This Web site was active until 2011, when the festival and conference ended.
For current information on this initiative, go to the Watts Towers Common Ground Initiative Facebook page.

The Festival: Day in Watts Tour

Sunday, October 24
DAY IN WATTS TOUR
8:30 am to 12:30 pm
(optional return at 4:15 pm, stay for conference sessions at WLCAC)

Watts Towers & Watts Towers Arts Center (WTAC)
1727 East 107th St., LA 90002

Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC)
10950 South Central Ave., LA 90059

Reservation by pre-payment only.
Payment must be received by October 20.

Includes return transportation to Westwood, guided tour & lunch.

To register, send name, telephone number, and email to: info@wattstowerscommonground.org
and send check for $15 (payable to“Italian Cultural Institute”) to:
Watts Tour c/o IIC
1023 Hilgard Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90024



8:30 am
Departure from the IIC - Istituto Italiano di Cultura,
1023 Hilgard Ave.
Los Angeles (Westwood), 90024

9:00 am
I. Guided Tour of the Watts Towers, Watts Towers Arts Center, Charles Mingus Youth Arts Center -including the MIGRATING TOWERS: THE GIGLI OF NOLA AND BEYOND exhibition, Simon Rodia’s Towers in Watts, Conservation Headquarters.
II. Guided Tour of the Watts Labor Community Action Committee campus, including Civil Rights Museum.
Supported, in part, by S.P.A.C.E.S. - Saving and Preserving Arts and Cultural Environments.

11:30 am
Lunch, Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC)


Return to Westwood at 12:30 p.m. OR stay for conference sessions, with return at 4:15 p.m

 

 

Afternoon Conference Sessions
Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC)
10950 South Central Ave., LA 90059

12:30 pm
ART ENVIRONMENTS & CULTURAL CONTEXTS

Chaired by Luisa Del Giudice

Joseph Sciorra, John D. Calandra It. Am. Inst., Queens College, NY
• “Why a Man Makes the Shoes?”: Italian-American Art and Philosophy in Sabato Rodia’s Watts Towers

Laura E. Ruberto, Berkeley City College
• A California Detour on the Road to Italy: The Hubcap Ranch, the Napa Valley, and Italian American Identity

Alessandro Dal Lago and Serena Giordano, University of Genova
• Art Without Nation

Thomas Harrison, UCLA
• Sam Rodia—Outsider Artist?




2:30 pm: ART & DEVELOPMENT
Chaired by Edward Tuttle, UCLA

Gail Brown, “Where I’m Standing,” Los Angeles
• From Where I’m Standing Photo-Documentary Workshops at Watts Towers Arts Center: Building Community Through Self-Awareness and Self-Expression

Monica Barra, Rutgers University
• Teaching the Watts Towers, Learning Los Angeles: Public Art, Storytelling, and Urban Pedagogy

Darnell M. Hunt and Ana Christina Ramon, UCLA
• Watts This About “Black Los Angeles?” An Anthology on Space, People, Image, and Action

Melissa Hayes, Chicago History Museum
• Watts California; Branding Communities for Cultural Tourism


 

 

 

Watts Towers