About Field Workshop
In addition to ICA LA’s dynamic exhibition program, we are dedicated to creating opportunities for learning and engagement. Our programs respond to the latest cultural, civic, and social activities taking place in Los Angeles, and the world at large.

In order to better understand what is happening across our vast city and to engage with a range of individuals and organizations working with the issues most relevant to our publics, our team conducts a lot of fieldwork. Through a network of artists and community groups, we have explored homelessness, migrant detention, food justice, the prison system, solar energy, virtual reality technologies, and more. Working in the field allows us to learn, to connect, to support, and to share.

This past January, we decided to dedicate our retail space to programming for the year, to serve as an on-site extension of the in-depth research, dialogue, and exploration we do out in the field—and thus emerged the Field Workshop. The Field Workshop is a raw space where one can incubate, discuss, prepare, and present ideas and actions. Most recently, we hosted the Los Angeles Artist Census.

Now that the museum is allowed to reopen—with the necessary safety measures in place to protect our staff and visitors from COVID-19—and because we are committed to taking tangible steps in support of the momentus movement for racial justice and human rights, we are dubbing the summer “the season for action.” July and August will be dedicated to reigniting the Field Workshop for Action Projects, and we invite you to propose a project for consideration.


Field Workshop: Action Projects
ICA LA will make its Field Workshop space available for use by artists and community groups dedicated to the movement for change. We considered short-term projects and activities that focus on learning, civic engagement, and self-care.

Field Workshop: Action Projects

Aug 11 and Aug 13
Collective Chorus
An art and activism workshop for youth using language and space.
Artists:Kristin Bauer, Julio Cesar Morales, Mario Ybarra, Jr.

Workshop 1: Aug 11 from 2-5pm; rsvp here

Workshop 2 via ZOOM: Aug 13 from 10am-1pm; join Zoom link here

Workshop 3: Aug 13 from 2-5pm; rsvp here

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Aug 16
Big City Forum: Stories That Move
Big City Forum will explore the meaning and role of art organizations and networks in times of upheaval through an analysis of its own history and evolution. BCF is in residency for 3 days but invites an open community workshop on Aug 16 via Zoom.
Artists/collaborators: Leonardo Bravo, Cynthia Vargas, Reina Imagawa, Jeremy Rosenberg

Stories That Move Community Workshop: Aug 16, 2-5pm.
Pre-register to participate via Zoom here.

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Aug 20
Radical Pedagogies
A project that instigates conversation, thinking, and action around the state of education and the ways it reinscribes the violences and inequities it purports to undo. An open discussion will be held on Aug 20 via ZOOM.
Artists: Johanna Breiding, EJ Hill, Dylan Mira, Litia Perta, Kandis Williams

Radical Pedagogies Open Discussion: Aug 20, 5pm-7pm:
Pre-register to participate via Zoom here

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Who Are The BIPOC Abstract Artists?—A research and discussion session about the creation of a BIPOC abstract artist directory.
Artists: Maysha Mohamedi, Laura Owens, Lisa Diane Wedgeworth

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Aug 21
We Are All Americans
Podcast recording sessions about what it means to be American.
Artist: Michele Jaquis

Podcast Recording Session 1: 1pm-2pm; RSVP here
Podcast Recording Session 2: 2pm-3pm; RSVP here
Podcast Recording Session 3: 3pm-4pm; RSVP here
Podcast Recording Session 4: 4pm-5pm; RSVP here
Podcast Recording Session 5: 5pm-6pm; RSVP here
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Aug 22-23
Filling the Void: Confronting Ableism in the Art Space
Discussions around disability and ableism in the physical and critical spaces of the art community.
Artist: Panteha Abareshi

Onsite Session 1 at ICA LA (limited to 15): Aug 22 from 3-5pm; rsvp here

Onsite Session 2 at ICA LA (limited to 15): Aug 23 from 3-5pm; rsvp here

Virtual Session 1 via Google Meet link here: Aug 22 from 3-5pm

Virtual Session 2 via Google Meet link here:Aug 23 from 3-5pm

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Aug 25-29
Climate Crisis Hotline
With the understanding that the Climate Crisis is deeply entwined with other ongoing injustices and struggles, Space Saloon and Creative Migration will host a safe, comfortable and non-judgmental space in the Field Workshop to verbally confront the topic of Solastasia, the paralyzing melancholia induced from environmental distress.

