Lacma Turns Wilshire Boulevard Into a Moving Work of Art
Los Angeles got a parade with an art-world pulse on Saturday evening, when the Los Angeles County Museum of Art staged its first Art Parade as part of the opening weekend for the David Geffen Galleries. Thousands lined Wilshire Boulevard as the procession moved from the area near Chris Burden’s “Urban Light” and traced a route past the museum, turning one of the city’s busiest corridors into a temporary stage for costumes, sculpture, performance, and political speech.
The event was conceived by Michael Govan, Lacma’s director, in conversation with gallerist Jeffrey Deitch, who had overseen a similar parade in New York City in the mid-2000s. Govan said he wanted to close Wilshire for a celebration that could coincide with the newly opened metro stop across from the museum and fold the parade into a larger block party. The weekend also included dance, music, food trucks, and free admission to the galleries.
More than 1,000 people took part, selected from roughly 150 entries. Applicants ranged from individual artists to organizations, including the Corita Art Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and environmental groups focused on the endangered Monarch butterfly. Naima J. Keith, Lacma’s vice president of education and public programs, joined several curators and Deitch on the selection committee. Keith said the team was looking for “mobile processional works designed for a public setting” that were carryable, visually strong, human-powered, and suitable for all ages.
The parade’s range was broad. Gary Baseman led one of the largest contingents in a cat-man costume built around the theme “Peace thru Purr,” while other participants used the occasion to address war, political corruption, and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. La Muerte Maria appeared in elaborate red-and-black costume with a sign reading, “No child should die in war,” while her group included a chained Statue of Liberty and clowns mocking world leaders.
Not every entry was overtly confrontational. Kelsey Kuykendall dressed as a baker, with cakes and cookies arranged around her waist, but the sweets carried a psychological framework tied to Jungian archetypes and questions of gender. Chela Vain Simón-Trench also joined the procession with a smaller papier-mâché version of “Levitated Mass,” Lacma’s monumental boulder installation.
Govan said he hoped the parade could return, though not next year, given the scale of the effort. For one evening, Wilshire became something rarer than a traffic artery: a civic space where the museum, the neighborhood, and the city’s creative community moved in step.
