Curtis L. Carter

I. Watts

II. Philosophy of Community Arts

III. Community Arts Projects in Watts

Studio Watts Workshop

Watts Towers Arts Center

Watts Writers' Workshop

Mafundi Institute

Community Arts Process

IV. Artists

Noah Purifoy

John Outterbridge

Charles Dickson

Elliott Pinkney

Dale Davis

I. Watts

Watts, a 2.5 square mile section of South-East Los Angeles, was originally part of a Mexican land grant subdivided during the 1880s into a grid of small residential lots.  Until World War II, the population was more or less equally divided between African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Caucasians.  There were also Japanese-Americans living in the Watts area prior to their incarceration, including the famed Tokyo Rose of World War II propaganda broadcasts from Japan. In circa 1912, Watts' Chamber of Commerce adopted the slogan, "Watts: The Hub of the Universe" because of the central location of the district which connected Los Angeles and surrounding cities with four electric rail lines. The section of Watts where African Americans settled was called Mudtown.  Post-war migration swelled the African-American population eightfold between 1940 to 1960, ultimately resulting in an increase of 87 percent by 1965.

The widely publicized rebellion of 1965 in Watts occurred exactly one century after the enactment of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which outlawed slavery.  Enactment of Civil Rights Acts beginning in 1866 were aimed at giving the rights of full citizenship to blacks, and the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution enacted in 1868 provided due process of law for all persons born or naturalized in the United States.  Despite these legal provisions and a century of efforts to ensure their implementation, many issues concerning the exercise of these rights and their violation remain unresolved. 

Indeed, incidences of racial violence plague our history. During the 19th century, racial violence occurred in Memphis, Tennessee and in New Orleans, Louisiana, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of blacks and the burning of their churches and schools. Problems intensified as soldiers of color returning from World Wars I and II and subsequent international battles were increasingly unwilling to accept racial discrimination from white segregationists.  During the "red summer" of 1919, some 25 American cities including Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, and Tulsa experienced racial clashes resulting in bloody street battles.   Beyond the physical fights, problems with equal access for African Americans to education and employment opportunities, police brutality, segregation and other forms of discrimination persisted throughout the 20th century.  These conditions triggered the eruption of violence that reduced a section of Los Angeles to rubble in 1965.   From the perspective of the citizens of Watts, their rebellion was in response to a perpetual state of violence against African Americans that threatened their well being.  The Los Angeles rebellion was not the first nor the last.  Los Angeles has experienced recurring incidences since 1965, and riots have taken place in urban centers across the nation including- Newark, Detroit, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Milwaukee.

The focus of the Haggerty exhibition, Watts: Art and Social Change in Los Angeles, 1965 to 2002, is the response of African-American artists and others living in Los Angeles during this period, who offered an alternative to the rioters' militant actions.  Their projects represent a particular kind of experiment linking art and social change that has not been duplicated in the other centers of urban crisis. 

These efforts also differ from earlier efforts by African-American artists and writers to contribute to African-American cultural life.  For example, the need to demonstrate that African Americans were able to make significant contributions in literature, arts, and sciences resulted in the creation of the American Negro Academy in 1887.  The Academy's purposes were "to produce scholarly materials, to assist youth in attainments reflecting higher culture, and the vindication of the Negro through raising the level of intellectual pursuits."   Individual artists, for example Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) and Josephine Baker (1906-1975), chose to distance themselves from the problems of living in America through exile in Europe. Tanner made a life in Paris and established a distinguished solo career as a painter in a semi-abstract style of expressionist art.  Baker found success in Paris as a performer in the European musical theater and also starred in French films.  The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s produced another approach toward African-American art and literature celebrating the achievements of African-American writers and artists as a significant aspect of world culture.  Centered in the Harlem section of New York City, the movement represented a high point of creativity for writers based in New York, including the poet Langston Hughes.

