Partners: J. Paul Getty Trust, CARS, Intertrend, and Creative Class Collective
Type: Activation
Getty 25 Celebrates Long Beach Summer Festival
On the occasion of the Getty Center’s 25th anniversary, Getty partnered with Community Arts Resources (CARS), to identify key community partners from throughout the region produce a series of ten festivals throughout summer 2022. Having identified Long Beach as one of those neighborhoods Studio One Eleven was invited to partner with long-time collaborators Intertrend and Creative Class Collective to organize the Long Beach festival.
As a result, the team forged the Long Beach Creative Coalition, and created a multistakeholder partnership with over a dozen leading grassroots and institutional organizations including; Arts Council for Long Beach, Centro CHA, Museum of Latin American Art (MoLAA), Uptown Business Improvement District, The African American Cultural Center of Long Beach, United Cambodian Community, Rancho Los Cerritos, Council of Business Associations, Long Beach Center for Economic Inclusion, Long Beach Unified School District, Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Gallery at CSULB, Senay Kenfe (Eddies Liquor), The LGBTQ Center Long Beach, Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum (PIEAM), Long Beach Museum of Art (LBMA), and Long Beach City College.
The Long Beach festival featured diverse artists from throughout the city, shining a light on local talent with an emphasis on North Long Beach, where the festival was located. The Long Beach festival was the third in the series of ten festivals, intended to focus on community building and celebrating cultural diversity post-COVID.
Headliners Dengue Fever and Seafood Sam performed with an array of talent including Grammy-winning guitarist J.Mo the Great, Brainstory, JD Dance Company, Modern Apsara Dance, as well as a procession by the Jordan High School Marching Band, and more. Activations took place throughout the weekend, from artmaking workshops by the Museum of Latin American Art and Centro CHA, to live art demonstrations by Inspired LBC, site-specific art installations by Long Beach Art Museum of Art and Rancho Los Cerritos, as well as composting workshops, African drumming, and skate demos in one of Long Beach’s most iconic bowls.
In addition to Getty-inspired art programming, the festival featured an Artist’s Alley with immersive outdoor exhibitions and live art demonstrations celebrated by Long Beach-based artists and institutions. Rancho Los Cerritos Curator, Carlos Ortega has organized the exhibition, Roots in Long Beach: Concepts of Home, which proposed alternative views of ‘Home’ by local communities, challenging the typical, established societal views.
The artwork by a culturally diverse group of local Long Beach artists signifies themes of identity, displacement, family values, and what it means to be a member of an underrepresented community. In addition, Long Beach Museum of Art presented an installation by artist Daniela Soberman that comprised a large-scale structure of interlocking pieces, symbolizing the diverse people and cultures of Long Beach and how they can come together to support one another.
The Getty 25 Celebrates Long Beach took place from June 4th to June 5th 2022 at Houghton Park - 6301 Myrtle Ave Long Beach, CA. 90805. The event was free and open to the public. For more information about this event please visit www.gettylongbeachfestival.com
