Inspired Art Installations

Artists: Debra Scacco, Haus of Dévlin, Jeff Nishinaka, Paula Goldman, RFX1, Bunnie Reiss, Jaya Tengco, Parisa Parnian, Phyllis Green
Description: Holiday-inspired art installations came to life at eleven stops throughout Third Street Promenade featuring window displays in storefronts and murals created by local artists who were asked to interpret what the holiday season meant to them during an unprecedented year that had been anything but normal.
Hosts:
Third Street Promenade, Downtown Santa Monica, Inc.
Location: Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica, 90401
Dates on view: This artwork was on view November 27, 2020 – January 23, 2021 and is no longer installed.

Debra Scacco

Haus of Dévlin

Paula Goldman

Parisa Parnian

Jeff Nishinaka

Downtown Santa Monica Black History Month

Artists: Shplinton, A Brilliant Dummy, Mira Gandy
Description: Public art installations along Third Street Promenade to honor the Black experience and draw attention to the contributions made by African Americans and those of African descent, as part of a greater effort in the City of Santa Monica to deepen our knowledge and foster understanding of other cultures and experiences that have been marginalized or overlooked due to a legacy of slavery and institutional racism.
Hosts:
Third Street Promenade, Downtown Santa Monica, Inc.
Location: Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica, 90401
Dates on view: This artwork was on view through March and April of 2021 and is no longer installed.

Shplinton (Warm Waves)

A Brilliant Dummy (Shades of Us)

Mira Gandy (Phenomenal Women)