440 S. BROADWAY – mezzanine level, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Open: Thursday, Friday, Saturday 2-5 pm
*Extended hours: Friday, December 18th 2 – 7pm
NEW EXHIBITION: GENERAL DOGON: SCREAMING TWO WHEELERS
Exhibition hours: October 3 through December 18, 2015. (Closed Thanksgiving)
SRHM & A’s next visual arts exhibition features works of Skid Row artist General Dogon. Raised on Skid Row and a leading community civil rights activist with LA CAN General Dogon’s creations, tricked out bicycles, fill the museum space. In addition, the exhibition features videos of General Dogon talking about his artistic and activist work in Skid Row.
General Dogon’s spectacular one-of-a-kind bicycles were initially conceived by the artist to gain neighborhood attention and assist his organizing efforts. Numerous public events, will take place at the museum during the course of the exhibition, including an interview with the artist, on a date to be determined.
General Dogon’s work highlights an interest of the Museum to present art objects that also function as activist objects. The Museum’s first iteration, at The Box Gallery in 2008, the exhibition featured 3 objects that had this dual significance: a shopping cart from the Catholic Worker, David Busch’s free speech tent, and Veronica Dolman’s cardboard construction of a Hotel under police siege, the Safer Cities Initiative.
April 11, 2015 LAPD opened the Skid Row History Museum and state-of-the-art digital Archive at 440 S. Broadway. Come join us, as LAPD animates the space with public conversations, movie screenings, revolving exhibitions, performative events, rent parties and more, all addressing issues surrounding gentrification and displacement — locally, nationally and globally. Stay tuned to this space for specifics as they develop!
The culture that developed here on Skid Row—an activist culture, artistic culture and recovery culture—offers a useful model for other communities navigating gentrification pressures. The museum functions as a means for exploring the mechanics of displacement in an age of immense income inequality, by mining a neighborhood’s activist history and amplifying effective community resistance strategies. It also serves as a literal and artistic common ground, a welcoming space for Angelenos to meet and mingle and explore civic issues together.