The Getty Center introduces two-day summer festival in Houghton Park this weekend

A sign for Houghton Park taken on June 1, 2021 in Long Beach, California. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune)

The Long Beach Creative Coalition has partnered with The Getty Center to celebrate the museum’s 25th anniversary—highlighting Long Beach’s talent and diversity with a two-day festival. This Saturday and Sunday, Houghton Park in North Long Beach will become a smorgasbord of art installations, music and creative collaborations all stemming from the city. 

To properly commemorate the institution’s quarter century of artistic influence in the region, one festival merely wasn’t enough. Houghton Park is hosting the third of 10 free festivals the museum is producing throughout Los Angeles County. 

“We wanted to celebrate our 25th anniversary by saying thank you to Los Angeles and a group of us met and decided that the best way to say thank you to Los Angeles would be to bring art into Los Angeles,” said Lisa Lapin, vice president of communications for The Getty. 

Part of the goal is also to bring people together in their community, which meant “not asking them to come here, but us going there,” Lapin said. 

A few locations throughout the city were considered, but North Long Beach has the artistic talent and diversity representative of the city, along with a history of being underserved compared to the downtown areas, according to Sinead Finnerty-Pyne, marketing director for Studio One Eleven.

“Essentially, we wanted to bring the festival to a part of the city that didn’t have the same kind of access to Getty programming,” Finnerty-Pyne said. “Long Beach is obviously a very socio-economically diverse city.”

Shining light on Long Beach ‘hidden gems’

The task to represent Long Beach—a city with half a million people—along with the variety of cultures present, was no easy feat. The six-month-long process to plan the festival included an advisory committee made up of 16 various community businesses and art members, where curatorial and booking aspects of the event were discussed and voted on. 

The Long Beach Museum of Art, United Cambodian Community, The LGBTQ Center Long Beach, The Museum of Latin American Art and the Council of Business Associations were just a few of the organizations on the advisory committee.

A slew of workshops, installations, performances and food all selected by the community meant to display the diversity of Long Beach is the result of those meetings. According to Cassy Leeman, executive director for Creative Class Collective, every vendor, artist and food truck expected at the park is “100% from Long Beach, with an emphasis on North Long Beach.” 

Flyer for Getty + Long Beach Summer Festival.

Workshops about composting, skating, screen printing, music and art for all ages will be running throughout both days of the festival. Performances include local artist Dengue Fever, the Jordan High Marching Band, a Long Beach based LGBTQ mariachi band, Seafood Sam, African drumming and a number of other artists. 

There will be handouts from Long Beach departments and organizations, along with several photo opportunities and food trucks from around the city. 

“I think the biggest thing was to make sure that this festival was representative of our city in terms of inclusiveness, diversity, and equity,” Finnerty-Pyne said.

Daniela Soberman from the Long Beach Museum of Art will have her installation on display, which explores the interlocking ways that the Long Beach community interacts and supports each other. Carlos Ortega, Curator at Rancho Los Cerritos will be organizing an exhibition by Long Beach-based artists centering around concepts of “home.” 

Local artist Shelley Bruce, in partnership with the Long Beach Arts Council, will facilitate a conversation with members of the community about what they want to see from both The Getty and their own city. Information from her talk will be given to the museum in order for them to understand Long Beach’s needs.  

It’s all part of a plan to reveal “hidden gems” throughout the city, according to Leeman.

“For us, this isn’t a one time event,” Leeman said. “This is really just the beginning to a longer relationship to what we envision Long Beach Arts to do. Creative Class and InterTrend have a much grander vision for Long Beach in the arts world right now and are trying to create it into a place that is an arts and culture destination for everybody.” 

Leeman also said that Long Beach has received the biggest “buzz” of all 10 festivals in the circuit, as the festival is expected to draw around 5,000 attendees each day. 

Bringing The Getty to Houghton Park

The festival is also means to show the resources that The Getty has to offer, or will soon be offering. The institute will be handing out parking passes and food discounts, which Lapin acknowledged as the only costly part of exploring The Getty. 

A handful of installations and interactive exhibits will be provided by The Getty so that people can view the artworks and artifacts at the museum without actually having to go. 

Eleven screens will be set up in the park to create an immersive gallery showcasing pieces The Getty currently displays, replaying every 30 minutes. There will also be iPads and an Artificial Reality experience so people can “get a sense of what objects we have in The Getty,” Lapin said.

A culmination of all The Getty’s summer festivals will be celebrated at the museum in September for a “family festival,” according to Lapin. Buses will be sent out to the participating cities so community members can connect to celebrate at The Getty. 

The Getty summer festival will take place at Houghton Park, 6301 Myrtle Ave in Long Beach and will run Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

This article was updated for clarity on June 2, 2022.

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