II. Philosophy of Community Arts

In contrast to the aims of the American Negro Academy, the African American artists in exile, and the Harlem Renaissance respectively, the arts projects in Watts were primarily directed toward social change and community development through the arts.  Two principal objectives underlie these programs: to develop opportunities for the artists and to use art to make a difference in the lives of community residents.  As artist John Outterbridge has observed, "The period of the sixties was one of enhanced vision of how art and culture could effectively participate to help build a community, break existing moulds and create an interest in social change.  At the time, it was an unconventional way to use the arts.   Artists were challenged to think among themselves in new ways.  The artists working in the Watts community were not influenced by social activists whose methods involved violence and social disruption."   In this context artists assumed roles intended to make a difference in the environment. 

The artists in Watts, as Outterbridge noted, were not threatened with denied access to galleries and museums or to publishers of literary works.  They emerged essentially from a culture with no galleries or museums, let alone publishing outlets.  Thus, the question became, "If you have no galleries, or museums or writers' outlets, how do you create them?"  As a result, the artists had to create art in the community.  This meant redefining the role of the artist.  The redefinition resulted in a concept of the artist as one who works in the community to engage, involve, and activate.  The artist in these settings is expected to be a caring person committed to developing a community of thought and collaboration where the art produced functions as a cohesive, healing force. 

III. Community Arts Projects in Watts

Studio Watts Workshop

Even before the Watts rebellion, artists in the community had a vision for a community based approach to the arts.  Among the first to respond was Studio Watts Workshop founded by James Woods and Guy Miller in 1964; the Workshop was located at 103rd Street and Grandee in South-East Los Angeles.  Initial funding was provided by Woods, who had a degree in business from the University of Southern California and was then working for the Great Western Savings and Loan Association, and by his wife, who was a probation officer.  The project provided for some 150 students training in visual arts, music, drama, dance, and writing. The manifesto of Studio Watts Workshop is expressed in these words:  "We must facilitate the individual's regaining an awareness of himself as an instrument of change.  Studio Watts Workshop supports a cultural democracy to deal with the broad scope of social, technical, and economic problems."

Woods, who served as the Workshop's director and administrator, recalls that Studio Watts Workshop functioned as a place for artists to work free from establishment influences and as a catalyst for artists' projects.  As for Guy Miller, he was in charge of visual arts; Jayne Cortez was director of the acting and writing program that led to the Watts Repertory Theater Company.   Others involved with the program included Bob Rogers, who taught design; Carmencita Romero, who taught dance; William Buller, sculptor; and visual artist, John Whitmore.  Choreographer Anna Halprin was also associated with the project for a year.  The Workshop attracted participants from Watts and various other sections of Los Angeles, many of whom went on to develop successful careers as artists and writers.  Among these were the poet John Eric Priestley and sculptor Charles Dickson whose work is represented in the exhibition.  The approach of the artists was to develop an openness to experimenting with the various arts media, using available materials.  In some instances this meant improvisation and adapting materials trashed by the Watts rioters and fires.  The projects at the original workshop site ceased when the building was cleared for housing redevelopment around 1972.

Studio Watts Workshop evolved into the Watts Community Housing Corporation in 1969, with James Woods as its first president. With the assistance of a $600,000 award from the City of Los Angeles and the Federal Housing and Urban Development program (HUD), Watts Community Housing Corporation generated a project now valued at $35 million, consisting of 104 family units and 40 units reserved for elderly community residents.  The initial application to HUD was submitted to HUD's Experimental Housing Section and included housing for artists as well as for arts programs.  When this program was cancelled, HUD placed the Watts Housing Corporation project under its Section 236 Housing Subsidy grant program which required elimination of the arts provisions of the project.  At this point, in 1967, the Board of Studio Watts Workshop had to make a decision as to whether to proceed with the housing project and seek other ways to continue its arts programs.  Grants from the Doris Duke and the Ford foundations to investigate artists' roles in the development of low to moderate income housing, as well as support from individuals including Hollywood stars Bill Cosby and Larry Hagman, provided the initial support for continuation of the arts programs.  In making the transition from artists' workshop to community housing, the Studio Watts Workshop successfully achieved the dual objectives of serving the needs of the artists and making a difference in the community environment through its housing project. Today, the Watts Community Housing Project continues to serve the Watts community with housing and arts programs such as the annual Watts Chalk-In, which began in 1966 as part of a street arts festival,15 and Cultural Walk.  Dr. Samella Lewis describes the Chalk-In "as an exciting example of how children are encouraged to become involved in community activities."  She observes that the Watts Chalk-In enables children and young people to "visually express cultural themes that are of significance to the community."  Lewis believes that street art projects represent "Ö part of a community action program that serves people of all ages."

