The mission of the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture is to advance arts, culture, and creativity throughout LA County. We fulfill our mission by providing services and support in areas including grants and technical assistance for nonprofit organizations; professional development opportunities; commissioning civic artworks and managing the County’s civic art collection; implementing countywide arts education initiatives; research and evaluation; career pathways in the creative economy; free community programs; and cross sector creative strategies that address civic issues. This work is framed by the County’s Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative and a longstanding commitment to fostering access to the arts.
Medium:
Blue milk paint on reclaimed tables and chairs
Imperial Dims:
Overall: 36 x 480 x 48 in.
County Department:
Parks and Recreation
Address Name:
Monteith Park
Supervisorial District:
2
About the Artwork:
Monteith Park is a small recreation park located in the unincorporated community of View Park in south Los Angeles. Neighborhood residents expressed a desire to enhance activity in the park with programming to promote positive family use. Reclaimed Block Club Party was designed as a platform for community members to talk about the importance of public gathering through food and discussion. Using reclaimed tables and chairs, artist team Greenmeme created a sculpture that was a centerpiece for community events in Monteith Park. In November 2014, Greenmeme invited the community to a community potluck picnic where the artwork was introduced to the neighborhood. The approximately 40 feet long sculpture was painted sky blue, a reoccurring color in Greenmeme’s artwork, which is meant to visually connect the artwork with the environment and prompt discussions about how to take better care of our public spaces and natural resources. This artwork was temporarily installed in Monteith Park from November 2014 through February 2015. Reclaimed Block Club Party was designed as a platform for community members to talk about the importance of public gathering through food and discussion. Using reclaimed tables and chairs, artist team Greenmeme created a sculpture that was a centerpiece for community events in Monteith Park. The artwork is no longer on view.
About the Artist:
Greenmeme Studio Profile
Freya Bardell and Brian Howe work together under the studio name, Greenmeme, a cross disciplinary public practice based in Los Angeles. The focus of Greenmeme is the cultural awareness. The artist team uses a highly process driven approach for their site specific installations, which have been featured nationally and internationally, and have shown in galleries, museums, vacant lots, rivers and oceans. The studio is currently working on Public Commissions for the City of San Jose, University North Texas, City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County
Freya Bardell
Freya, lives in Los Angeles where she is a practicing artist and educator. She grew up in the UK, the daughter of an artist father and has always been an avid maker. After graduating from Manchester University, her passions for the environment led her to work for the Lancashire Wildlife Trust as an environmental educator. On moving to Los Angeles, she worked as an art director and set designer gaining experience working with highly skilled creative teams to produce unique environments in extremely tight time frames within a set budget. These among her other global adventures has led her to a unique perspective on her creative endeavors. Her work focuses on adaptive, site specific strategies that respond to environmental change and engage the public through a variety of art forums. In 2010, She was awarded a Fellowship at Montalvo Center for the Arts.
Brian Howe
In 2006 Brian graduated from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (BArch). A lifelong artist, he also has over 2 decades of experience in construction and fabrication and brings a unique capability to both design and manage the coordination needs for Greenmeme projects, capable of talking the language of fabricators and engineers, as well as coordinating communities and the evolving teams we work with. He has been the lead on our most recent projects including the 405 and Riverside Roundabout projects. These projects have been more than 4 years in the making and have allowed him the opportunity to gain knowledge in strategic methods of collaboration with a wide range of city agencies on projects with budgets up to $1.5M. Agencies and consultants he has worked with include LA BOE, LA Metro, Kiewit (405 Contractor) HNTB engineering, Aecom, Flat Iron Construction (Riverside Roundabout) San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles City DCA, Los Angeles County Office of Cultural Affairs and many others.