The Library Foundation of Los Angeles has researched, designed, and produced multi-dimensional exhibition projects at Central Library, including Songs in the Key of L.A. (2013), To Live and Dine in L.A. (2015), America’s Shakespeare (2017), Visualizing Language: Oaxaca in L.A. (2017/2018), 21 Collections (2018), and The Autograph Book of L.A. (2019).
All Library Foundation exhibition projects include associated public programming through the Library Foundation-produced ALOUD series as well as events, performances, presentations, and workshops produced with the Los Angeles Public Library that have taken place at neighborhood libraries across the city.
The Library Foundation also has a history of dynamic cultural projects that take one of the Library’s special collections as a cue to ask bigger questions about contemporary life in Los Angeles. An exhibition about the Library’s collection of local restaurant menus provided an opportunity to discuss regional hunger and food insecurity, celebrate the culinary traditions of the diaspora communities in our neighborhoods, and plant community gardens at several branch libraries. A project highlighting the Library’s unique Autograph Collection prompted people to consider who gets remembered and how we leave our mark on the city, including an open invitation for Angelenos to leave their creative expression to represent themselves in the Library’s permanent collection. As participants in Getty Foundation’s 2018 Pacific Standard Time initiative (Los Angeles/Latin America), what began as a desire to re-contextualize the historic murals in Central Library’s Rotunda expanded into a citywide celebration of Oaxacan culture.
Library Foundation Exhibition projects are supported by the generosity of:
- Judith Krantz Estate
- Gregory Peck Endowment
- The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts