LA as LAB 3.0

In 2015, the LA as Lab conference at Claremont Graduate University set out to gain an understanding of why Los Angeles has become one of the most important incubators for innovation in the arts and culture sectors. In 2017, the conference surveyed the “extra territories” of arts and cultural production outside of established institutions and beyond codified artistic boundaries. This year, LA as LAB returns to take a closer look at the trends and technologies, the upheavals and tensions, the activism and advocacy that continue to make Los Angeles a thriving laboratory for arts and cultural exploration.

LA as LAB 3.0 is a production of Claremont Graduate University’s School of Arts and Humanities’ Museum Studies Program; Sotheby’s Institute of Art - Los Angeles’ Arts Management and Art Business Programs; and the Getty Leadership Institute.

Generous support is provided by the Thornton F. Bradshaw programs and endowment fund.

8:30am - 9:30am - Registration and Breakfast

Location: Albrecht Auditorium

9:30am - 9:45am - Opening Remarks

9:45am - 10:30am - Keynote - The Arts In The New World Order

Adrian Ellis, Director, AEA Consulting

Adrian Ellis will discuss the ways in which changes in society and economy have been and will continue to transform the production, distribution and experience of the arts and the vulnerabilities of the sector to the sort of paradigmatic change that has affected adjacent sectors such as publishing and recording; the ways in which institutional structures may adapt to these changes; and the dilemmas that arts leaders face in navigating them. The talk will seek to place the experience of LA in an international context, drawing on his work with cultural organizations and their stakeholders in Asia, Europe and the Middle East as well as the United States. He will probably fail, but it will be nevertheless be entertaining to watch him try.

10:45am - 12:00pm - Concurrent Morning Panels

Artists at the Intersection of Art, Technology, and Organizations

Location: Burkle 14

Joel Ferree, LACMA Art & Technology Lab

Stacy Switzer, Fathomers

Debra Scacco, Residency Director, LA Cleantech Incubator

Moderator: Jonathan T. D. Neil, Director, Sotheby’s Institute of Art at Claremont Graduate University

As technology has come to dominate the discourse of innovation in the cultural sphere, organizations in Los Angeles of various different stripes have begun to provide artists with opportunities to address technology and technological change in their practices, from working with and developing new tech itself to facilitating partnerships with industry players. This panel brings together artists, curators and program directors to discuss new directions and new opportunities in this “art and technology” space, to address technological disruption and sustainability, and to question the new technological determinism that seems to be so widely accepted at present.

Innovations in Museum Exhibitions: New forms, New audiences?

Location: Burkle 12

Anthony Morey, Executive Director/Chief Curator, A+D Museum

Carolyn Brucken, Chief Curator, Autry Museum of the American West

Sonnet Stanfill, Chief Curator of Fashion, V&A Museum and LACMA Fellow

Moderator: Joshua Goode, Associate Professor of History and Cultural Studies, and Director of Museum Studies Program, CGU

As museums seek new audiences and curators and directors experiment with new exhibitionary techniques, one can wonder whether the basic definition of the museum is also coming under revision. This panel, led by three innovative curators working in both new and old museums in Los Angeles, explores whether their form of exhibition and the objects and subject matter they choose to display, promote a new function for the museum or whether their new exhibitionary technique confirms a long-standing function of museums in Los Angeles and elsewhere.

Arts and (R)evolution

Location: Burkle 16

Amir Whitaker, Staff Attorney, ACLU of Southern California

Rudy Espinoza, Executive Director, Leadership for Urban Renewal Network (LURN)

Stephania Ramirez, Director Strategic Initiatives, California Community Foundation

Jamal Jones, Leimert Park Representative, Empowerment Congress Neighborhood Development Council

Moderator: Amy Shimshon-Santo, Program Director, Arts Management, Sotheby’s Institute of Art at Claremont Graduate University

Got power? Everyone does. How will you use yours to make a difference? This panel will look at how local efforts have been a catalyst for broader systemic changes impacting how people access resources, catalyze ecosystem enhancements, and increase participation in arts and culture. Panelists who work across scales — from local start-ups and neighborhood councils to statewide foundations and national legal advocacy agencies — will discuss the spark and positive ripple effect that local work can have on the world. Arts and cultural practitioners committed to social and spatial justice will learn from seasoned changemakers to better achieve our wildest aspirations for a thriving arts and cultural sector. Will the (r)evolution be administered? If so, it will require ethical leadership that engages publics and helps catalyze decision making and resource allocation to invest in the lives of individuals, communities, the city, and beyond.

12:00pm - 2:00pm - Lunch

Location: Jenkins Courtyard

1:00 - 2:00pm - Facilitated Discussions:

Location: Jenkins Courtyard

Artists as Nonprofit Leaders

Discussion led by Robert Crouch, Artistic and Executive Director of Fulcrum Arts

This roundtable will be of particular interest to those who have an active creative practice and also seek to develop a career as an arts leader. Our contemporary arts landscape has been informed and influenced by artists who have built and helmed many of our beloved local institutions: LACE, X-Tra, KCHUNG Radio, and Human Resources, to name a few. The roundtable will be led by artist and Fulcrum Arts’ Executive and Artistic Director Robert Crouch, who will share his experienced with not only maintaining an active studio practice while overseeing an arts organization with a $2 million budget, but also how our experiences as artists can, and should, inform the direction and priorities of our organizations.

Strategic Planning at Scale

Discussion led by Anne Bown-Crawford, Executive Director, California Arts Council

The roundtable will be a snapshot of what is happening at the CAC right now, how we see ourselves fitting into the discussion around the current landscape looking at the space that arts and culture hold in supporting innovation and offering creative solutions to the challenge of building resilient, healthy communities.

Moving Through the Career Pipeline

Discussion led by Melody Kanschat, Executive Director, Getty Leadership Institute at Claremont Graduate University

Roundtable discussion topics will include:

• Deciding to Go

• Exit and Finding a New Job Strategies

• First 90 Days in New Job

2:15pm - 3:30pm - Pecha Kucha Presentations - Artist-Driven Practice

Location: Albrecht Auditorium

Creative practice can unleash ideas, activate communities, and make space for new ways of being and working. Learn from artists across different disciplines who are breaching boundaries to expand their reach, and transforming the city through their creative practices along the way.

Trifari White, Filmmaker and Co-Executive Producer, NBC

Marina Magalhães, Dancer and Choreographer

Neela Banerjee, Novelist and Managing Editor, Kaya Press

Te’Amir, Musician and Producer

Kim Abeles, Visual Artist

3:30pm - 3:45pm - Coffee Break

Location: Albrecht Hallway

3:45pm - 5:00pm - Closing Panel - New Leadership, New Directions

Location: Albrecht Auditorium

Join us as we explore what will be happening at the LA Phil as it moves into its second hundred years, and at two major new institutions that are creating a titanic shift in Los Angeles' arts ecology: the Academy Museum and the Lucas Museum.

Brendan Connell, Jr, COO, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

Judy Kim, Deputy Director, Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

Simon Woods, CEO, LA Phil

Moderator, Laura Zucker, Senior Fellow, Arts Management Program, Sotheby’s Institute of Art at Claremont Graduate University

5:00pm - 6:00pm - Reception

Location: Des Combes Quad