Lawndale, CA: Youth-Led New Arts City

K-12 STEAM education

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

A California K-12 education does not invite students to think like urban planners and reimagine cities (the Content Standards are more retrospective in nature). An even bigger leap for students would be to bring the arts into such planning (“creative placemaking”). The Visual Arts Standards prompt this thinking: in Grade 8, one question asks, “How do….places and design shape lives and communities?” A project that brought these strands together would have dividends for students, artists, and city residents. Lawndale: New Arts City asks students to apply their talents and imagination to the design of their own city. How might Lawndale remake itself as an artistically vibrant place that represents/preserves residents’ stories and values and fosters casually creative interactions? How might we go beyond beautification to meaning-making in everyday lives? This project-based learning emphasizes real-world performance tasks – just the kind of work that students crave.

Lawndale: New Arts City represents the city’s first-ever creative placemaking initiative orchestrated by its first neighborhood museum. This proposal emerges from numerous conversations with city officials and school district reps of Centinela Valley Union High School District (CVUHSD) and Lawndale Elementary School District (LESD).
At the project’s heart is an artist-youth collaboration to create two permanent outdoor murals. L.A.-raised artists King Cre8, Fishe, Aiseborn, and Kopyeson bring experience in graphic design, murals, and arts education. With the districts’ Arts Coordinator, ESMoA will recruit teams of 20 middle and high school students to guide each mural’s development in out-of-school hours. Students will determine the themes: nature? history? traditions? Lawndale history? The artists will then lead students through the design process, mural scaling, wall preparation (of city-owned buildings), and painting techniques. Students will contribute to/document the work-in-progress, interview artists and city officials, and share their final products on our website. Jointly-led art talks for the public will take place as well. Simultaneously, artists will create temporary installations, with input from youth and city/school representatives. Site-specific works will be created using everything from Augmented Reality technology to chalk (the latter as part of a new festival). Citywide Day of the Dead altars will bring visual interest to local businesses.

A young city that has fought for recognition from the South Bay’s wealthier and more prominent communities, Lawndale has the ingredients for success as an arts city. City Manager Sean Moore, Mayor Robert Pullen-Miles, Mayor Pro Tem Bernadette Suarez, and Councilmembers Pat Kearney and Sirley Cuevas have embraced ESMoA and looked for ways to incorporate visual arts into local events. The city is primed to contribute to the region’s creative economy, given the tools, artist connections, and mobilization of youth (4,400+ are aged 10-19). The project will contribute to students’ artistic and academic development while showing the power of small cities to remake themselves. As these arts initiatives achieve critical mass, drawing people and resources and enhancing community pride, other small municipalities in L.A. County may well be inspired to become art destinations. Imagine Lawndale youth training other youth to be community builders and civic innovators through the arts!

Lawndale: New Arts City is an early-stage project as neither the city nor the museum has attempted something on this scale although they bring related experience. ESMoA has organized multiple murals with participating artists (see https://esmoa.org/experience/firewater/); Lawndale has hosted one Chalk Festival. Through artists’ observations and student surveys, ESMoA will gauge changes in students’ knowledge of/attitudes toward art/history/social justice/urban planning with increases in collaboration/communication skills. Through focus groups with city officials, other community leaders, and residents, ESMoA will capture perceptions of the city and its identity. Is Lawndale viewed as more distinctive? Has the art drawn others to visit? Is there an appetite to sustain these initiatives? To sustain K-12 education benefits, ESMoA will design a curriculum that explores urban planning/art and mural themes, with related hands-on art projects. Evaluation will take place in future years.