ferent ethnic and national backgrounds, working in the visual, performance and media arts.
Some 30 tenants, alone and together, were making and exhibiting paintings and sculpture, operating arts-service organizations, creating film documentaries, presenting performances, publishing magazines and celebrating annually with a neighborhood festival.
In residence in those early years were The Empowerment Project, Highways (founded by Burnham and artist Tim Miller), Emilie Conrad’s Continuum Movement, Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz’s Electronic Café International, Community Arts Resources and Side Street Projects, just to name a few.
Over the next 15 years, 18th Street formalized its Residency Program, developed an International Artist-in-Residence Exchange Program, a Presenting Program to curate and produce exhibitions, and an Arts Education Program.
Tony Hamilton, an Australian artist, is one of the international artists currently living at the center for the next month and a half. In his studio, Hamilton’s table and chairs were covered with books about the Wild West, director William Hart and DVDs he rented from the Santa Monica Library. There were also packages containing coyote bones and fake dirt used in old westerns.
Hamilton, who works as a guide in central Australia, gathers items from the Outback and other remote locations and brings them into the gallery as he tries to draw similarities between cultures.
“It’s great,” he said of the center and his new digs. “I’m used to spending most of my time sleeping in a slag outside, so this is really nice. There definitely has been a bit of a culture shock, but I’m starting to get familiar with things and the people here have been pretty friendly.”
In 2003, 18th Street changed its name to 18th Street Arts Center to better reflect the ways in which the organization has provided a central focus for arts organizations and artists in West Los Angeles County.
Today, 18th Street Arts Center is a respected destination for national and international artists wishing to publish, perform, work and/or exhibit in Los Angeles. It’s prominent arts programs have hosted and sponsored more than 150 group and solo exhibitions serving 700 artists since 1988.
With that history in mind, Jan Williamson, executive director of the center and a member of the city’s Arts Commission, said attempts will be made to retain many of the artists and organizations that have made the center the community what it is today. While no formal plans have been made for the relocation of the artist during construction, Williamson promises that the mission of the center will not change and that those dedicated to that mission will always have a home.
“To have a community, the first thing you need to have are stable people who can create that point of reference,” Williamson said. “If we had everyone rotating in and out, it would be a whole different type of community.”
As an artist herself, Williamson understands the struggles others must go through to be free to create but still have money to put a roof over their heads.
“Cash flow is certainly one hardship,” she said. “Artists can get part-time gigs, commissions and maybe get a lump sum of money to live off of, but you never know when that next thing is going to come your way. That’s the challenge and why we believe our mission is so important and why we need to expand and provide more space for artists.”
Williamson said the redevelopment of the center is just at the beginning of what is expected to be a three-year design process that will involve artists in residence. As they move closer to construction, artists and nonprofit will be consulted about relocation plans.
That’s good news for Victoria Goldfarb and her staff at California Lawyers for the Arts, who help artists settle disputes, set up non-profits and protect themselves against copyright infringement.
“We really want to stay here,” Goldfarb said as she stood in the organization’s office, a converted studio. “We hope the rent will be affordable and that we will be able to have a conference room to hold mediations … So far we’ve been given every indication that we’ll be back.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 29, 2007. Read the original PDF.