Founded in 2006, Inglewood Open Studios’ signature event is its annual Art Walk. The 15th edition takes place November 9 and 10, 2024, from noon to 5PM.
Inglewood Open Studios Art Walk 2023.Inglewood Open Studios
Inglewood, CA
If you’ve never been to Inglewood, CA two miles east of the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), you’ve almost certainly seen it on TV. If you watched the Super Bowl in 2022, or college football’s national championship game in 2023, or WrestleMania later that year, or the Showtime Lakers.
Inglewood is best known as the home of SoFi Stadium where the NFL’s Chargers and Rams play. And Taylor Swift. The Fabulous Forum, now the Kia Forum, where Magic Johnson led the greatest fast break in NBA history, is there. The Lakers play downtown today, but the Clippers call the new Intuit Dome home. The arena’s bracket SoFi Stadium on either side.
All are in or adjacent to one of the largest development projects in the country: Hollywood Park. The former horse racing grounds now has just about everything, from an NFL stadium to a casino to residential to office space and endless retail.
Most people come to Inglewood and leave a couple of hours later. Not the artists.
On the other side of town, away from the fans and visitors, Inglewood transforms into something of an arts enclave. Otis College of Art and Design four miles west of the stadiums on the northern edge of LAX brought many to the area. So did cheaper rents for housing and studio space.
“Inglewood was the first place (I lived in Los Angeles where it) felt like people are going to smile and say ‘Hi,’” Inglewood resident since 2006 and co-founder of Inglewood Open Studios Renée A. Fox told Forbes.com. “It's like a smaller town mentality. I call it a town because it really does feel that way. When you're in the grocery store, people talk to the cashier, they know each other. It’s got nice little ma and pa businesses; there's a cheesecake place down the street, Harriet's, and Harriet herself and her family run it. The Chinese place down the street is run by that family.”
Fox came to Southern California from Maryland, landing in Inglewood after trying Hollywood and Culver City after graduating from Otis.
“Inglewood felt quiet and calmer. It's closer to the ocean here, so it's got a lot of the west side geographic desirable aspects,” Fox said. “When I moved here, it was very affordable at the time compared to other places in the city. There were surprisingly tons of artists just tucked in who had been here for a very long time.”
Artists like Ulysses Jenkins who recently had a retrospective at the Hammer Museum. Artists like Michael Massenburg who grew up in Inglewood.
“The thing you'll notice when you drive through the city, some storefronts, they don't look abandoned, but they look kind of empty and you don't know what's going on,” Fox said. “They're sort of nondescript, and most of those are art studios.”
Fox is an artist too, but her greatest influence on the Inglewood arts scene to date comes as co-founder of Inglewood Open Studios, a private, non-profit arts advocacy organization. Founded in 2006, Inglewood Open Studios’ signature event is its annual Art Walk. The 15th edition takes place November 9 and 10, 2024, from noon to 5 PM.
Inglewood Open Studios Art Walk
During Art Walk, the public is invited to enter artists’ private workspaces, view art exhibitions hosted by Inglewood businesses, and participate in a festival of artist-organized performances, interactive public art experiences, entertainment, and more.
The self-guided Art Walk tour will lead guests through an exploratory excursion of the city, with suggested stopping points at artists’ personal studios and other participating spaces throughout Inglewood to view and engage with local art. All locations on the tour will be listed on printed flyers with detailed tour maps, which will be available to pick up at every location.
The Art Walk is free to the public and includes free bus transportation sponsored by the City of Inglewood between tour locations, as well as a free Park & Ride lot at Beacon Arts Building (808 N La Brea Ave., Inglewood 90302) providing a convenient and central location for attendees to begin their Art Walk experience.
“People come in who know a lot about art, and people come into the studios who don't know much about art, and those conversations can be really interesting,” Fox said. “It feels so good at the end of the weekend, because you realize it expands your idea of what art is and how it can affect people. I've had people come in who would say, ‘Oh, I don't know about art. I probably can't understand it.’ I'm like, ‘No, it's here and you seeing it is what's important.’ We all have creativity in ourselves, and I think it's a really enriching experience for the artists and for the visitors.”
