Make Art Not War

Creative Expression Builds Consciousness—and Resistance—in Hearts and Minds

How do you mobilize art against war? Can artwork be co-opted by warmongers? And what, if anything, can we hope for in creating and consuming art about war?

These were some of the many questions that guided last night’s Zócalo/The Music Center conversation, “How Is Art A Weapon in War?,” presented at Jerry Moss Plaza in downtown Los Angeles.

Maneuvering their personal and people’s histories and critiques of inhumane violence, the panelists helped us understand a major takeaway: Art at the intersection of war can help us understand the enigma that is …

Writer and Curator Helen Molesworth

I Would Cook Stevie Wonder Couscous

Helen Molesworth is a writer and curator based in Los Angeles. She is also a podcast host and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Clark Art Writing Prize. …

LAXART Director Hamza Walker

Old Bay Is Only for Crabs

Hamza Walker became LAXART’s second director after 22 years as curator and director of education at the Renaissance Society in Chicago. Before joining the Zócalo event “What Is the Value …

Artist and Activist Andrea Bowers

I Resist Everything!

Andrea Bowers is a Los Angeles-based multimedia artist foregrounding struggles for gender, racial, environmental, labor, and immigration justice in her work. Before sitting down as a panelist for the Zócalo …

Art Opens a Portal to Curiosity

We Should Measure Its Value Not in Dollar Signs But in Question Marks

“L.A. is one of the largest creative economies in the world but artists here are low-wage workers. So do we even value art at all?”

Artist Joel Garcia asked the pointed …

The Art World I Want My Students to Inherit

For Young Artists, Money Matters. Ethos, Vision, and Impact Should Too

All artists exist within a larger ecosystem of creativity. Artist Ward Shelley’s timeline-inspired paintings and prints of interrelated people, places, facts, and events visualize this ever-evolving cultural milieu on mylar. …