Watts Towers Arts Center

During the aftermath of the Watts rebellion in 1965, artist Noah Purifoy became the first director of the Watts Towers Arts Center. Assisting him were musician Judson Powell and teacher Sue Welsh. The Center was built on property Rodia abandoned in 1954 located on 103rd Street in the shadow of Simon Rodia's Watts Towers. The Committee for the Simon Rodia Towers, a not-for-profit organization of concerned citizens of Watts, initially formed the Watts Towers Art Center in the 1950s and acted as caretakers of the site between 1954 and 1975 when the property was presented as a gift to the City of Los Angeles.  The Committeeís efforts to preserve Rodiaís towers drew worldwide attention and ultimately blocked efforts of the City of Los Angeles to demolish the monument.  The Watts Towers are now a valued cultural landmark of interest to visitors as well as to architects and scholars. 

The Center provided Purifoy, Powell and other professional artists the opportunity to design and construct their works; furthermore, it allowed students the occasion to create work for exhibitions.  In addition to the Center's ability to attract area adults, collaboration with local schools brought children and teens to the Center, where all could engage in creative arts including visual arts, dancing and making musical instruments.  In 1965-1967, the Center also housed a federally funded teen post with a focus on the arts.  One of the unique programs was the Watts Towers Theater Workshop directed by Steve Kent of the University of Southern California. Kent introduced improvisation techniques to Watts street youth empowering them to share their stories of urban life after the uprising.

The ideas guiding the Center were derived in part from Purifoy's interest in artistic and philosophical sources such as Dada, Martin Heidegger and Edmund Husserl.  Their investigation into the relevance of cultural objects as a means to confront one's being in a meaningful sense, amidst the mindless effects of everyday objects and routines may have contributed ideas to the vision underlying the Center's mission.  At the center of this mission was the belief, or the hope that, art, by serving as a vehicle for communication, could effect social change.  To actualize this vision in the social environment of Watts during the 1960s would prove to be a challenge.  In the words of Purifoy,

"The concept of developing another language to address black communities and their needs became the driving force behind the eraís artistic expressions.  The medium and form an artist employed also had to reflect alternatives to traditional Western concepts of beauty and culture to serve the growing sensibilities of revolutionary thought." 

In 1975, the Watts Towers Arts Center was transferred to the City of Los Angeles Municipal Arts Department (now the Cultural Affairs Department), which was then led by Kenneth Ross.  John Outterbridge became the first director of the Center under the Municipal Arts Department the same year and served in that position until 1992.  During this period, the Center flourished as a base for community arts education and drew international attention for its collaborative community arts projects.

Watts Writers' Workshop

Poetry had been an important art in Watts early in the 20th century.  Arna Bontemps, noted African-American poet and author, lived in Watts for a time, and brought Langston Hughes to Watts in 1936 for a story telling at the Carnegie Library.  Given this established interest in poetry and writing, it is not surprising to find a strong interest in writing after 1965.  The Watts Writers' Workshop was initiated in the aftermath of the Watts rebellion, in September, 1965 by Budd Schulberg, a writer whose works included the screen play for On the Waterfront. In the introduction to his book, From the Ashes: Voices of Watts, Schulberg tells the story of how the Writers' Workshop began.  Quite simply, it grew out of a tour Schulberg took to Watts to view the post-rebellion scene, and his desire to do something to help the people there.  Schulberg announced a "Creative Writing Workshop" by posting a note on the bulletin board of the Westminster Neighborhood Association, a social service agency sponsored by the Presbyterian Church.  After various attempts to interest people in the neighborhood, the first recruit, Charles Johnson, appeared and the project began.  Other recruits followed, including Johnie Scott, John Eric Priestley, and people from all walks of life. It is noted that Johnson, Scott and Priestley are now successful writers and/or scholars. 

