Captive Image #1 (Ethnic Heritage Group) (1970-72)
John Outterbridge
John Outterbridge, an artist and educator, was appointed director of Watts Towers Arts Center and caretaker of the Towers when the City of Los Angeles became the new owner in 1975. He developed a multidisciplinary program encompassing visual art, dance, theater, and music, including the Simon Rodia Watts Towers Jazz Festival and Day of the Drum Festival.
Mixed media 31 x 28 3/4 x 15 in
Courtesy of Roberts & Tilton, Culver City, CA. Photo by Brockman Gallery © John Outterbridge
Nuestro Pueblo (Simon Rodia's Towers in Watts) (1966)
Simon Rodia
Photograph of Simon Rodia's Nuestro Pueblo, more commonly known as the Watts Towers, built from 1921 to 1954. Materials employed in the work include assemblage, found objects, shells, glass, rebar, and mortar.
Photograph
© Herald-Examiner Collection/Los Angeles Public Library
Ancestral Roots (1978)
Nathaniel Bustion
Collage, marker, pen and ink 48 x 32 in
Image courtesy of the artist © Nathaniel Bustion
Paint-Up Day at the Watts Towers (1966)
Photographer Unknown
A daylong event held in 1966 at the Watts Towers Arts Center brought in an audience to help beautify the campus.
Photograph
© Herald-Examiner Collection/Los Angeles Public Library
Kids at Play, Watts Towers (ca. 1960s)
Sue Parry
Collection of the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs, Watts Towers Arts Center
Children's Craft Workshop, Watts Towers Arts Center (ca. 1960s)
Unknown Artist
Child with a mask he created at one of the many craft workshops at the Watts Towers Arts Center.
Collection of the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs, Watts Towers Arts Center
Drumming in Front of Mama Watts, Watts Towers Arts Center (1980)
Willie Robert Middlebrook
Music is an integral part of programming at Watts Towers Arts Center. The annual Simon Rodia Watts Towers Jazz Festival was inaugurated in 1976, and the Watts Towers Day of the Drum Festival in 1981. In 1986 artist John Outterbridge, the center's director for seventeen years, reflecting on their origins, stated, "We felt the need to help preserve the kind of distinctive consciousness that our rich African-American tradition offers as a legacy."
Black-and-white photograph
Collection of the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs, Watts Towers Arts Center
O' Speak, Speak (1972)
John Outterbridge
Photograph of O' Speak, Speak, a collaborative public sculpture by John Outterbridge, Elliott Pinkney, Charles Dickson, Dale Davis, and Nate Ferrantes. It was created for James Woods’ Ceremony of the Land, a public event centered around the Freedom Tree, which had been spared during the uprising in Watts and became a gathering point in a razed and abandoned area on 103rd street.
Black-and-white photograph
Collection of the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs, Watts Towers Arts Center
66 Signs of Neon at Watts Easter Week Art Festival (1967)
Unknown Artist
Judson Powell, Noah Purifoy, and Mayor Sam Yorty, looking at the 66 Signs of Neon exhibition at the Watts Easter Week Art Festival.
© Herald-Examiner Collection/Los Angeles Public Library
Street Scene at Watts Towers Arts Festival (ca. 1970s)
Mabel L. Boyd
Street vendors at a festival at the Watts Towers Arts Center.
Black-and-white photograph
Photo by Mabel L. Boyd Collection of the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs, Watts Towers Arts Center
Love Thy Neighbor (1968)
Timothy Washington
Scraps from Terminal Island, nails, on wooden base 94 x 33 x 59 1/2 in
Courtesy of the artist and Tilton Gallery, New York © Timothy Washington
Watts Towers Arts Center Dance Performance (ca. 1970s)
Mabel L. Boyd
Children's dance performance at the Watts Towers Arts Center.
Black-and-white photograph
Collection of the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs, Watts Towers Arts Center
Richard Wyatt at the second annual "Chalk-In," Watts (1968)
Unknown Artist
Photo of a young Richard Wyatt, Jr., who would later become a prominent Los Angeles-based artist and murailst, at the 2nd Annual Watts "Chalk-In," held on 103rd Street and Grandee Avenue, in Watts. Wyatt was awarded First Prize for his entry.
Black-and-white photograph
Herald-Examiner Collection/Los Angeles Public Library Herald-Examiner Collection/Los Angeles Public Library
