18th Street Arts Center

(originally printed in Westside Life, Winter 2001)

Where in Los Angeles can you see cutting edge dance and performance art, visit world-class visual artists in their studios, view contemporary art galleries, edit digital video, and get a low-priced legal consultation. You can at the 18 th Street ArtsCenter in Santa Monica, a top international contemporary arts center and one of the best-kept secrets in Los Angeles.

Located just north of Olympic Boulevard on 18 th Street, the Center’s five buildings house over two dozen performance spaces, galleries, artist studios and offices, including the internationally-famous Highways Performance Space and Crazy Space, one of L.A.’s hottest new alternative galleries. The Center is also home to the 18th Street Arts Fest, the largest annual performing and visual arts festival on the Westside. 18 th Street’s overriding purpose is to support artists and art making on local, national and international levels.

“Honestly, there’s no place like 18th Street in Los Angeles,” states Co-Director Clayton Campbell. “We’re an international artist host and presenter, home to some of L.A.’s top visual and performing artists and a part of our community as well through our arts education program in local schools. There are very few art centers in the country, let alone Los Angeles, that are as versatile as we are.”

18th Street has been home and host to hundreds of artists who hail from many continents, countries and cultures. Since the Center opened its doors in 1988, many of its residents have gone on to national and international acclaim, including MacArthur Genius Award-winner Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Guggenheim Fellows Kit Galloway and Sheri Rabinowitz of Electronic Cafe International and internationally-touring performers like Phranc, Dan Kwong and Keith Antar Mason. (See sidebar for current residents.)

The local community also receives tremendous benefit from 18 th Street’s Arts Education Program, which places over a dozen professional artists in area middle schools in Santa Monica, Palms, Venice, Mar Vista and Marina Del Rey every year. At no expense to the school system, literally hundreds of children, many of them at-risk or from under served areas, get to work with high-quality artists and learn how to incorporate their everyday lives into art making.

“The look on hundreds of children’s faces when they create their own artwork is priceless,” states Michelle Berne, the Arts Education Program Director. “We teach them basic art techniques, appreciation and creative problem solving. We also develop teaching and community building skills among artists, so the program benefits everyone involved.”

Representative of the unique organizations in residence at the Center, California Lawyers for the Arts (C.L.A.) is a statewide non-profit dedicated to low-cost legal services for artists of all disciplines.

“Many westside residents may not know this, but every October we produce the 18 th Street Arts Fest, which is the biggest site in the L.A. County Arts Open House and one of the single largest arts festivals in Los Angeles,” states Program Coordinator Michael Sakamoto. “We also maintain a contemporary art gallery in our lobby open Monday through Friday.”

Because of the recent dearth of artist workspaces on the westside, 18th Street has also become a de facto leader in the struggle to maintain a viable local arts community. Rent for residents at the Complex is subsidized to a point below market level.

“With practically all the live-work artist spaces being squeezed out of the westside due to closures and significant rent increases, 18th Street is the last bastion for a true arts community around here,” asserts Co-Director Jan Williamson, who is also a long-time community activist. “And when you factor the international program into the mix, 18 th Street becomes that much more of an oasis in the L.A. arts scene.”

As always, this crisis situation applies to exhibition spaces as well. For example, the alternative gallery Crazy Space is dedicated to fostering work that might not otherwise have a home because of its noncommercial or experimental nature.

“Our goal is to allow serious artists to advance their work by freeing them from financial concerns so that they can explore and experiment,” states Crazy Space Director Lauren Hartman. “Without the support of 18th Street Arts Center, we wouldn’t be able to keep our doors open and support these innovative artists. We are indebted to 18th Street for the wonderful work they do on behalf of artists of all disciplines.”