The Workshop participants had one thing in common: a desire to write - poetry, essays, and stories based on life experiences. Often their writings laid bare "the angers, fears, frustrations" of the people living in Watts.  In less than a year the program outgrew the space at the Westminster building and moved to the Watts Happening Coffee House on 103rd Street, which was an abandoned furniture store converted by area youth into an art center. The success of the program drew the attention of the Los Angeles press, and NBC TV devoted an hour of prime time to present "The Angry Voices of Watts" on August 16, 1966.  Subsequently the Writers' Workshop found a home in the Frederick Douglass Writers' House, named in honor of a runaway slave who became an orator and leading spokesman for abolition.  The Douglass House attracted support from prominent academic, literary, entertainment and political figures from across the country.  Among the supporters were writers James Baldwin and John Steinbeck, actors Richard Burton and Steve Allen, composer Ira Gershwin, and Senator Robert F. Kennedy.  In 1966, Schulberg and Workshop members Johnie Scott and Harry Dolan, were invited to testify before the Ribicoff Committee of the United States Congress, which was investigating urban dislocation and the problems of African Americans living in American cities.  Overall the Workshop provided opportunities for Watts writers to develop their skills and present their work, and brought to the attention of the nation a new group of talented American writers.

Mafundi Institute

Located on 103rd Street in Watts, the Mafundi Institute was, according to a Los Angeles Times article written in 1992, "one of the most vibrant of the performing arts institutions that sprang from the riots."   In Swahili, "mafundi" means artisan.  UCLA's Professor J. Alfred Cannon and others banned together to form the Institute as a place where people could develop a sense of self-worth through the arts.  Their main purpose was to train community residents to work in the arts.  With an emphasis on the history of African-American arts, the program included a communicative arts workshop, a drama workshop, a filmmaking workshop, and dance classes.  Dancer Marge Champion gave money for a dance floor and her friends came to teach dance classes at the Mafundi Institute. Funding sources included the Federal Model Cities Program and the Charles F. Kettering Foundation.  James Taylor, the Institute's first director, left the program in 1970; it ceased operating in 1975.

Community Arts Process

All of above projects reflected a belief that art in the urban setting could best be channeled through the community.  Noah Purifoy "remembers the period as a great artistic awakening throughout the community: dropouts found a voice through street theater; preschoolers accompanied the artist on junk hunts down the railroad track; amateurs and professionals did backyard paintings together; senior citizens learned to tie-dye; people of all kinds learned to dance and make musical instruments."  In the early days, Purifoy believed that art could effect social change, but he later realized that art alone may not be sufficient to rescue the ravished community of Watts.  Increased gang violence and crime in Watts and the disappearance of community arts programs were indications that the changes in human behavior that Purifoy and others involved in the community arts had expected did not occur unilaterally.  Schulberg, too, recognized the limits of a creative writing class in Watts.  It was only a small beginning, given all of the problems of the writers, let alone the larger community, whose members might be homeless, without jobs and frequently subject to discrimination and abuse from the police. Testimony to the importance of the program lies in the many writers who emerged from it to develop their own careers as important voices for African Americans and as notable contributors to American culture.

The efforts of the Studio Watts Workshop, the Watts Towers Arts Center, the Watts Writers' Workshop, and the Mafundi Institute often took place in a hostile environment and with limited funding.  All four institutions were positioned, so to speak, on the battle lines along 103rd Street, in the heart of where the riots took place.  Frustration, anger, and the threat of violence were never far away.

