To outsiders, the contemporary art scene can seem closed, confusing, and cliquey especially in a sprawling city like Los Angeles. A young organization named ForYourArt aims to change all that, acting as the official cartographers of the emergent LA art world. Native Los Angelino Bettina Korek, 29, founded ForYourArt and a sister publicity house FYA World after two years at the LA Museum of Contemporary Art. Christening itself “an interdisciplinary producer and meta-curator,” FYA promotes, publishes, and patronizes. Most recently, Korek reached out to nine fixtures of LA culture and asked them to name their three favorite buildings or public spaces from an architectural perspective-meaning no strip malls or freeways allowed. Using their suggestions, FYA published an architecture map that Korek hopes will be the cultured answer to the ubiquitous maps of star’s homes.
On the architecture map, stops include the suggestions of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa-Disney Hall and the Observatory in Griffith Park-alongside the favorites of Brook Hodge, Curator of Architecture and Design at MOCA-BP Helios House and the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA by Frank Gehry. Artists like Edgar Arceneaux and gallery directors like Eric Owens Moss chose The Forest Lawn Cemetery, the Civil Rights Museum, Watts Towers, Hollyhock House by Frank Lloyd Wright, Gateway Art Tower and Figaro Bistro. Streets, bridges, houses, office buildings, aqueducts and even a rubber tree made the list.
Attached to these picks are full gallery listings and colorful maps designed to lure tourists, predisposed to gawk at glamorous homes, away from McMansions and into white-walled galleries.
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