LA Freewaves
LA Freewaves, also known as Freewaves, is a Los Angeles–based nonprofit organization that exhibits multicultural, independent media and produces free public art projects to engage artists and audiences on current social issues. It was founded in 1989 by Anne Bray, the organization's executive director. With the support of others in the arts community, Freewaves presented its first exhibition of independent, multicultural video art at the November 1989 American Film Institute's National Video Festival.
Freewaves presents media arts in public spaces and online. Utilizing unconventional venues for exhibiting experimental media art, its programs include video and media art, performance art events, live dialogues online, and a large digital video art archive. Freewaves holds a biennial art festival for independent and experimental media and hosts speakers on the topics of education, art, technology, race, gender, and media.
Organization
Founding
The nonprofit LA Freewaves was founded in 1989 by Anne Bray, an artist, media teacher, and former video curator at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions. Bray stated two initial objectives for Freewaves: to encourage collaboration within the local media community and to broaden their audience. She founded LA Freewaves with the help of 35 regional arts and community organizations. In November 1989, Freewaves presented its first exhibition of independent, multicultural video art at the AFI Video Festival.Overview
LA Freewaves holds a biennial art festival of multicultural, independent video art exhibited citywide throughout Los Angeles. The art projects emphasize current social issues, promoting social justice and change. It also hosts speakers on the topics of education, art, technology, race, gender, and media. Notable media artists who have displayed work in Freewaves programs include Cassils, Tony Cokes, Roger Guenveur Smith, Alex Rivera, Patricia Fernández, Austin Young, Poli Marichal, and John Jota Leaños.Initially focused on video and media art, Freewaves has expanded its programs to include performance art events, live Instagram dialogues, and a free digital video art archive, with its output available online. The organization presents public art, experimental video, and new-media works not typically featured in mass media through a network that includes local and international artists, arts organizations, schools, libraries, cable stations, programmers, and over 2000 video makers. Freewaves has exhibited experimental media art in unconventional venues, such as on Metro buses, traveling “road shows,” cable television, video billboards, libraries, high schools, sidewalks, and public parks.
Video archive
In 2005, Freewaves launched its online video archive as a platform to provide public access to the making, sharing, and exchange of new video art internationally. The Freewaves video archive features over 800 video art pieces from around the globe.Festivals and public art projects
1st Festival: A Celebration of Independent Video (1989)
Freewaves was launched as a three-week festival of art, narrative, documentary and videos at the American Film Institute's National Video Festival in 1989. The first festival included the participation of 35 Los Angeles media and arts organizations, 300 artists, and various curators and involved of screenings, exhibitions, and installations mounted at 30 sites, biweekly cablecasts, panel presentations, and four thematic programs called “Road Shows" across Southern California.2nd Festival (1991)
Freewaves 2nd Celebration of Independent Video was a larger festival, convening 100 arts organizations, cable stations, media centers and schools. The festival exhibited 44 thematic programs and 150 videos from high school and college students. The second festival also included artworks of new animation, ranging from computer graphics to personal tapes made on consumer equipment. LA Freewaves collaborated with the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art to organize video screenings for an opening night event and reception, various exhibitions and video screenings throughout Los Angeles, and eight one-hour cablecast programs that aired throughout March.3rd Festival (1992)
Freewaves connected a consortium of arts organizations, cable stations, media centers and schools to present its third decentralized festival of independent video throughout the Los Angeles area from mid-September to mid-October 1992. Curated by 60 independent and affiliated curators, 75 programs of 425 artists were exhibited widely across 29 cable stations and various venues across Los Angeles. The festival coalesced into a broad-based response to the 1992 L.A. Uprising in South-Central Los Angeles, featuring exhibitions and cable programs including “Beyond the Color Line: Reflections on Race”.4th Festival: "T.V. at Large" (1994)
LA Freewaves presented "TV AT LARGE", their 4th celebration of independent video, featuring video projections and live performances on their opening night at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre. The fourth festival also consisted of five one-hour shows presented at the AFI Video Festival and broadcast on cable television from mid-September to mid-October 1994. The cable TV programs included “Freewaves Cruisin’ the Airwaves”, “Legacies”, “Race, Identity, Sexuality: Unbound Voices”, “All in a Day’s Work”, and “Multi-Boom: Youth Sound Off About Difference”.Freewaves also received non-profit 501 status in 1994, and its first foundation grants. The festival curatorial committee was formalized.
5th Festival: "Private T.V., Public Living Rooms" (1996)
Freewaves' 5th independent video and media art festival featured videos, websites, CD-ROMS, and 15 installations by LA artists at art venues and on cable TV throughout Southern California. The works of 140 artists were featured in this festival through programs at 15 art centers and 32 cable stations. The opening was held at the MOCA's Geffen Contemporary.6th Festival: "All Over the Map" (1998)
LA Freewaves 6th Celebration of Independent Video & New Media featured screenings at the Museum of Contemporary Art, video tour buses linking alternative art spaces and community centers in Southern California, video installations and multi-media performances, outdoor large-scale video billboards on the Sunset Strip, public television programs broadcast on KCET/LA and the L.A. Channel, online exhibits, panels and live presentations. The festival featured work by over 200 international artists. Freewaves also conducted a citywide series of 25 free workshops – “Intro to the Internet” and “Web Design”, targeted to video makers, visual artists, writers and musicians.7th Festival: "Air Raids" (2000)
In 2000, Freewaves hosted Air Raids, a citywide festival of experimental, documentary and new media works by artists, activists and media makers. The seventh festival opening took place at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and featured over 100, thematic video bus tours, "T.V. or Not T.V." a 10-year LA media arts retrospective that aired on KCET, online exhibitions, as well as screenings and installations at multiple Southern California venues.8th Festival: "T.V. or Not T.V." (2001-2003)
In 2001, Freewaves organized three public programs of artist interviews and excerpts, a one-hour compilation of short art videos, and a curriculum guide covering the general principles in media literacy. Programs included: "Voices Unheard: Video artists exploring personal realms outside TVs parameters"; "Access LA: Los Angeles from the perspectives of different media artists and teens"; "New Frontiers: Artists' uses of computers and the internet"; and "TV or Not TV".Freewaves' 8th festival took place from November 2002 - February 2003 throughout the greater Los Angeles area, featuring 365 artists from 20 countries in 70 shows on public television, video billboards, and digital programs at cyber cafés. "TV or Not TV" included video programs from the U.S., Central and South America, shown at MOCA and the Iturralde Gallery.