The extraordinary Watts Towers were created over the course of 3 decades by a single-minded artist-artisan, Sabato (Simon, Sam) Rodia, an Italian immigrant who wanted to do “something big.”
Now a National Historic Landmark and internationally-renowned icon, they are both a personal artistic expression and a collective symbol of Nuestro Pueblo—Our Town/Our People.

The Watts Towers Common Ground Initiative: Art - Migrations - Development seeks to celebrate the common ground of the Towers, a locus of creativity, of sustained resolve in adversity and of positive public transformation. With an eye to renewing civic commitment to art in community contexts, this INITIATIVE will encompass a range of public events throughout the city, including an international conference at the University of California at Los Angeles and Watts, and a festival of art, film, theater, music, communal food tables and city tours.

Both festival and conference carry forward the conversation begun at the international conference "Art and Migration: Sabato Rodia's Watts Towers in Los Angeles", jointly sponsored by the University of Genova and the UCLA International Institute (Italy, April 2009), which examined the monument’s multiple resonances within the milieux of local and global migrations, of contested social and urban spaces, and of the rapport between art and economic development. [related documents]

Some conference participants, Genova, April 2009

How are these divergent discourses and goals best bridged? How is “common ground” fostered around the Watts Towers? The continued well-being of the Towers and their adjacent Art Center, as well as the divergent communities which sustain and are sustained by them depend upon how well we answer these questions.

 

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Project Coordinator: Luisa Del Giudice

With the assistance of: Thomas Harrison, Edward Landler, Rudy Barbee, Jo Farb Hernandez, Rosie Lee Hooks, Janine Watkins, Edward Tuttle

UCLA Conference Committee: Thomas Harrison, Luisa Del Giudice, Jo Farb Hernandez, Paul Harris, Alessandro Dal Lago