What’s your special place?
Everyone has one—whether old or new, small or large, personal or public—from a neighborhood restaurant, to a famous tourist attraction, to a local Levitt venue.
Now’s the time to share the places you love with the world! Throughout October, the #ThisPlaceMatters campaign by National Trust for Historic Preservation and Curbed celebrates the diverse spaces that characterize our neighborhoods, towns and cities. Continue reading
DREAM on display at Burning Man, image courtesy of Bob Pruitt
We’ve all heard the expression, ‘everything is bigger in Texas.’ After getting a sneak peak of the new DREAM sculpture in Arlington, Texas, it looks like dreams are no exception!
The unveiling and dedication for this 54′ long, 12′ tall, metallic LED-lit piece adjacent to Levitt Pavilion Arlington will take place tonight at 7 p.m., in conjunction with the annual South Street Art Festival and a lively performance by folk rocker Luke Wade at Levitt Arlington. Continue reading
Upon its completion, Portraits of Hope’s vibrant installation, “Spheres at MacArthur Park” will be the largest public art exhibition Los Angeles has ever seen. It’s such a treat to see this explosion of color come to life right here in our own backyard in MacArthur Park, the home of Levitt Pavilion Los Angeles. Continue reading
We were thrilled to see local artist Eric Clausen’s community mural recently come to life at Levitt Shell Memphis—a project that literally weathered the storm. This mural contributes to the rich public art legacy of the almost 80-year old band shell, which was created through a collaboration between the City of Memphis and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1936. Continue reading
With the first Levitt AMP Music Series launching soon, we’re thrilled to announce our new Levitt AMP website, your destination for all things Levitt AMP—from concert schedules to artist biographies to information about the unique places where each concert series will take place.
Which brings us to the topic of today’s post: place. Some people are born to a place. Others create it. The winners of the 2015 Levitt AMP [Your City] Grant Awards fall into this second category. They are creators and activators, transforming underused sites—like a neglected horse farm in Lafayette, La., and abandoned railroad tracks in Cleveland, Miss.—into lively, music-filled community hubs as part of the inaugural Levitt AMP [Your City] Music Series. Continue reading
Iconic American songs like Wilson Pickett’s “Mustang Sally,” and Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” are only two of the many songs that celebrate car culture; each sing of the thrill of hopping in your car and hitting the road. Here in Los Angeles, a city that loves its cars, we’re immersed in car culture–for better or worse. Having a car is a luxury that brings a new type of freedom and excitement…but what happens when the number of cars on the road increases while the amount of road space for those vehicles remains the same?
This brings us to the subject of today’s post: Mumbai.
Crawford Market traffic – image by Bipin Kokate, courtesy of Mid-day.com
Cheers to a new year and new beginnings!
We’re thrilled to bring free live music to ten additional cities in 2015! Underused public spaces across the country, like this vacant gravel lot in downtown Middlesboro, KY, will be given new life and transformed into thriving community hubs before the year comes to a close. Congrats, again, to the recipients of the first-ever Levitt AMP [Your City] Grant Awards! We can’t wait to see your projects unfold.
Every summer, free Levitt concerts reach over 500,000 people in six cities across the country: Memphis, Arlington, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Westport and Bethlehem. Seeking to increase our impact even more, we’re spreading the power of arts and creative placemaking beyond major metro areas to places of all sizes.
The Levitt AMP [Your City] Grant Awards is an exciting new matching grant program that will award up to $25K each to small and mid-sized cities. In 2015, grantees will produce their own Levitt AMP [Your City] Music Series, extending the reach of free, live music by an additional 100 free concerts.
The application phase has now ended, and reflecting our mission that all Levitt projects be community-driven, we’ve opened up the grant selection process for your votes! Now through November 30 11:59 PM PST, public online voting will help choose the Top 20 Finalists, which will then be narrowed down to 10 final grant recipients by Levitt Pavilions. Continue reading
This Thursday, activists, culture managers and business leaders will flock to Prague and Pilsen for the Pilsen 2015 OPEN UP! Creative Placemaking Festival (hosted by the Aspen Institute and the Pilsen 2015 European Capital of Culture). Leaders ranging from Mark Davy, Founder of Futurecity, and Ann Markusen, Director of the Arts Economy Initiative at the University of Minnesota will come together for two days of panel discussions, working groups, and all around placemaking fun. Together they will work to envision and create better futures for their local communities through creative placemaking.
This exciting international discussion brings us to the topic of today’s post: what exactly is “creative placemaking?”
The idea is simple: Funders are banding together to support projects that use the arts as catalysts for transforming spaces into places. Let’s take a look at Levitt Pavilion Los Angeles in MacArthur Park, a spot where creative placemaking has made a positive impact. Continue reading
Check out this infographic breaking down five major ways Levitt venues are improving America! Continue reading
