Exhibitions

CURRENT EXHIBITION
How to house 7,000 people in Skid Row?

Opening Reception: Saturday, March 7 from 6-8pm

Skid Row History Museum & Archive, 250 S. Broadway.
March 7 through August 29, 2020
Thu. Fri. Sat. 2-5pm

Exhibition created by Rosten Woo
with Anna Kobara, Henriëtte Brouwers, John Malpede

How to house 7,000 people in Skid Row?
We’re talking about housing everyone now living on the streets of Skid Row –and more.

Tired of promises and no solutions to L.A.’s housing crisis? At the exhibition, learn together and in public how housing works and could work in L.A.

For details visit Facebook Event

2020

How To House 7000 People in Skid Row.

The “Skid Row Now & 2040” plan, created by a coalition of Skid Row community members and groups, identifies funding sources to house people who have extremely low incomes. We’re going to look at the plan–and additional ideas for funding housing that will get people off the streets and into housing.

Nick Paul & Diane Prozeller
Nov. 8, 2019 – Jan. 11, 2020

Two artists who make bold fanciful paintings and sculptures in their downtown Los Angeles Hotel-room studios.

DOGS IN THE HOUSE
August 15 – October 26, 2019.

A showcase of artists and organizations that utilize advocacy and direct services to overcome the obstacles faced by low income and homeless pet owners.

Visions of Freedom and Independence
April 11 – June 29, 2019.

A Studio 526 group art exhibit featuring the works of over 50 Skid Row neighborhood artists.

Bridging the Divide
January 19 – March 23, 2019.

An exhibition of paintings by two downtown Los Angeles artists; Manuel Compito and Scott Taylor.

State of the ART: Skid Row
October 12 – December 29, 2018

An inventory of current arts activity in Skid Row

Zillionaires Against Humanity:
Sabotaging the Skid Row Neighborhood Council
March 9 – June 30, 2018

The elements of the exhibition: illustrations and narrative from Adrian Riskin’s California Public Records Act inquiry from his blog michaelkohlhaas.org; documents of the entire process provided by the Skid Row Neighborhood Council (SRNC) Formation Committee; videos of different stages of the civic process by Linus Shento and photos and ephemera from the SRNC campaign.

LAZARUS
January 19 – February 24, 2018

A film and exhibit of pictures from the movie about homeless individuals in Echo Park and Skid Row, Los Angeles.

THE ARTYSSEY
December 9, 2017 – January 13, 2018

The exhibit features the works of more than 40 Skid Row neighborhood artists from Lamp Arts Program, working in a variety of media, from painting to sculpture and multimedia art.

THE BACK 9
Golf and Zoning policy in Los Angeles
June 10 – November 12, 2017

A playable educational golf course about zoning and redevelopment politics in Downtown LA. Each hole of the course explores a different aspect of zoning and its political implications. Specifically the course connects with the planned DTLA2040 rezoning plan which will have dramatic effects on Skid Row. Designed by Rosten Woo, in collaboration with LAPD.

Words We Have Learned Since 9/11
Oct 7 – Dec 3, 2016

A public, participatory photographic project by Clayton Campbell. In workshops, participants are asked to identify words they have learned since 9-11, or words they knew but have taken on different meanings. Their portraits while holding their words on signs are then photographed on site and placed directly into the installation.

The Dream Walk Exhibit
Aug 20 – Sept 18, 2016

The exhibition by Lamp Art Project features the works of a diverse group of more than 40 Skid Row artists, working in a variety of media. The majority of the works have been created specifically for this exhibition. Salem Rose, the artist who submitted the title, explains: “It’s an art walk (of sorts), walking also implies that we are moving forward. ‘Dream’ implies drive, determination, as well as recreation and restoration of aspirations.”

Walk the Talk
May 18 – July 31, 2016

The exhibition features portraits, interviews, transcripts and ‘Walk The Talk’ performance scripts and videos of 52 people who have lived and worked in Skid Row and have been instrumental in creating a neighborhood in which the interests of its low income residents are prioritized and their voices heard.

Blue Book / Silver Book
April 11 – June 28, 2015

In 1973 “The Blue Book,” was adopted by the city, in part as a strategy that would “contain” poor people in one corner of downtown. Significantly, it had the reverse effect of also preventing upscale development within Skid Row.

General Dogon:
Screaming Two Wheelers
October 3 – December 18, 2015

An exhibition featuring Skid Row community civil rights organizer General Dogon and his low-rider bicycles.

About the Skid Row History Museum and Archive

The Skid Row History Museum and Archive is an exhibition /performing arts space curated by Los Angeles Poverty Department. It foregrounds the distinctive artistic and historical consciousness of Skid Row, a 40-year-old social experiment. The Skid Row History Museum and Archive 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 strategies. The space operates as an archive, exhibition, performance and meeting space. Exhibitions will focus on grassroots strategies that have preserved the neighborhood from successive threats of gentrification and displacement, to be studied for current adaptation and use.

The space is activated by performances, community meetings and films addressing gentrification and displacement locally, nationally and globally. 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 space also serves as a literal and artistic common ground, a welcoming space for Angelenos to meet and mingle and explore civic issues together.

In a second museum space an extensive archive of Skid Row History (planning documents, articles, videos, audios, interview transcripts etc.), are available for casual and scholarly research. Visitors will be able to access this archive, comment upon it and use it to further explore the show’s themes.

Funders

Los Angeles Poverty Department’s Skid Row History Museum and Archive is supported with funding from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Upcoming Events

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LAPD Mission

Founded in 1985 by director-performer-activist John Malpede, Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD) is a non-profit arts organization, the first performance group in the nation made up principally of homeless people, and the first arts program of any kind for homeless people in Los Angeles. LAPD creates performances and multidisciplinary artworks that connect the experience of people living in poverty to the social forces that shape their lives and communities. LAPD’s works express the realities, hopes, dreams and rights of people who live and work in L.A.’s Skid Row.