Arts Crafts Era

16 Sep, 2007 in art pottery by admin

Arts Crafts Era

Los Angeles, Ca - Arts & Crafts

A cultural locus, Los Angeles, CA is known the world over for its vibrant arts & crafts scene. In the downtown area, the arts district was founded in 1976. Many artists gathered at the location, from nearby cities like Venice, Santa Monica and Long Beach. Professional and amateur artists sought and found large affordable spaces in previously abandoned downtown buildings.

In the past, artists were compelled to hide their living status. Frequently, the local fire department would conduct unscheduled fire inspections. Fortuitously, artists dwelling in the many lofts typically had a few hours warning, and would rush to conceal any signs of living there.

To provide assistance to the denizens, the Artists In Residence ordinance was enacted. This code allowed artists and craftsmen to legally live in buildings which conformed to established safety requirements. The popularity of the downtown lofts raised rents from about 30 cents a square foot to above one dollar per square foot. During the 1980's arts & crafts localities were so plentiful that people made money by conducting bus tours of the district.

Currently, greater than twelve hundred artists and craftspeople live and work in the arts district, and hundreds more in the surrounding areas.

The City of Los Angeles also supports a public arts program, which compels area builders to contribute one percent of their construction-related costs for new structures to a public art fund.

Los Angeles is famous for its mural art, and the thousands spread throughout the city are thought to be greater than in any other city in the world. Native Mexican muralists like Diego Rivera and Jose Orozco have painted noted murals in the area.

Around the 1960's and 1970's, the Chicano arts & crafts movement began in the city. A lot of the material produced was in the tradition favored by Mexican muralists. Murals created in this era by artists and crafters still exist in East Los Angeles. The Chicano arts & crafts in Los Angeles also spawned the internationally known D?a de los Muertos annual festival.

In conclusion, many of the most widely-known art museums on the globe are located in Los Angeles. Among them are the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Getty Center, and the Hammer Museum. Less prominent arts & crafts museums in the city include the Craft and Folk Art Museum, the California African American Museum, and numerous sculpture gardens.

About the Author

Matt Paolini is the editorial director for CityBook.com, the family-safe business yellow pages, which carries an extensive directory of movies, videos, & DVD industry-related businesses located in Los Angeles.

Did the BeeGees sell out when they started doing disco music, compared to their earlier material, i.e. Odessa?

The Bee Gees had a whole era before disco...Albums such as Odessa were true concept albums, Beatles-esque art rock that were works of genuine musicanship...but when the whole Grease, "Stayin Alive" era began, did they "sell out" in an attempt to make their music more commercial, or did they simply incorporate different styles and influences into their craft?

I dont think so. It was just a different era of music, and the Bee Gees did a great job incorporating a different style with Saturday Night Fever. That album and the movie were almost iconic back in the 70s, notwithstanding making John Travolta a star (albeit a disco star ) ..so they were pretty influential for disco music.

I did a check with Wikipedia to see if what I thought was right..and well, this is how Wiki puts it..

"The group most associated with the Disco era was The Bee Gees, whose music for the 1977 Paramount film Saturday Night Fever marked the pinnacle of the era. Many mainstream rock acts, including the Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Queen (Another One Bites The Dust) and even the Grateful Dead, incorporated disco beats into their releases in attempts to keep up with the trend; many rock radio stations began to adopt all-disco formats."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_music#Disco

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