Long Beach Will Host the Third of 10 Community Festivals This Summer in Honor of the Getty’s 25th-Anniversary Celebration
The Long Beach Creative Coalition is thrilled to announce the Getty 25 Celebrates Long Beach on Saturday, June 4 and Sunday, June 5, at Houghton Park from 11 a.m. — 6 p.m. Organized in partnership with The J. Paul Getty Trust, Community Arts Resources (CARS), and the Long Beach Creative Coalition, the festival will feature diverse artists from throughout the city, shining a light on local talent with an emphasis on North Long Beach, where the festival will take place.
Headliners Dengue Fever and Seafood Sam will perform with an array of talent, including Grammy-winning guitarist J.Mo the Great, Brainstory, JD Dance Company, Modern Apsara Dance, as well as a procession by the Jordan High School Marching Band, and more. Activations will take place throughout the weekend, from artmaking workshops by the Museum of Latin American Art and Centro CHA, to live art demonstrations by Inspired LBC, site-specific art installations by Long Beach Art Museum of Art and Rancho Los Cerritos, as well as composting workshops, African drumming, and skate demos in one of Long Beach’s most iconic bowls. Food and drinks will be available for purchase from a variety of local food trucks, including Belly Bombz, Mikhuna Authentic Peruvian, and Birrieria Michi, to name a few.
According to Griselda Suarez, Arts Council for Long Beach Executive Director and Getty 25 Celebrates Long Beach Advisory Member, “The festival will showcase the vibrance and diversity that Long Beach has to offer. It’s a fiesta, a backyard barbecue, and the coolest arts school all happening at Houghton Park for everyone to enjoy.”
The festival is being held in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Getty Center. In conjunction with various community partners, the 10-part series of free outdoor art festivals will occur in neighborhoods across Los Angeles County from May through August. The Long Beach festival is the third in the series and is intended to focus on community building and celebrating cultural diversity post-COVID. The festival is produced by CARS in collaboration with Long Beach Creative Coalition members Studio One Eleven, Intertrend, and Creative Class Collective, and will be a unique reflection of Long Beach.
According to Julia Huang, Founder and CEO of Intertrend, one of the Coalition members, “Our organization has always been committed to bringing diversity and richness to the Long Beach cultural landscape. Partnering with various nonprofit and community organizations, we are excited to celebrate Getty Center’s 25th Anniversary with all of Long Beach this summer.”
Beyond celebrating the richness of the Long Beach Creative community, the Getty will offer an immersive digital experience of Getty Museum collections, and more. North Long Beach resident and Neighborhood Alliance member Jeff Rowe calls the festival, “an unprecedented opportunity to bring world-class art to our area. It will engage and inspire us all and encourage students to strive for greatness and imagine themselves creating masterful work.”
In addition to Getty-inspired art programming, the festival will feature an Artist’s Alley with immersive outdoor exhibitions and live art demonstrations by celebrated Long Beach-based artists and institutions. Rancho Los Cerritos Curator, Carlos Ortega has organized the exhibition, Roots in Long Beach: Concepts of Home, which will propose alternative views of ‘Home’ by local communities, challenging the typical, established societal views. The artwork by a culturally diverse group of local Long Beach artists signifies themes of identity, displacement, family values, and what it means to be a member of an underrepresented community. In addition, Long Beach Museum of Art will present an installation by artist Daniela Soberman that will comprise a large-scale structure of interlocking pieces, symbolizing the diverse people and cultures of Long Beach and how they can come together to support one another. Continuing on that theme, artist, healer, and poet Shelley Bruce will hold a community-based workshop as part of The Arts Council for Long Beach’s Ongoing Conversations series, that will invite community members to share their joys and concerns with the goal of providing the diverse perspectives and critical concerns of folks living in this community.
According to Long Beach Creative Coalition member and co-producer, Sinead Finnerty-Pyne, who represents Studio One Eleven, “The intention of this festival is to celebrate Long Beach by meeting people where they live. It’s been about relationship building, collaboration, and most importantly, making sure that the community has been heard. It’s essential that the festival be created for and by the community itself.”
The Coalition invited some of Long Beach’s leading grassroots and institutional organizations to join them in the planning process. Advisory Members include; Arts Council for Long Beach, Centro CHA, Museum of Latin American Art (MoLAA), Uptown Business Improvement District, The African American Cultural Center of Long Beach, United Cambodian Community, Rancho Los Cerritos, Council of Business Associations, Long Beach Center for Economic Inclusion, Long Beach Unified School District, Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Gallery at CSULB, Senay Kenfe (Eddies Liquor), The LGBTQ Center Long Beach, Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum (PIEAM), Long Beach Museum of Art (LBMA), and Long Beach City College.
These organizations, in addition to many other local stakeholders and local artisans, will be present at the festival. According to Tasha Hunter, Executive Director of the Uptown Business Improvement District and Advisory Member, “This Festival is a great way to kick off the season of summer celebrations in Houghton Park. After all our world has endured over the past couple of years, this is an amazing opportunity to highlight the beauty and talents of our city’s diversity and creativity with the world-renowned Getty. This will be historic!”
The Getty 25 Celebrates Long Beach will be located at Houghton Park — 6301 Myrtle Ave Long Beach, CA. 90805. This event is free and open to the public. No reservations are required. For more information about this event, please visit www.gettylongbeachfestival.com