Particularly distressing was the destruction in 1973 of the public art piece, Oh Speak, Speak, (1970), located at the corner of 103rd and Beach streets. The piece had been erected to celebrate the land acquisition for the Watts Community Housing Corporation project, from the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles.  Artists John Outterbridge, Charles Dickson, Elliott Pinkney, Dale Davis, Nate Ferance and engineer Tom Little worked on the piece.   At the time Oh Speak, Speak was destroyed, community residents believed the Studio Watts Workshop and other African-American community network organizations were infiltrated by FBI operatives. Some residents attributed the burning of Oh Speak, Speak and the sabotage and burning of the Watts Writers' Workshop theater to a confessed FBI informant known as Darthard Perry, whose aliases included Ed Riggs and Othello.

As part of assessing these projects, it is important to realize the extent of mutual support and collaboration from individuals and institutions essential to the projects' success.  Studio Watts Workshop was a catalyst for other community arts developments.  For example, a group called The Meeting At Watts Towers was founded in the early 1970s to exchange information and encourage collaboration for the community based arts network in Watts. This group was established after Studio Watts Workshop received a grant from the Ford Foundation to advance community arts.  The participants included a broad range of organizations from the Watts Station House Development Foundation to the Mothers of Watts. Individuals such as Cecil Ferguson, curator of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, also contributed to the cultural life of Watts after 1965. Known as a community curator and historian, Ferguson organized art shows incorporating African American arts in alternative community spaces from chrches and malls to prisons. He directed the Watts Summer Festival for 10 years.

Also important in facilitating the Watts arts projects was the Watts Labor Community Action Committee, a union-sponsored not-for-profit organization led by Ted Watkins. Established in 1965, the goal of WLCAC was to apply union skills and organizational experience to improve and revitalize the Watts community through the provision of neglected services. The WLCAC Union members' experience was especially useful during the late 1960s and 1970s in guiding the impact of community arts projects on city government. The WLCAC programs incorporated community arts, and subsequently led to the establishment of a museum in Watts to document the Civil Rights Movement.

IV. Artists

The visual artists and writers represented in the Haggerty exhibition -- Noah Purifoy, John Outterbridge, Charles Dickson, Dale Davis, Jayne Cortez, Elliott Pinkney, Eric Priestley, and Johnie Scott  all participated in community-based arts organizations in Watts during the period from 1965 to the present. Their work drew support from a wide range of sponsorship: churches, civic groups, sororities and fraternities, libraries, and city and federally sponsored projects. 

Noah Purifoy

From his days as an art student at Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles (1951-54), Noah Purifoy resisted the traditional approach to art based on drawing and painting.  Instead he chose to "find his own way," inspired in part by the Dada artist Marcel Duchamp, who challenged the boundaries of art and explored the connections between every day objects and art. The Brockman Gallery director Dale Davis remembers Purifoy as an artist who challenged the community with his art. "He was controversial, not well understood but interesting to those who gathered around the Brockman Gallery." Purifoyís background as a social worker made him conscious of the needs of at risk members of society, and he determined to use his art to advance social change.

Both the Duchampian influence and his commitment to art as a means of social change influenced his choice of materials and the form of his art.  The debris from the riots provided a natural starting point for the materials, and the wasted urban shapes already reduced to abstractions called for abstract forms in the art.  "Purifoy was struck by a thought: What if these people could look at junk in another wayóas a symbol of their being in the world,Ö.What effect could art have upon the people who are living right inside of it?  'Junk' means wasted unusable material.  Transferred to human beings it means a life of despair, uselessness, and hopelessness.  The resurrection of the discarded material could represent the resurrection of the people who have been discarded by circumstance."

Most of Purifoy's pieces in the Haggerty exhibition, with the exception of Watts Riot, (1966) are from later stages in his career; much of his early work was lost or discarded when he left the Watts Towers Arts Center.  It is nevertheless important to refer to these early pieces.  The medium he chose was "assemblage," a type of three dimensional collage, or work that is predominantly assembled as opposed to painted, drawn, molded, or carved. Watts Riot was created from charred wood taken from the rubble left from the actual riots.  Both literally and metaphorically, the piece symbolizes the tragedy of the Watts rebellions.  But it also emerges from the artist's imagination and hand as a formal work of pristine quality.  Another work from this period, 66 Signs of Neon, (1966), was also formed out of junk left by the riots.  Purifoy intended that the lesson of artists transforming junk into art would inspire creativity and encourage viewers to shape their lives in meaningful directions. 

