Getty PST Art: Art & Science Collide

PST ART is a groundbreaking cultural collaboration. Every five years, PST ART unites hundreds of artists around a single, electrifying theme at more than 60 exhibition spaces. While the theme is different each time, the heart of PST ART is always the distinctive cultural identity of Southern California, and the universal hunger for artistic and intellectual discovery. In a region famed for its films and theme parks, PST ART provides a different kind of gripping experience — and the most distinctively Southern Californian of all.

PST ART: Art & Science Collide aimed to create opportunities for civic dialogue around some of the most urgent problems of our time by exploring past and present connections between art and science in a series of exhibitions, public programs, and other resources.

In 2024-2025, LA Commons was chosen to serve as a PST Art Community Hub as part of the PST Art: Art & Science Collide initiative.

We Are the Harvest

As part of Getty’s PST ART: Art & Science Collide programming, LA Commons produced the “We Are the Harvest” community series. This is a community engagement initiative centered around uplifting agriculture, activism and connection to land in South LA and beyond. Through spaces like community gardens, we can enhance mental wellness, reconnect people to the land, build community and uplift local food production.

We Are the Harvest is a call to reconnect with the land, the harvest and with each other.

Community Tapestry & Stories

In the spring of 2024, artists Michelle Glass and Terrick Gutierrez led South LA community members in dye and storytelling workshops. The artwork created was transformed into a tapestry of community stories, featured here.

The tapestry will be viewable at the California African American Museum from September 18, 2024 - March 2, 2025 as part of their exhibition, World Without End: The George Washington Carver Project.

Map

Explore various community food hubs in South LA with this interactive map! Each pin represents a community garden, urban farm or community organization. Every location plays an important role in supporting food sovereignty and bringing connection to our neighborhoods.

Click on each pin in the map to see details about each food hub.

Artists

Michelle Glass is a Chicana artist with Indigenous Yaqui and Hopi Roots. Through her community and earth-based art practice, she stands alongside BIPOC communities to reclaim our ancestral histories and deepen our connections between the land, waterways and each other.

Terrick Gutierrez is an LA-based interdisciplinary artist, creative technologist, activist, storyteller and curator. In many ways, his work is a visual autobiography that reflects the struggle and resilience of his youth. In other ways, his work is imaginative, exploring and celebrating the beautiful richness of Blackness.

“The harvest-themed workshops have truly ignited my passion for gardening and deepened my awareness of how I can nurture and support Mother Earth.”

— Willie James Thomas, Artist and workshop participant