Imagine the LA River as a Public Art Destination

The passing of Lewis MacAdams (1944–2020), poet, activist and co-founder of Friends of the LA River, prompted LA River Arts to create an competition in his honor. Held in 2020 and 2021, the competition was a forum for artists and makers of all kinds to imagine the Los Angeles River as a public art destination and find community during the pandemic. 

2021 | Represent the River: Word & Image

Our second annual competition invited artists at all career stages to submit a proposal in the visual, literary or time-based arts. Any site along the fifty-one mile length of the river could be considered. This was an ideas competition; funding and permits were not considered barriers to the proposals.

judges

Betty Avila, Executive Director, Self Help Graphics & Art. Marissa Gonzalez-Kucheck, Cultural Arts Coordinator, City of South Gate. Addy Gonzalez Renteria, Co-Founder and Co-Director, 11:11 A Creative Collective. Diane Matyas, Artist, museum educator, professor of art and LA River Arts board member. Rex Weiner, Journalist, editor and board member of Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center.

River Fables by writer Tessa Mauclere, winner of the 2021 prize, connected the animals that inhabit MacAdams’ poems, building them from upcycled local materials, and dramatically siting them along the concrete river banks that are etched with MacAdams’ verses.

One of three honorable mentions, Over the Rainbow, by James Piatt used natural sunlight, river water reflection and mirrors to create a sense of wonder.

Remarkable words were key to the 2021 proposal. In Re: The Los Angeles River a project conceived by Figlynn Morgaine, Melanie Winter and Mary-Linn Hughes—the Rebel Arts Working Group. They compiled over 140 RE–words in dozens of local languages to declare the relevance of the LA River. The giant words rang true and resulted in an honorable mention.

Abbi Drew Naylor’s 2020 Frogtown Amphitheaters offered public access and undulating creative space—atop a water filtration system! A perfect place to eat lunch or see a performance.

Fourteen-year-old Ella Kim was 2021’s emerging artist winner for her interactive installation, The People’s Poems. Kim is a member of WriteGirl, the creative writing and mentoring organization that promotes creativity, critical thinking and leadership skills to empower teen girls.

2020 | Imagine the River as a Public Art Destination

Our inaugural Lewis MacAdams Prize, launched in Covid-19’s first spring, was framed as a “blue-sky” project. The entries would, by necessity, be digital. We wanted to see big dreams—unbound to budget, zoning or permitting.

2020 lewis macadams prize

In honor of Lewis MacAdams (1944–2020), founder of Friends of the Los Angeles River, the LA River Arts Lewis MacAdams Prize was launched. Initiated in the daunting time of the COVID-19 pandemic, the open call to artists, designers, and makers in all media pointedly brought home the need for equitable community experiences of public art and culture. The prompt was to imagine the LA River—the city’s most connected open space—as a public art destination.

Judges

Sandra Jackson-Dumont, Director and CEO of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles. Diane Matyas, New York based visual artist and LA River Arts board member; Iris Anna Regn, Civic Art Project Manager, Special Projects for the LA County Department of Arts and Culture; Sandy Rodriguez, LA based artist and recipient of the 2020 Caltech Huntington Art and Research Fellowship; Hamza Walker, Executive Director of LAXART and an adjunct professor at the School of Art Institute of Chicago.