Two of Purifoyís works in the Haggerty exhibition, Black, Brown and Beige, (after Duke Ellington) and Snowhill were executed in 1989, shortly after the artist resigned as a founding member of the California Arts Council and resumed full time work as an artist. The piece referencing Duke Ellington is a 68 by 113 inch wall relief constructed of inlaid wooden strips with finger-like shapes at the top.  This work signals Purifoy's identification with African-American culture, and reaffirms his standing as a major artist.  Snowhill, is an abstract assemblage constructed of junk materials.  The title of the piece suggests a reference to the artist's birth place in Snow Hill, Alabama. The piece itself perhaps depicts an aerial landscape of this small southern community.  The remaining works of Purifoy are recent pieces executed in the desert setting of Joshua Tree, where the artist has lived and worked since 1989 in what he calls an outdoor desert art museum. 

John Outterbridge

After a tour of U.S. military duty in Europe, John Outterbridge studied at the American Academy of Art in Chicago from 1956 to 1959 and arrived in California in 1963, just before the Watts rebellion.  His stature as an artist of national standing is paralleled by a distinguished career as the director of two important community arts centers in Watts and Compton, California and as an active member of the Los Angeles arts community. 36  Like Purifoy, Outterbridge appropriated his themes and materials from discarded objects, trash, junk, and objects he found.  The theme of discarded materials was used to symbolize the plight of persons living in a damaged environment where they felt as if they were treated as discarded human beings.  The use of available materials was also a matter of necessity as well as choice for Purifoy and Outterbridge, as the artists could not afford conventional art materials.  Both artists would agree that their work as artists was tempered by a need to satisfy the social demands of their work in community arts. Purifoy once remarked to Outterbridge, "This work we do has more to do with creating tools for social change than it has to do with making art."

From the 1960s to the present, Outterbridge's work evolved through different series.  First came the Containment Series of the post-rebellion sixties. It features urban debris that attempts to link art to processes; then came the Rag Man Series using scraps of cloth to fashion tightly bound doll-like images that symbolize human struggles in the process of refashioning broken lives.  Later, Outterbridge developed the Ethnic Heritage Group, addressing the problems of identity and heritage.  In these series, Outterbridge's work quietly addresses the societal injustices perceived through time by African Americans, without succumbing to violent imagery.  His images invite dialogue rather than political or physical confrontation on the issues African Americans face. This includes matters of societal inequities and the urban blight that surrounds the lives of so many.

With the exception of his drawings for Oh Speak, Speak,(1970s to present) and Window, (1991) most of Outterbridge's pieces in the Haggerty exhibition are from the Ethnic Heritage Series.  These works were mainly executed after the artist left the Watts Towers Arts Center in 1992 to devote full-time to creating new art. Déjà vu-Do, was initially created in the early 1970s and entitled Captive Image. The piece was renamed in 1992 to link the Rodney King beating by Los Angeles police with the Watts riots of 1965.  A small U.S. flag was draped over the captive slave image, as if to say, "Here we go again."

And in In the Hay the Children Won't Play, (1991) is a visual rendering of a poem that Outterbridge wrote:

   And the birds won't sing
   And the bells won't ring
   And the flowers won't grow
   And the rivers won't flow
   And the children won't play.
   The Children.

In Search of the Missing Mule, (1993) Pot of Lie Lye, (1993) and Remnants Unclaimed, (2001) are part of the artist's concern with ethnic heritage and memories relating to ancestors.  The 12 foot "Missing Mule" is constructed of fabricated dark steel with extended wooden stick arms.  From one arm hangs a metal coupling to attach the missing mule; from the other, a hangman's noose.  Both symbolize the double constraints that African Americans have experienced, when enslaved or as victims of social injustice. Pot of Lye Lie, a piece created in memory of the artist's grandmother, is one of a series of works Outterbridge produced to consecrate his studio space.  Remnants Unclaimed is part of a developing series of abstract metal works based on the theme of expansion, with references to the bracelets of slaves.

