[Storiaorale] TODAY Watts Towers Common Ground Initiative: U…

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Watts Towers Common Ground
Art, Migrations, Development


Conference Program


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October 22-24, 2010

UCLA & Watts

www.WattsTowersCommonGround.org<http://www.wattstowerscommonground.org/>


Friday, October 22, 2010
Sequoia Room, Faculty Center, UCLA

2:00     Welcome & Introductions

Thomas Harrison, Department of Italian, UCLA * Olga Garay, Director, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs * Keith Parker, Associate Vice Chancellor of Government and Community Relations, UCLA

The Watts Towers * Film by Michael McNamara, 2005

Luisa Del Giudice, Los Angeles * The Watts Towers Common Ground Initiative

3:15    The Watts Towers and Art Movements:  Local & Global I  *  Chaired by Paul Vangelisti, Otis College of Art & Design

Jo Farb Hernandez, S.P.A.C.E.S. & San Jose State Univ. * Local Art, Global Issues: Tales of Survival and Demise Among Contemporary Art Environments

Guglielmo Bilancioni, Univ. of Genova * Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere: Simon Rodia and Fantastic Architecture
Amit Wolf, UCLA * The Art of Doing Your Thing: Rodia's Towers in Architectural Thought and Practice, 1965-1972

4:45     Break

5:00     The Committee for Simon Rodia's Towers in Watts (CSRTW):
Rare Reflections by Early Members  *  Chaired by Paul A. Harris, Loyola Marymount University

William Cartwright, Co-Founder CSRTW * In conversation with Edward Landler
Bud Goldstone * Film, introduction by Seth Strongin, The City Project
Jeanne Morgan * Film, introduction by Edward Landler, Filmmaker

6:30     Timothy Watkins, Watts Labor Community Action Committee, Los Angeles  *  "Don't Move, Improve!" Watts Labor Community Action Committee, Past and Present (Introduction by Darnell M. Hunt)

7:00     Opening Reception, with Poet, Otis O'Solomon, Watts Prophet

Saturday, October 23, 2010
121 Dodd Hall, UCLA

9:00 The Watts Towers and Art Movements: Local & Global II * Chaired by Thomas Harrison, UCLA

Susan D. Anderson, UCLA * Preserving the History of Watts as a Progenitor of the Avant-Garde

Paul A. Harris, Loyola Marymount Univ., Los Angeles * The Poetic Concrete of Sam Rodia's Watts Towers and the Concrete Poetry of Ronald Johnson

Richard Cándida Smith, Univ. of California, Berkeley * An Era of Grand Ambitions: Sam Rodia and California Modernism


10:45 Artists in Conversation * Chaired by Rosie Lee Hooks, Watts Towers Arts Center

John Outterbridge * Judson Powell * Charles Dickson * Augustine Aguirre * Bettye Saar

12:00 Lunch, St. Alban's Episcopal Church, 580 Hilgard Ave., LA 90024

1:15     Visit to Powell Library Exhibition:  Committee for Simon Rodia's Towers in Watts, UCLA Special Collection No. 1388, with Luisa Del Giudice (optional)

2:00 Conservation of the Towers * Chaired by Jo Farb Hernandez, S.P.A.C.E.S.

Steve Colton, Art Conservator, Los Angeles * Conservation Work at the Towers: A Brief Overview of Conditions, Causes, Treatment Campaigns, and Results Over Five Decades

Jeffrey Herr, Hollyhock House/Simon Rodia's Towers in Watts, DCA * Simon Rodia's Towers: A Status Report

Mark Gilberg, and Frank D. Preusser, Conservation Center, LACMA * The Watts Towers - Preservation Impossible?

3:30     Break

3:45 Migrations * Chaired by Dominic Thomas, UCLA

Kenneth Scambray, Univ. of La Verne * California and the Italian Immigrant Experience: The Artistic and Literary Contexts of Simon Rodia's Watts Towers

Linden Beckford Jr., Los Angeles * The Black Southern Migration in Watts: Post-WWII Facelift

Katia Ballacchino, Univ. of Rome Sapienza * Towers of Memory: Images and Visual Community Symbols Between Italy and the United States


Istituto Italiano di Cultura
1023 Hilgard Ave., Los Angeles, 90024 (Westwood)
("Settimana della Lingua Italiana")

6:00     I Build the Tower * Film by Edward Landler and Brad Byer * Exhibition:  Sabato Rodia's Watts Towers, Curated by Rosie Lee Hooks & Jo Farb Hernandez

7:30     Reception

Sunday, October 24, 2010
Day in Watts
(by pre-payment only)*

Watts Towers & Watts Towers Arts Center (WTAC)
1727 East 107th St., LA 90002

8:30     Departure, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, 1023 Hilgard Ave., LA (Westwood) 90024 Westwood

9:00     I - Guided Tour of the Watts Towers, Watts Towers Arts Center, Charles Mingus Youth Arts Center (including Exhibition: Migrating Towers:  The Gigli of Nola and Beyond), Simon Rodia's Towers in Watts, Conservation Headquarters  (Transportation to WLCAC)

Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC)
10950 South Central Ave., LA 90059

II - Guided Tour of the Watts Labor Community Action Committee campus, including Civil Rights Museum


11:30 Lunch, Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC)


12:30 Art Environments & Cultural Contexts * Chaired by Luisa Del Giudice

Joseph Sciorra, John D. Calandra It. Am. Inst., Queens College, NY * "Why a Man Makes the Shoes?": Italian-American Art and Philosophy in Sabato Rodia's Watts Towers

Laura E. Ruberto, Berkeley City College * A California Detour on the Road to Italy: The Hubcap Ranch, the Napa Valley, and Italian American Identity

Alessandro Dal Lago and Serena Giordano, University of Genova * Art Without Nation

Thomas Harrison, UCLA * Sam Rodia-Outsider Artist?

2:30     Art & Development * Chaired by Edward Tuttle, UCLA

Gail Brown, "Where I'm Standing," Los Angeles * From Where I'm Standing Photo-Documentary Workshops at Watts Towers Arts Center: Building Community Through Self-Awareness and Self-Expression

Monica Barra, Rutgers University * Teaching the Watts Towers, Learning Los Angeles: Public Art, Storytelling, and Urban Pedagogy

Darnell M. Hunt and Ana-Christina Ramon, UCLA * Watts This About "Black Los Angeles?" An Anthology on Space, People, Image, and Action

Melissa Hayes, Chicago History Museum * Watts California; Branding Communities for Cultural Tourism

4:00     I Build the Tower, Film by Edward Landler and Brad Byer
_____________________

*Day in Watts Tour - 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. (optional return at 4:15 p.m.)

[Made possible, in part, by a grant from S.P.A.C.E.S. - Saving and Preserving Arts and Cultural Environments]

Includes return transportation to Westwood, guided tour & lunch. Reservation by $15 pre-payment only (payable to "Italian Cultural Institute"). Check last-minute availability with conference registration desk or by writing to: info@???