Vincent Enrique Hernandez: Field Permits

From late December 2024 to April 2025, artist Vincent Enrique Hernandez invited the public to access a soccer field at Albion Riverside Park, and engage with it as they see fit as part of his project, “Field Permits.” A 2024 Mohn LAND grant recipient, Hernandez is an artist working in Los Angeles whose practice engages with history, monuments, localism, and community by appropriating narratives related to regional culture. In conceiving “Field Permits,” Hernandez reflected on how communities navigate the bureaucracy associated with public spaces. For the artist, a locked gate sends a message about usage, access, and permission, whereas the opportunity for play is a catalyst for connection, and growth, and a type of collaboration with strangers.

LAND operations coordinator Astrid Kayembe spoke with Hernandez about the nuances of securing a field permit, in this as-told-to interview.

My whole life, I played soccer, and in L.A., we didn't always have these really beautiful turf fields. They were mainly grass or dirt lots. It’s kind of rough to play on. The city started developing all these really neat turf fields, but with them came a permit system. Every time you show up, there seems to never be a day where you just go to the park, and play. You could end up getting kicked off.

The field permit system is like if we all bought a bunch of pizzas, and then every time we want to take a slice, you have to pay for it. I’ve had a long term-frustration with it, and I thought that it would be a cool thing to address as something we can move towards while working together.

Here is a step-by-step guide on how I managed to secure a field permit, and how you might be able to, too.

1. Pick a park to play in (that’s not booked out months in advance).

So you decide you want to rent out a field to play with your buddies. Maybe it’s your local field, maybe it’s one across town. First, determine what day(s) you want to use the park. That will determine who you should call to check the park’s availability. Who you’ll call depends on the jurisdiction your park is in — Metro, Pacific, Valley, West, or EXPO Center. The department doesn’t really provide any guidance on what parks are in which jurisdiction, but if you take an educated guess, you’ll find out soon enough.

2. Have a homie on the inside who can help you out.

My friend, Vic, who used to do clinics at Albion Park for kids, is a coach in the public park system. He has the permit for a field on Wednesday nights over at Elysian Park. Since he's in the system already, he gets wind of when things open up and stuff. One day, he hit me up and was like, ‘Sundays two to four are open,’ so I called the park right away, and they confirmed that it was open. Before committing, I called John Ferraro [Athletic Fields] to see about our application there. And the lady asked,

‘How long ago did you submit it?’

‘Like, last week?’

‘Okay, yeah, just because I have, like, 10 years worth of applications waiting this year on my desk.’

So when Vic sent me that message, it was like the sky opened up, and the heavens came down.

If you don’t have a homie, see step 2.5.

2.5. If you’re not picky about which park you play at, call each park to find if one is available at a time that works for you.

Unfortunately, this takes a little bit more work, but it helps you gain an understanding of what fields, dates and times are actually available. Otherwise, you’d have to submit an application with your preferred date and then have it get rejected and do the whole thing all over again. The parks prioritize applications in this way:

Recreation and Parks Department organized activities.
Long term leases, film permits, conditional use, right of entry, etc.
Six month or longer revocable permits (i.e. Little Leagues).
Youth and Adult independent agency requests for permits ← This is you.

A lot of times when I show up, it’s private soccer clubs, and soccer trainers using the fields. The cost of a permit is about $70 per hour and you also need insurance. There seem to be financial incentives that the city has to collect money from people to block off public space, essentially making public space a commodity. There are also development clubs that kids play in, and they get to use that space. But, there's a lot of kids that don't fit within that, and their families can't afford it. What happens to those kids? It never really works out the way it should — for the whole population. The person with money is always going to get the space.

3. Now, you can apply for your permit.

This part’s easy. The initial application asks things like ‘How many people are you gonna have?’ ‘How many weeks will you use the field?,’ Contact information, etc. Once that goes through, there's another handful of forms that are more related to what your responsibility is as a permit holder.

4. Respect the park.

Once your application is approved, you make an agreement guaranteeing that you're going to be there when you say you are with the permit in your hand, and you're going to be responsible for whatever happens in the field. You’re like a public park nanny.

5. Respect the park's people.

There's a dude from around here who plays all the time on Sundays, and he was telling me about when this field was just a dirt lot. When they reopened it in 2019, off the bat, there wasn't that much regulation: the goals were out, the lights were on at night, people were kind of playing nonstop. It was this really beautiful community space. That all came to an end with the way that the park system works, and those dudes, they hop the fence every Sunday they play, and that's how they play. It was cool to hang out with them. They were very welcoming, for the most part.

It attests to how people are willing to collaborate and problem solve with limited space. A question that was asked of me was ‘How do you expect people to use this space? Are there instructions?’ And I was just, like, ‘This is a piece of toast, and you can, like, put whatever you want on it.’

6. If you don’t want to do all of that, there are alternatives.

Just hop the fence, I always do it.

Good luck!

Vincent Enrique Hernandez (b. 1998, Los Angeles) is an artist working in Los Angeles whose practice engages with history, monuments, localism, and community by appropriating narratives related to regional culture. Hernandez's work is grounded in numerous research processes: deep internet dives, picking apart articles, archives, advertisements, visiting libraries, and casual conversation. He is drawn to stories and storytelling as a method and subject, and feels that maintaining oral traditions is a central tenet to his practice, and specifically focuses on these as the catalyst for the construction of local mythologies.

Photos by Vincent Enrique Hernandez. Graphic by Jimena Gamio.