THE LIBRARY FOUNDATION OF LOS ANGELES AND LOS ANGELES PUBLIC LIBRARY TO PRESENT EXHIBITION AND PROGRAM SERIES ON INVENTION AS PART OF GETTY FOUNDATION’S PACIFIC STANDARD TIME INITIATIVE

The region-wide collaboration opening in 2024 will explore intersections of art and science

January 27, 2021 (Los Angeles, CA) — The Library Foundation of Los Angeles (LFLA) and Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) announced today they have received a grant to prepare for the next edition of the region-wide arts initiative Pacific Standard Time, scheduled to open in 2024. They are among 45 cultural, educational, and scientific institutions throughout Southern California to receive support from the Getty Foundation for their projects, all of which will explore the intersection of art and science.

Titled No Prior Art, the LFLA & LAPL’s project for Pacific Standard Time will focus on LAPL’s patent resources, looking at the process of invention as a common feature of art and science. It will include an exhibition in the Central Library’s Getty Gallery, as well as a series of public programs taking place at neighborhood branch libraries across the city.

“The LA Public Library provides all curious and inventive Angelenos with free, hands-on resources like the Octavia Lab makerspace at Central Library, all-ages STEAM programming such as the DTLA Mini Maker Faire, and access to vast research materials relating to patents and other intellectual property,” said City Librarian John F. Szabo. “We are thrilled to celebrate and extend these offerings through this interdisciplinary project and exhibition, with the visionary support of the Getty Foundation.”

Unique, state-of-the-art fabrication facilities and interactive programs focused on innovation and creativity are among the ways that the LAPL enacts its mission to enrich, educate, and empower every individual in our city’s diverse communities. The downtown Central Library is also an official United States Patent and Trademark Resource Center and is home to the most extensive intellectual property resources on the West Coast. In addition to the illustrations and models associated with patent applications themselves, No Prior Art will examine scientific patents that have advanced the arts, especially those with ties to Los Angeles, as well as contemporary artists who have engaged with the patent system, ultimately exploring the very nature of creativity and innovation.

“Many artists and scientists approach their work through a similar process of experimentation and iteration, where applied hypotheses can result in creative breakthroughs in their respective fields,” said Todd Lerew, Library Foundation Director of Special Projects. “From aesthetically rich and wildly inventive patents found in the library, and branching out to underrecognized inventors and innovators throughout Los Angeles, we are excited to embark on this journey to discover how a fundamental creative impulse blurs the boundaries between art and science.”

Pacific Standard Time will include dozens of simultaneous exhibitions and programs focused on the intertwined histories of art and science, past and present, that together address some of the most complex challenges of the 21st century—from climate change and environmental racism to the current pandemic and artificial intelligence—and the creative solutions these problems demand. The Library Foundation of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Public Library join a diverse community of Southern California institutions that will present exhibitions, publications, performances, and public conversations and programs in 2024 as part of Pacific Standard Time.

This is the LFLA and LAPL’s second grant from the Getty Foundation under the Pacific Standard Time initiative. In 2018, they presented Visualizing Language: Oaxaca in L.A. to mass acclaim. Visualizing Language celebrated the rich social fabric of Los Angeles through the lens of the city’s vibrant Oaxacan community with a focus on Zapotec communities which make up one of the largest groups in Mexico and Los Angeles.

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About the Library Foundation of Los Angeles

The Library Foundation of Los Angeles supports the Los Angeles Public Library in its effort to provide all 3.8 million Angelenos with equitable access to thousands of free programs, resources, and services. Through fundraising, advocacy, and innovative programs, the Library Foundation strengthens the Library’s commitment to educate and empower every individual in our city’s diverse communities. At the Foundation, we are committed to keeping the Library thriving for generations to come and to providing all Angelenos with the tools to enrich and improve their lives.

About the Los Angeles Public Library

A recipient of the nation’s highest honor for library service—the National Medal from the Institute of Museum and Library Services—the Los Angeles Public Library serves the largest and most diverse urban population of any library in the nation. Its Central Library, 72 branch libraries, collection of more than 6 million books, state-of-the-art technology accessible at lapl.org, and more than 18,000 public programs a year provide everyone with free and easy access to information and the opportunity for life-long learning.

About Pacific Standard Time

Pacific Standard Time is an unprecedented series of collaborations among institutions across Southern California. In each, organizations simultaneously present research-based exhibitions and programs that explore and illuminate a significant theme in the region’s cultural history.

In Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945–1980, more than 60 cultural institutions joined forces between October 2011 and March 2012 and rewrote the history of the birth and impact of the L.A. art scene. In Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, presented from September 2017 through January 2018, more than 70 institutions collaborated on a paradigm-shifting examination of Latin American and Latinx art, seen together as a hemispheric continuum.

Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty.