Los Angeles Public Library Creators in Residence

two separate portraits of artists Kwasi Boyd-Bouldin and River Garza

The library, in partnership with the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, has established a residency program, Los Angeles Public Library Creators in Residence, designed to engage creative Angelenos from a multitude of disciplines. The program is launching to support local interdisciplinary creators and inspire new work informed or enhanced by the Los Angeles Public Library’s collections and services, while also highlighting the impact of the library as a creative haven.

The program’s two inaugural residents are photographer Kwasi Boyd-Bouldin and interdisciplinary visual artist River Garza. They are both creating work deeply rooted in exploring ideas of community and identity, with intentionally broad guidelines to promote dialogue and maximize impact. As their projects take shape, there will be opportunity for library patrons to interact with the artists’ work in multiple forms, from public programming to exhibitions. Both will receive a $25,000 honorarium and final projects from each resident are expected by fall 2022.

Kwasi Boyd-Bouldin is a photographer known primarily for his photo essays of urban environments and the changing landscapes of the places that hold meaning for him and his community. In the last few years, he was honored as one of Time Magazine's top 12 African American photographers to follow, and by the New York Times as one of their lists of the top 5 essential artists to follow, where they described his photography as a kind of archaeology. Some recent projects document Black Space in LA, the changes in his home neighborhood of Hollywood, and the effects of the pandemic on Los Angeles' landscape.

River Tikwi Garza is an interdisciplinary visual artist of Native American (Tongva) and Mexican descent. He is a member of the Ti'at Society—a group dedicated to traditional Indigenous maritime culture, and his work draws inspiration from this cultural background as well as graffiti, Mexican and low-rider culture, and low-rider culture. Through painting, muralism, and mixed-media works, his artwork often deals with issues around identity, memory, tradition, and a quest for what he describes as visual sovereignty (in response to his tribe's lack of federal recognition). His work has recently been shown at the Fowler Museum at UCLA, the Fullerton Museum Center, Descanso Gardens, and the Soul Center for the Arts in Genoa, Italy.

This program is funded by the Library Foundation of Los Angeles with an endowment provided by the Lenore S. and Bernard A. Greenberg Fund.

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