Charles Dickson

Charles Dickson studied at Studio Watts Workshop and also taught at the Compton Art Center and the Watts Towers Arts Center with John Outterbridge.  Similar to the previous artists, he has been active in the Watts community arts and professionally in galleries throughout Los Angeles and elsewhere.  His work includes public sculpture as well as gallery pieces.  Dickson's sculpture draws upon African tribal cultures and the African-American experience. His work also reflects an interest in science and technology.  Like Purifoy and Outterbridge, Dickson's sculpture includes assemblage and is constructed of carved wood, as well as discarded materials. However, he also works in bronze, as is evident from a recent commissioned bust of the former United Nations Secretary General Ralph Bunche.  The titles of his pieces in the Haggerty exhibition:  I Feel the Spirit, and Spirit Dance, (both from 1988), and Bongo Congo:  Mobilization of the Spirit, (1989) all reflect their connections to African culture.  The first two are carved totem-like designs made from pieces of wood specially selected for their natural shapes, with fetishes attached.  Bongo Congo is a complex three dimensional construction consisting of a chariot-like structure on wheels fronted by a masked figure.  Protruding from the front of the structure and holding up the mask is a human arm fronted by a clenched fist carved of wood with inlayed design.  Throughout the remaining structure are fetishes and various extensions of rope, chain, and steel pins.

Elliott Pinkney

Elliott Pinkney is a mural painter, sculptor, and poet. He is best known for his murals developed in Los Angeles on the theme of African-American pride and the importance of understanding between different cultures.  He too worked in community arts programs at the Compton Communicative Arts Academy.  In 1972, Pinkney was commissioned to work on the public art sculpture, O Speak, Speak with Outterbridge.  One of his recent murals is located on the site of Watts Towers Arts Center.  Pinkney's mural Watts Happeneding was created on site in the Haggerty Museum as a part of the exhibition, Watts: Art and Social Change in Los Angeles, 1965-2002.  The 8 by 16 foot mural includes images of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the mayor and police chief of Los Angeles. These are set against a fiery red background, a looming image of death with a gun in one hand and a syringe dripping blood, and symbols of police brutality amidst white doves of peace.  In the very center foreground is a hand with a time clock. The work is a commentary on the time-line of events linking the riots of 1965 and 1992 with the present.

Dale Davis

Dale Davis and his brother Alonzo ran the Brockman Gallery located on Degnan Boulevard in South-Central Los Angeles from 1968 to 1991.  Brockman Gallery was a major force in the African-American arts movement beginning in the 1960s.  Jacob Lawrence, Charles White, Elizabeth Cattlet, Noah Purifoy, and John Outterbridge were among the major artists represented by the gallery.  This gallery served middle class members of the public who were interested in collecting art.  Frequently the art was purchased on "the lay-away" installment plan.  Davis's art works often began in the classroom, where he used his own experience as a working artist to teach art to his students at Dorsey High School in South-East Los Angeles.  His ceramic and bamboo works represented in the Haggerty exhibition respond to his environment in South-Central Los Angeles and the places he has traveled.  The works are often whimsical, but do not shy away from social or political commentary. 

VI.  Outcomes

On balance, the visionary people who launched and sustained the Watts arts projects deserve high praise.  Their work did make a difference.  It is easy to imagine the doubts and the persistence required to commit major portions of time to developing the projects instead of devoting full energy to an individual career as an artist.  For example, John Outterbridge, whose work extends for the longest period of time among the artists involved in the Watts arts projects, recalls a call from Time Magazine in 1970, which would have garnered national attention to his career.  Instead of taking the opportunity to speak with the magazine reporter, he referred the call to another artist in the community.  As for Noah Purifoy, he left the Watts Towers Arts Center in 1976 to accept an appointment from then Governor Jerry Brown to the California Arts Council, where he continued his efforts to advance community based arts education for the next 11 years.  His experience in Watts was an important factor in the arts education projects for community based arts programs, as well as for educational programs at the state's larger arts institutions, which he helped to create and fund in his new position.

