The Crest Theatre first opened on Christmas Day, 1940, and though it has changed hands – and names – several times since then, the Art Deco façade sitting on Westwood Boulevard has always been a head-turner; located near the UCLA campus, the building had continued to catch Kristy Edmunds’s eye over the years. The Executive and Artistic Director for the Center for the Art of Performance (CAP) at UCLA had been able to gain access to the 500-seat space for the occasional performance (the venue was originally a theatre for live performance built for Frances Seymour Fonda before being converted to a newsreel cinema during WWII), but felt that its potential was still left untapped.
‘CAP is a very large commissioning and presenting organization, with lots of intersection with visual artists,’ said Edmonds as part of a discussion on patronage, specifically of the ephemeral and performing arts, hosted at the inaugural edition of Frieze Los Angeles. Sarah Arison of the National YoungArts Foundations, Artistic Director of L.A.’s Marciano Art Foundation Olivia Marciano, patron Susan Nimoy and Patton Hindle of Kickstarter rounded out the panel. Younger and emerging artists are often shut out of this system, Edmunds went on to explain. There needed to be another kind of platform for artists in the earlier stages of their careers.
By late 2018, she had found it, and the ideal site for such a task: CAP and UCLA’s School of Arts & Architecture acquired the Crest. ‘The Crest Theatre is affordable housing for ideas; it meets the artist where they are at, and where connecting with their audience matters [in the beginning stages],’ she explained. ‘From a curatorial perspective, seeing students performing – even in high school – you may not see them at a place like CAP for another 20 years.’
Nimoy – an actor, director, and philanthropist – contributed funding to make the sale possible. She has also been a near-life-long patron to the Theatre, having gone to screenings as a child in the Westwood neighborhood and later as a student at the school. ‘I’m a midwife in the arts world. I would like to help provide the opportunity for artists to flourish,’ she responded. She specified that her patronage often follows the programme and institution of an artistic director or curator, finding herself inspired by the potential of interdisciplinary spaces, such as the Hammer Museum, New York’s Thalia Theatre, and now, the Crest.
She looked to her left. ‘We need someone like Kristy to light the fire!’
‘Conversations on Patronage: Supporting the Ephemeral’ took place at Frieze Los Angeles on 14 February 2019. For more information on the fair’s talks programme, head over here.
Main image: Crest Theatre, Los Angeles, 2013. © Flickr, Creative Commons; photograph: Chris Goldberg
Jennifer Piejko is a writer and editor living in Los Angeles.
克雷斯特剧院于1940年圣诞节首次开张，尽管从那时起它已经易手改名了好几次，但坐落在韦斯特伍德大道上的装饰艺术总让人头晕目眩；这座建筑位于加州大学洛杉矶分校附近，多年来一直吸引着克里斯蒂·埃德蒙兹的目光。加州大学洛杉矶分校（UCLA）表演艺术中心（CAP）的执行和艺术总监已经能够获得500个座位的临时演出空间（该场地原本是为弗朗西斯·西摩·方达建造的现场演出剧院，二战期间改为新闻片电影院），但他认为它的潜力仍然没有开发。埃德蒙兹说，Cap是一个非常庞大的委托和展示机构，与视觉艺术家有很多交集。他是在洛杉矶Frieze开幕式上举办的一次关于赞助的讨论的一部分，特别是关于短暂和表演艺术的讨论。国家青年基金会的Sarah Arison、L.A.马西亚诺艺术基金会的艺术总监奥利维亚·马西亚诺、守护神Susan Nimoy和Kickstarter的Patton Hindle完成了小组讨论。埃德蒙兹接着解释说，年轻的和新兴的艺术家经常被排除在这个体系之外。在艺术家职业生涯的早期阶段，需要有另一种平台。到2018年底，她已经找到了它，这是完成这项任务的理想地点：加州大学洛杉矶分校艺术与建筑学院（Cap and UCLA’s School of Arts&Architecture）获得了这一殊荣。她解释说：“克雷斯特剧院是一个经济适用的创意场所；在他们所在的地方和与观众的联系（在开始阶段）都很重要。”“从策展人的角度来看，看到学生表演——即使是在高中——你可能在接下来的20年里都不会在像Cap这样的地方看到他们。”演员、导演和慈善家尼莫伊（Nimoy）出资促成了这场拍卖。她也是这家剧院近一生的赞助人，小时候在韦斯特伍德附近看电影，后来在学校上学。我是艺术界的助产士。她回答说：“我想为艺术家们提供繁荣发展的机会。”她特别指出，她的赞助经常遵循艺术总监或策展人的计划和机构，发现自己受到跨学科空间的潜力的启发，例如哈默博物馆、纽约的塔利亚剧院，现在是波峰。她向左看。“我们需要像克里斯蒂这样的人来点火！2019年2月14日，在洛杉矶的弗里泽举行了“关于赞助：支持短暂性”的对话。欲了解更多关于展会会谈计划的信息，请前往这里。主要图片：Crest剧院，洛杉矶，2013年。礼貌：Flickr，Creative Commons；照片：Chris Goldberg Jennifer Piejko Jennifer Piejko是居住在洛杉矶的作家和编辑。弗利泽周/弗利泽周洛杉矶赞助会谈
FRIZE特稿 ARThing编译
