LA’s Historic-Cultural Monuments and the Women They Leave Out

SCI-Arc Channel and Carla have teamed up to co-produce a series of short films that focus on L.A.-based artists who are working around issues of community and social justice.

With only 3% of monuments in Los Angeles devoted to women, the need to preserve their histories is a crucial feat. In this film, writer Neyat Yohannes reflects on the trailblazing women whose influence has helped shape the city that millions call home, and the erasure that is at stake if their legacies remain unprotected. Yohannes explores the Woman’s Building, as well as spaces designed by L.A. architect Helen Liu Fong, to speak about their broader impact and importance to larger cultural and community movements taking place in Los Angeles.

The film also features the life and legacy of artist Corita Kent, the so-called “Pop Art Nun,” as told by Nellie Scott, Director of the Corita Art Center. In 2020, the Corita Art Center spearheaded a campaign to save the studio of Corita Kent from demolition. Scott relays how after a nearly ten-month-long campaign, Corita’s former studio was designated as a Historic-Cultural Monument with the invaluable help of the L.A. Conservancy, Hollywood Heritage, and preservationist and architectural historian Kathryn Wollan, among others in the community.

Neyat Yohannes is a writer based in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in Criterion, Mubi, Bitch Media, Carla (Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles), Artsy, Bright Wall/Darkroom, KQED Arts, Cleo Film Journal, Chicago Review of Books, and Playboy, among other publications. She also has done freelance projects as a producer’s consultant, film programmer, copywriter, and editor.

The Corita Art Center, a project of the Immaculate Heart Community, preserves and promotes Corita Kent’s art, teaching, and passion for social justice. Today, the Corita Art Center supports exhibition loans and public programs, oversees image and merchandising rights, sells Corita’s original prints, and serves as a resource of information about her life and work.

Based on a review by Neyat Yohannes, Carla Issue 24

Crew Credits:

Production:
Creator and Executive Producer – Hernán Díaz Alonso
Producers – Marcelyn Gow/Reza Monahan
Segment Producers – Kavior Moon/Lindsay Preston Zappas
Interviewer – Kavior Moon
Director – Reza Monahan
Director of Photography – Sean Morris
B Camera – Armeen Monahan
C Camera – Robert Moreno
Sound Engineer – George Wymenga

Post-Production:
Story Producer – Kavior Moon
Editors – Cal Crawford/Reza Monahan

Additional Video and Images Provided by Corita Art Center, Thomas Conrad and the AIGA

Image/Video Credits:

​​Outside the Woman’s Building (1975)
Gift of Maria Karras. © Maria Karras, BFA, RBP, MA.
Images courtesy of The Getty Research Institute, 2018.M. 16.
Photos: Maria Karras.

Helen Liu Fong
Larry Hirshowitz
CC BY-SA 4.0
@le:HelenFong_crLarry_Hirshowitz_edited.jpg

Johnie’s front view
Michael Mooney
CC BY 2.0
@le:Johnie_Coffee_Shop_Restaurant.jpg

Johnie’s side view
Robert B. Moffatt
CC BY-SA 2.0
@C

Frank Lloyd Wright
Harris & Ewing
Public domain
@le:Frank_Lloyd_Wright_with_Crystal_Heights_plan.jpg

Richard Neutra
MidCentArc
CC BY-SA 2.0
@pw

Frank Lloyd Wright: Hollyhock House
Shulman, Julius
Public domain
@le:Exterior_view_of_the_Hollyhock_House,_Los_Angeles,_1921_(shulman-1997-JS-221-ISLA).jpg

Neutra: Lovell House
MichaelJLocke / CC BY-SA 4.0
@le:Lovell_House,_Richard_Neutra,_Architect_1929.jpg

Alleluia (1967)
Courtesy of Thomas Conrad
All Rights Reserved

2016 Corita Kent
Presented by AIGA,
the professional association for design
Produced by Dress Code
Camila Alvarado
THIRTY-FOUR DEGREES

©2022 SCI-Arc Channel

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Sarah Rosalena: Intersectional and Intergalactic Art-Making