The pioneering efforts of James Woods at Studio Watts Workshop; Noah Purifoy, Judson Powell, and John Outterbridge at the Watts Towers Arts Center; Budd Schulberg and Harry Dolan at the Writers' Workshop; J. Alfred Cannon and James Taylor at Mafundi and the many others who contributed to these amazing projects did make a difference in the quality of life for the individuals who participated and for the overall community.  They demonstrated that art can be a means of social change and hope in the lives of individuals by contributing to improvements in self-image and community identity. 

Not the least important is the role of Watts' experimental arts projects as a model for artists' participation in the community, and for the arts as a central part of education. Literally thousands of youth, younger and older artists, and members of the public in the Watts community received education in and through these arts projects that provided experience and skills in the arts. Many individuals, including the participants in this exhibition, were motivated to become professional artists and writers.  For a relatively small community, Watts has produced a significant amount of major talent in the visual arts, music, literary arts, and theater.  In addition to the artists included in the exhibition, there are numerous others who exhibited or performed in the Watts Summer Festivals and other venues in Watts who achieved prominence: visual artists David Hammons, David Mosley, Betye Saar, and John Whitmore; musicians Buddy Collette and Billy Higgins; writers Quincy Throop and Odie Hawkins; actors Roger Mosley and Paula Kelly to name a few.

In addition, the Watts arts projects for social change offered lasting tangible benefits.  The Studio Watts Community Housing Corporation developed an immediate contribution to the artistic culture of Watts and an on-going contribution to material well being in the form of affordable housing for residents.  This project serves as a model for community based collaboration between the arts and other community institutions in community development.  The Watts Towers Arts Center continues to serve as a center for education and display of African-American art and operates under the auspices of the City of Los Angeles as part of the landmark Watts Towers area. It has become a site for tourists to visit, along side Simon Rodia's Towers.  In the summer of 2002, the City of Los Angeles began installing plaques to honor community members important in the history of the Watts Towers Arts Center, including a monument honoring artist John Outterbridge for his work with the Center.  The Watts Labor Community Action Committee founded the Watts Civil Rights Museum as a repository for civil rights memorabilia.  Its programs include cultural projects involving artists.

Especially important is the role of the Watts community arts projects in focusing the attention of the governing powers of the City of Los Angeles on the need to address its pressing social problems.  In the broader scheme these efforts were part of the actions that led to a greater role for African Americans in the governance of the City of Los Angeles at the level of city council and, city commissions.  Most notable was the election of a black mayor from 1977 to 1993. These political achievements, in turn, brought greater attention to the problems of Watts, which triggered funding in support of the Watts Community Housing Corporation, the Watts Community Arts Center, and other social services enterprises. 

The physical environment in Watts has changed notably and it has become visually and culturally a desirable community warranting civic pride.  This change is in part attributable to the achievements of the artists and community arts projects working in collaboration with the City of Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency and other city agencies.  Yet amid the cultural successes and beautification, the social environment in Watts has not changed.  The accomplishments of the artists' and writers' projects in Watts from 1965 to the present did not succeed in a radical transformation of the social environment as its leaders had envisioned.  Gang warfare continues to plague the Watts neighborhoods where these projects took place, and incidences of racial injustice and recurring police abuses of power against African Americans and others living in Watts have not ceased.  The Rodney King affair in 1992 and the incident involving the contested arrest of a young African-American boy in nearby Inglewood in 2001 attest to these on-going problems.  Perhaps if there were greater opportunities for participation in alternative arts programs for youth in the community today, as in the "golden years" of Watts after the riots, there would be more creative solutions and greater hope of solving these problems.