Best Archive Of Global Protest Art in Los Angeles: Peace Center

Peace Center

8124 W. Third St., Los Angeles, CA 90048

(209) 981-2311

With "L.A. VS. WAR" and "PEACE" painted across its façade, it's easier to find the otherwise low-key offices of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics on Third Street. Here a small but dedicated staff collects, preserves and catalogs a treasure trove of protest graphics from countries and causes around the world, from 1900 to Occupy. Much of the work involves organizing exhibitions, such as the brilliant "Decades of Dissent," which inaugurated the West Hollywood Library and will be reinstalled at the Skirball this month — right around CSPG's annual benefit auction. A new grant is funding the definitive cataloging of the 80,000 posters they know they have, plus what could be thousands more still uninventoried, which will all go on a new website — the better to further CSPG's mission of public education. Many causes the archives address — civil rights for women, gays and minorities; economic justice; peace; environmentalism — are still unsettled matters today, to varying degrees. But as long as we have the CSPG, we'll always have a fresh supply of inspiration to fix things. 8124 W. Third St., Suite 211, Beverly Grove. (323) 653-4662, politicalgraphics.org. —Shana Nys Dambrot

Source: LA Weekly