Grand Rounds, an innovative new public art project in Grand Park, is a participatory artwork involving acoustic sculptures and public conversations with individuals who work and recreate in the Grand Park area. The project investigates the many voices, ears, and roles both public officials and citizens utilize to invigorate our communities. Grand Rounds aims to create an inventive space for socially engaged art and civic dialogue in Grand Park.
The project, commissioned by the Los Angeles Music Center and Machine Project (a non-profit arts organization based in Echo Park) is a collaboration between artist Elana Mann and artist and court administrator Camilo Cruz.
Grayce Liu, General Manager of the Department for Neighborhood Empowerment, has been chosen as one of the ten participants to lend their voices to Grand Rounds and be part of the dialogue about community engagement and empowerment.
The project will take place over two months in May and June of 2014. Dialogues will be structured but informal and will occur during Tuesday lunchtimes in Grand Park. In June, a series of listening sculptures will be installed around Grand Park, playing original sound artworks inspired by the previous month’s conversations.
The dates for each discussion are:
Tuesday, May 6, 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Tuesday, May 13, 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Tuesday, May 20, 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Tuesday, May 27, 12:00pm – 1:00pm
This public art project focuses on the many ways civic dialogue is generated, dispersed, and received. Mann will be creating hand-held acoustic sculptures, inspired by ear trumpets from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which will travel through the offices and buildings surrounding Grand Park. Individuals who work for the city, county, and court systems will steward thee sculptures through the buildings and out into the park. Whilst in the park, the stewards of the sculptures will initiate public dialogues about strategies that promote meaningful, healthy, and proactive communication within the governing and judicial structures of Los Angeles. These informal conversations, organized and facilitated by Elana Mann and Camilo Cruz, will involve ten invited participants who work for the city, county, and court systems. The general public will be encouraged to join the dialogues. In the final phase of the project, Mann will create original sound pieces inspired by each conversation. These sonic artworks will be played through the hand-held acoustic sculptures installed around the park for one month. The artistic and social outputs of this project will promote the idea that Grand Park is a space for public administrators and citizens to feel motivated, comfortable, engaged, and contemplative as they experience communication rooted in the mutual interest of improving society in Los Angeles. In this way, the Grand Rounds project will create a meeting place and communication center for the heart of Los Angeles.