Los Angeles Water School

past
Oscar TuazonLos Angeles Water School
Location:
Date:
October 12, 2018

About the Project

Los Angeles Water School (LAWS) is a functional artwork, an experimental school for students of all ages to engage in dialogue and collaborative work with water. Located adjacent to the Los Angeles River, in a structure inspired by Steve and Holly Baer’s self-sufficient passive solar Zome House (1969-72), LAWS is the first of four Water Schools planned by artist Oscar Tuazon, with locations in Minnesota, Michigan, and Nevada.

Presented by LAND, this series of events builds a genealogy of the complex life of water in Los Angeles, through the lens of local history, architecture, politics, and art. Through this collaborative process tracing how water connects diverse communities within Los Angeles and across the continent, working from a micro to macro understanding of policy and infrastructure, the artist and LAND are excited to continue this constitutive dialogue and create a setting for the exchange of cross-disciplinary ideas and learning.

Virtual Programs

LAWS: Helen Fillmore

June 25, 2021

LAWS: Shanai Matteson and Tanya Aubid

May 27, 2021

Shanai Haana Matteson (b. 1982) is an artist, writer, mother, community-based researcher, and cultural organizer. She is a settler/visitor who currently resides in illegally occupied Dakota territory [Minneapolis, Minnesota] and works across rural and urban places on regenerative cultural and ecological projects.

Cedar Spring Water School: Great Basin

September 10, 2020

Water School returns to the source: Cedar Spring, Nevada. Located in the high desert of the Great Basin, Cedar Spring is one of hundreds of freshwater springs in Spring Valley threatened by a proposal to build a $15 Billion pipeline to remove water from the valley 360 miles south to Las Vegas.

What makes water sacred? Are Indigenous water management strategies relevant to our sustainable future water use? Are trees water?

We are honored to be joined by Ely Shoshone elder Delaine Spilsbury; Kyle Roerink, Executive Director Great Basin Water Network; and Chairman Rupert Steele of the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Nation.

Water School is a functional work of public art based at Cedar Spring, Nevada.

LAWS: LA River Basin / The Aqueduct Between Us

May 16, 2020

Zoom Conversation

Guests: AnMarie Mendoza, L. Frank, Kris Hohag, and Jolie Varela. Moderated by Oscar Tuazon.

Credits & Support

Support for LAWS Programming is Provided By:

National Endowment for the Arts

Foundation for Arts Initiatives

The Offield Family Foundation

Project Sponsor Roberto Toscano

Artist Sponsor Shamim M. Momin

Artist Sponsor Brenda R. Potter

LAND Nomadic Council

Special Thanks to the Kickstarter Contributors: Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Marcy Miller, Helga Fassonaki, Paul Gachot, Alex Arzt, Melissa Passman, Miwon Kwon, A.L. Steiner, Richard Aufrichtig, Paul Ryan, Bosun Babalola, Paul Nguyen, Jack Rabbitt Perez, Whitney Gore, Martin Laborde, Shana Nys Dambrot, Gilda Kunstnernes Hus, Anne Pontegnie, Joshua White, Kim Allen-Niesen­­, Nicholas Sola, Julie Miyoshi, Joao Proenca, Asgeir Skotnes, Bwana Spoons, John Hansen, Nadia Palon, Linda Maggard, Kellie Dieudonne, Saif Radi, and Veronique Pittman.