The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is planning to expand beyond its mid-Wilshire campus to create a satellite campus, or possibly two, in South Los Angeles — the area once known as South Central but rebranded 15 years ago because of its association with riots and crime.
The City Council has scheduled a vote for Friday on one site, owned by the city, and Michael Govan, the director of LACMA, said he is in “very serious discussions” with county leaders about the other.
The goal, he noted, is for the museum, which receives about 25 percent of its financing from the county, to reach what he called “underserved” populations in Los Angeles with exhibitions, after-school programming and other events.
“If you look at a map of L.A.'s public schools, the dots representing the neediest students are all through South Los Angeles,” Govan said. “You start thinking, where can the value of your collection and program be the greatest, when you’re behind a big fancy fence on Wilshire Boulevard or out in the community?”
The latest census data shows South Los Angeles, a cluster of more than two dozen neighborhoods south of the 10 Freeway, to be about 67 percent Hispanic and about 31 percent African-American.
The City Council vote on Friday would give LACMA a 35-year lease for an 80,000 square-foot building in a recreation area known as South Los Angeles Wetlands Park. The lease will be first discussed Wednesday during the council’s “arts, recreation and river committee” meeting, which is open to the public.
“I don’t see any real obstacles,” said Curren D. Price Jr., the city councilman who represents the district containing the park. “LACMA’s presence here is going to be very, very significant — part of a larger corridor for arts, recreation and education.”
Boarded up for decades, the Wetlands building once served as a garage for metropolitan trains and buses. It was constructed in 1911 without electric lighting but with large windows instead.
“After you’ve seen dozens and dozens of industrial buildings, it takes about two seconds to appreciate the potential of a building like this, even if it’s disused,” Govan said on a visit to the site, about an hour’s drive from LACMA. He recalled spotting a former Nabisco box factory on the Hudson when he was head of Dia Art Foundation in New York that he ultimately transformed into Dia: Beacon.
If approved by the City Council on Friday, LACMA’s new site will serve, for starters,about 9,500 students who don’t live near its mid-Wilshire campus. Govan described an ongoing museum program at the Charles White Elementary School near MacArthur Park that brings students together with contemporary artists and gives them access to museum pieces as sharing similar aims.
Govan identified another reason for seeking a satellite space: The museum pays for offsite commercial storage, with no such facilities under its own control. A new site could have built-in storage, if renovated to meet standards. He estimated that the Wetlands building would cost “$300 to $400 per square foot zone to renovate, so we’re looking at roughly $25 to $30 million for capital investment.”
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LACMA has already spent several years raising money for the transformation of its main Wilshire campus, which involves razing three buildings to replace them with a single dramatic structure by architect Peter Zumthor. With David Geffen’s gift of $150 million, the museum has raised about $450 million but is still $200 million short of its stated budget for construction and related costs.
The museum doesn’t seemed worried about taking on another capital campaign. Govan said he doesn’t think there would be any overlap in donors, noting that the South L.A. projects would appeal to those supporting “a different set of national initiatives toward social justice.”
“Until the funding drive has been finished for LACMA on Wilshire Boulevard, we are not seeking any resources from those who should and can be giving to that campaign,” Govan said. “We are looking elsewhere.”
The Ford Foundation, which is not involved with the Zumthor project, has already issued a $2 million flexible grant to LACMA “for the acquisitions of sites and community-based programming” in South Los Angeles, said the foundation’s president, Darren Walker. He called the project “a radical idea, not being done at this scale by any museum in America.”
“By going right into the community, this turns the traditional, elitist museum model on its head,” Walker noted. “The place of the museum is not only Fifth Avenue or Wilshire Boulevard but also Crenshaw Boulevard. It’s about democratizing our idea of a museum’s mission.” He was especially excited, he said, by the museum’s plans to develop programs and exhibitions in consultation with community members instead of simply importing existing shows.
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The Wetlands Park is not the only locale in play. County officials have recently proposed a site about 6 miles further south: the former location of the Ujima Village housing project, which was torn down after the land was found to be contaminated with crude oil and gas. Part of the 104-acre Earvin “Magic” Johnson Park not far from Watts Towers, this site would require a new building, from the ground up, which could allow for a larger building and more dedicated art storage.
Mark Ridley-Thomas, the Los Angeles county supervisor who represents the area, is spearheading a decadelong renovation of the park, with $50 million in improvements in the first phase, scheduled over the next two years, to include a large event center, better trails and a water park.
“We think LACMA could be a significant anchor in the park, and this is potentially the epicenter of cultural activity in the southeast portion of the county,” Ridley-Thomas said. As for environmental problems, he said, “We are good to go. It took six years but we now have a handle on the scope of contamination and have begun remediation.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.