Cultivate/Create - Los Angeles County Arts Commission

LOS ANGELES COUNTY ARTS COMMISSIONPress Contacts:Linda Chiavaroli, Director of Communications, 213 202-5935,communications@arts.lacounty.govAnji Gaspar-Milanovic, Technical Assistance Programs Manager, 213 202-3981,amilanovic@arts.lacounty.govFor Release March 22, 2012FIRST PROJECT GENERATED BY “CULTIVATE/CREATE” EXAMINESENDING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN“I Can: Requiem for I Can't” runs March 31 through April 22Exhibitions, film, theatre and music events that will premiere throughout Los Angeles Countythrough July 2012 have been made possible by the Arts Commission’s Cultivate/CreateInitiative. The first of these is I Can: Requiem for I Can't, an art installation and performanceengaging the community in ending violence against women created by artists Barbara T. Smithand Nina Jun’s. The event is being presented by A Window Between Worlds (AWBW) atSocial and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), 685 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA (Old VenicePolice Station).The artists in collaboration with AWBW have designed a participatory project that creates acommunal space for healing and transformation from domestic violence and sexual assault.Designed to mobilize survivors statewide, the public component of this artwork launches with aninstallation and performance building upon AWBW’s 20 years of pioneering experience in usingart against abuse.Events surrounding the installation-performance include an opening ceremony (March 31), anevening reception (April 19 coinciding with the Venice Art Crawl) and a conversation with theartists (April 22). All events are free. For more information, go to www.awbw.org.Cultivate/Create, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts with a matching grant from theLos Angeles County Productivity Investment Fund, enables arts organizations to increase fundsfrom external sources to commission new works of art. In April 2011, the initiative granted ninearts organizations $10,000, all of which were matched dollar-for-dollar by contributions from newindividual donors.Other new works of art commissioned through Cultivate/Create include an “outer-disciplinary”music event at Highways Performance Space, a workshop presentation of performance artistCasey Smith’s “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” by Circle X Theatre Company and artistsMiwa Matreyek and Steve Ellison’s (Flying Lotus) film/music collaboration, “The Mapping ofCountries Yet to Come,” at Center for the Arts Eagle Rock. More details of about these andother Cultivate/Create works will be released at a later date.For more information about other arts organizations involved in this initiative and their respectivecommissions, visit http://www.lacountyarts.org/cultivate_create.html.

The Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Laura Zucker, Executive Director, providesleadership in cultural services of all disciplines for the largest county in the United States,encompassing 88 municipalities. The Arts Commission, in addition to administering a grantsprogram that funds more than 350 nonprofit arts organizations annually; provides leadershipand staffing to support the regional blueprint for arts education, Arts for All; oversees theCounty’s Civic Art Program for capital projects; programs the John Anson Ford Theatres,andsupports the Los Angeles County Cultural Calendar on ExperienceLA.com. The Commissionalso produces free community programs, including the L.A. Holiday Celebration broadcastnationally, and a year-round music program that funds more than 70 free concerts each year inpublic sites. The 2011-12 President of the Arts Commission is Ollie Blanning.For more information please consult the Arts Commission online press kit:http://lacountyarts.org/page/pubnewspress.3/22/12###