Long Beach
Innovation Team

411 West Ocean Blvd.
Long Beach, CA 90802
7/24/2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEPress Release # CM:072417A
Subject:
Community Invited to Attend Queer Art Pop-Up at Harvey Milk Park
Connecting People, Connecting Place, Co-Creating a Public Space
Contact:








The City of Long Beach Innovation Team (i-team), in collaboration with Work Evolution and Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez, will host a pop-up art event featuring visual art, performing art, and an Open Conversation with Arts Council for Long Beach on Thursday, July 27, between 5:00 pm and 7:30 pm at Harvey Milk Park and Equality Plaza. The community is invited to this exciting event that will foster the LGBTQ+ community’s artistic and economic culture by presenting queer art and discussing innovations in the art economy.  


“I am looking forward to seeing the thought provoking and passionate art that has been created by these outstanding queer artists,” said Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez. “Harvey Milk envisioned a world where rights were won when voices were heard, and today we are hearing the voices of an important segment of the LGBTQ+ community.” 

Attendees can expect to see a range of artwork that include: paintings; printed photography; and performance pieces that showcase the ambient expressions of the queer experience, identity and perspective. Selected works came from artists who visit, work, and live in Long Beach. The selections were the result of an open call for art in which the community was invited to submit their artwork that explored the term “queer.”

At the event, there will also be performances from local musician, Mooney Starr, and regional performing artist, Marissa Lynn, at 5:00 pm. 

Starting at 6:00 pm, Arts Council for Long Beach will host an Open Conversation about the artist economy that will feature presentations from Karen Atkinson with GYST-Ink, an artist-run company providing resources, technology and solutions for artists; Sofia Chirico with Curensea, a digital art economy platform where works can be published, shared and supported; and Myriam Gurba, local queer spoken-word artist, visual artist, and writer. A discussion on the local art economy will follow. Artists and art advocates are invited to learn about professional development, discuss economic innovations and share their individual experiences.

“There are many ideas and discussions about art that go on in our great city,” said Griselda Suarez, Executive Director of Arts Council for Long Beach. “Open Conversations provide a unique space for artists and art advocates to come together and engage in unexpected perspectives, and learn new approaches or trends that make the arts community strong.”

The Harvey Milk Park Project, “Outdoor Collaborative” concept, is part of the City’s broader economic development and i-team efforts to connect people and institutions through more open, diverse, and inclusive public spaces for people to gather. 

July 2016 marked the beginning of an 18-month process of transforming Harvey Milk Park into an outdoor public space that encourages collaboration, entrepreneurship and connectivity, as well as celebrates the legacy of Harvey Milk and the LGBTQ+ community.

To learn more about the Harvey Milk Park Project and full details on the Art Pop-Up, please visit: www.innovatelb.com/showcase.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation 
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation provided a $300,000 grant to make the Harvey Milk Park Project possible. The Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more information, visit www.knightfoundation.org

About the Innovation Team
Launched in 2012, the Innovation Teams Program is one of seven Government Innovation offerings at Bloomberg Philanthropies. Innovation teams (i-teams) function as in-house innovation consultants; helping agency leaders and staff go through a data-driven process to assess problems, generate responsive new interventions, develop partnerships, and deliver measurable results. The City of Long Beach is one of 27 cities around the world that are participating in the program. Launched in 2015, Long Beach’s i-team works closely, and supportively, with their colleagues across city government — offering them a different set of tools and techniques to innovate more effectively. In partnership with these colleagues, the Long Beach i-team aims to deeply understand the problem they are trying to solve by building empathy for the people impacted by it and then work quickly and creatively to co-create and test solutions that deliver meaningful results for residents.

For more information on the City of Long Beach Innovation Team, please visit www.longbeach.gov/iteam or follow us on Twitter @iteam_LongBeach and Facebook.