Tens of millions of people visit art museums annually; the vast majority, however, have never been inside an artist's studio. Fox thinks breaking down that barrier is critical.
“We’re making work for people to see and the artists here are all from very diverse backgrounds. Inglewood has a large African American population. It also has a large Latino population, and a lot of artists mirror that. We're all talking about our identity, our life, our experience, whatever our art is reflecting, and that needs to be shared, and (Art Walk) provides support for what we're doing,” she explains. “It's the rare artist who graduates from Otis, has a dealer knocking down their door, and they go right into a gallery and they're selling work.”
It's also the rare artist who becomes a community activist, organizer, and non-profit leader like Fox has become. After almost 20 years leading Inglewood Open Studios, she’ll be stepping away from the organization at the end of the year. This will be her final Art Walk as president.
“(ISO) is starting to really have legs. Now that it feels like it is sustainable–at the end of the year, it will have assets, it has repeat donors, we've gotten grants–there's so much growth that now I think it can have its own life and it can live on; it doesn't need me to do it anymore,” Fox said of her decision to exit. “Also in stepping down, it's important for (ISO) to be able to grow and have someone else's ideas influence it. Different leadership will definitely allow it to have more growth beyond what I can imagine for it.”
Fox’s baby is all grown up. Time to let it walk on its own.
“We've provided a place for artists to have community together,” she said when asked about what she’s most proud of during her time at ISO. “We've created the culture of art here in the city.”
Inglewood’s Mayor James T. Butts, Jr. attended last year’s Art Walk. His words have stuck with Fox.
“He said that Inglewood Open Studios had been a beacon for all of the arts that had developed since because we were the first really organized art thing happening here. (He said) you're an anchor in the community,” Fox remembers. “I liked how he said that because it has become something reliable, for the community to say, ‘We have pride in this. This is part of our culture. We have a strong art community. We're strong with arts and human expression.’ We all have stories and we can tell them, and it makes Inglewood so much richer of a place because of the art community there.”
A successor will be chosen by ISO’s board at its December meeting.
Fox will be staying in Inglewood and looks forward to having more time to spend on her art practice.
While not garnering the attention of professional athletes, Inglewood’s artists work and live there. They are members of the community. They shop there, they eat there, they walk their dogs there. The jocks commute in and out.
Artists are among the most interesting, thoughtful, well-educated, well-traveled, unusual, and wonderful people; communities benefit from how they approach the world in ways big and small, recognizable and not. The critical mass of artists in Inglewood, connected and supported by Inglewood Open Studios, improves the quality of life there for everyone, every day.
“That's the beauty of this (arts) community; we know we're here, and we inspire each other, and we inspire the community who are not artists,” Fox said. “It's such a cool thing about the Art Walk, people can come in who are neighbors and they feel that they understand now that I'm a part of this. I'm not an artist, but that's my neighbor. That's someone who does this, and their kids also get inspired, and then they get involved.”
But for how long?
Bigger. Better?
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JULY 11: Artist Michael Massenburg speaks about his art piece during an art reveal press preview at Intuit Dome on July 11, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images)
An inevitable result of the Hollywood Park development has been rising real estate and rental prices–residential and commercial–around Inglewood. The lower cost of living attracting artists to the area and allowing them to set up studios has become a thing of the past.
“It's been hard. A number of artists have moved out of the city. It's been hard for galleries to sustain here,” Fox said. “If you're an artist, you're also an entrepreneur. You're someone who has to take chances, pivot, try something new, move with whatever is going on. I see people doing that here; I have had friends move right outside (Inglewood).”
Inglewood Open Studios is working to provide artists support in terms of community and grants, helping them stay in the city.
Fox is quick to note the developments have aided artists, too.
“Having eyes on Inglewood has also brought more attention to what's happening here. Some of the artists have had opportunities because of these stadiums opening,” she said. “Michael Massenburg finally has begun to get the recognition he deserves. He has a big mural on the outside of the Clippers’ stadium.”
Here’s hoping Inglewood hasn’t sacrificed its residents and artists in the pursuit of showplaces for athletes and entertainers.
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Chadd Scott
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Chadd Scott,Contributor