From August 26-29, the collective will prototype the Climate Crisis Hotline.
Similar to a confession booth or wishing well, this multi-faceted platform seeks to validate individuals’ concerns and offer an opportunity to participate in a community dialogue. Through a variety of outreach and engagement methods, Space Saloon and Creative Migration invite members of the public to connect, unwind, and respond. Information gathered will be part of the ongoing research on climate despair and eco therapy to generate a living, immersive archive of voices and an experimental tableau of collective aural expression.

Artists/collaborators: Space Saloon & Creative Migration

Lacking Language
Wednesday, August 26
11am - 12:30pm
Join the conversation via Google Meet here
Join in person (limited to 10) via RSVP here

Talking / Listening
Thursday, August 27
11am – 12:30pm
Join the conversation via Google Meet here
Join in person (limited to 10) via RSVP here

Confession Sessions Friday, August 28
1pm – 5pm
30 minute in person sessions via RSVP here

Hotline Live
Saturday, August 29
2pm – 5pm
Online / Over the phone: Further details at the Climate Crisis Hotline Live Website here

The first step to confronting our feelings towards the Climate Crisis is through speaking about it. This workshop will collectively develop conversational frameworks focused on safe, comfortable and non-judgemental outreach methods.

Space Saloon and Creative Migration are both non-profit art organizations that engage in practices to raise awareness on environmental issues through participatory workshops, artist residencies, urban interventions and social practice art.

Space Saloon is a design laboratory on the move. They are a collective of architects, artists, and researchers who work with the public in exploring new frontiers for design and education. Their pedagogical projects build communities, promote tolerance, and foster engagement through the production of transdisciplinary forms of knowledge.

Creative Migration, is a women-led, international arts organization based Los Angeles and Bangkok. Founded in 2005, their mission is to advance cultural diplomacy through art, public engagement and sustainability. Their programming builds relationships and develops collaborations through three primary strands: Artist Residencies & Creative Hubs, Site-specific Installations and Transmedia Projects.

spacesaloon.org creativemigration.org ——————————————

Aug 30
PeoplesLab: The Color of Whiteness
The Color of Whiteness the Field Workshop will continue research identity, race , and whiteness with invited participants who have been collectively involved in this process since early July 2020. The session at ICA-LA will provide physical space, sound system, video projection, and access to internet for our exploration of this social and personal issue in relationship to physical and remote spaces - manifesting our shared condition of working at a time of Covid19. This session is not open to the public.
Artist: Dorit Cypis

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Sept 1-5
Undanced Dances Through Prison Walls During a Pandemic is a week of embodying dances written inside the California Rehabilitation Center (CRC) prison during the COVID-19 lockdowns of Spring 2020. Suchi Branfman (project director/lead choreographer) has invited these fellow choreographer/dancers to inhabit the written dances: Bernard Brown, Jay Carlon, Ernst Fenelon Jr., Irvin Gonzalez, Kenji Igus, Brianna Mims, and Tom Tsai.

In 2016, choreographer/dancer/educator Suchi Branfman, began a five-year choreographic residency inside the prison gym at the CRC prison, a medium security men’s state prison in Norco, CA. Weekly gatherings to dance and create with the incarcerated men were abruptly halted in March 2020. The California state prison system shut down all programming and visitation due to COVID-19. The program was rapidly revised and the dancers began sending out imagined written choreographies from their prison bunks to the world to imagine Undanced Dances through Prison Walls During a Pandemic.

More info + RSVP for a date to watch from the ICA LA windows between 9/1-9/4 here

More info + RSVP for the Online Conversation here


Field Workshop: Action Projects is supported by Fieldwork