This is the start of a series highlighting lesser-known or unique archives; what we’d like to call Archives of the Month. Our September archives is LACA: The Los Angeles Contemporary Archive. It is a small, intimate space located in Chinatown, Los Angeles which houses over 33,000 art objects, ephemera, digital media, writing, and more within 83 different collections. Established in 2013, their mission “challenges established concepts of the archive and art institution, sustaining a unique experimental environment for critical inquiry, artistic research, and public dialogue” (LACA, 2020). The objects resting on the shelves and in storage boxes here represent the Southern California region. What makes this archives noteworthy is that anyone can add to this collection, including yourself. You can submit a piece online here or visit the center in person.
Browsing through the digital collections, you might find a flyer for a party, a pamphlet from an archives in Hong Kong, or a soundtrack for a musical documentary. Ariane Vielmetter submitted the photograph shown on the left from the Visitor Welcome Center founded by David Bell in 2016.
Creating an archives without traditional limitations that can actively preserve a small piece of individual artistic expression is a heartening achievement. LACA recently held a show in 2021 called reCourse Work which began as “an open call for artists, authors, and performers to share ephemera related to their process of creating course work, lessons and syllabi” (LACA, 2020). LACA hosts events regularly, inviting community engagement on topics familiar to many in Southern California including immigration, documentation, wealth inequality, religion, and ethnicity.
We hope you’ll take a few minutes to check out LACA and learn about their collections!
References
LACA. (2020). Website. Accessed September 2022. https://www.lacarchive.com/
Vielmetter, A. (2022). [Photograph]. Image Accessed through LACA September 2022. https://www.lacarchive.com/item/photograph
Lavacoalition.art (n.d.). LACA. Photograph. Image accessed September 2022 from website. https://lavacoalition.art/Los-Angeles-Contemporary-Archive-LACA