Learn More About Arts & Ecologically Aligned Grassroots Movements
& Organizations (Mostly) Throughout Los Angeles

  • A large group of people sitting on blankets on a grassy park during daytime, with some trees in the foreground and a small musical performer playing guitar in the center, and buildings and hills in the background.

    Clockshop

    Clockshop works with artists to deepen the connection between communities and public land, in order to build a shared vision of a future based in belonging and care.

  • Hilly landscape with green vegetation and a highway with cars running through the valley.

    No Canyon Hills

    NO CANYON HILLS is dedicated to the conservation, restoration, and longterm stewardship of open space in the Verdugos. Working with a team of dedicated field researchers, NCH has identified more than 350 species at the ‘Canyon Hills’ site, including the Southern CA Rufous-crowned Sparrow, a threatened species.

  • Group of young adults outdoors in a natural setting with trees and a dirt path, smiling and posing for a photo.

    Test Plot

    Test Plot is an organization that partners with community members to help steward public lands. The rapproach is experimental, testing and teaching regenerative and reciprocal land-based practices. They bring together residents, land managers and students to build a shared land ethic. Test Plots are open to all with an invitation to visit and get involved.

  • Modern house with wood accents, large windows, surrounded by green trees and bushes, with a tree in the foreground and a blue sky above.

    MAK Center for Art & Architecture

    The MAK Center for Art and Architecture is a contemporary, experimental, multi-disciplinary center for art and architecture headquartered in three significant architectural works by the Austrian-American architect R.M. Schindler. Offering a year-round schedule of exhibitions and events, the MAK Center presents programming that challenges conventional notions of architectural space and relationships between the creative arts.

  • A neon sign displaying the quote, 'Artists need to create on the same scale that society has the capacity to destroy,' against a dark cloudy sky, mounted on a metal frame above a rooftop.

    Metabolic Studio

    Metabolic Studio is an interdisciplinary art and research hub based in Los Angeles, California. Directed by artist Lauren Bon, the studio operates with a mission to explore and address critical social and environmental issues through art interventions and innovative projects aimed at reparation.

  • Colorful graffiti mural on a building wall with a sign that reads 'LAND Los Angeles Nomadic Division' and includes various abstract shapes, symbols, and patterns.

    LAND

    Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND) connects people and places through art to deepen a sense of belonging by commissioning site-responsive free public art and programs.

  • A backyard garden with dry grass, various green shrubs, flowering plants, and a wooden fence with some windows. There are some garden stakes and a small potted plant on a raised wooden platform.

    7th Ave Garden with David Horvitz

    The 7th Ave Garden, a collaboration between David Horvitz and David Godshall of TERREMOTO, is a vibrant oasis in Los Angeles. Born from a vacant lot next to Horvitz's studio, it blends reclaimed materials, native flora, and intentional design, guided by TERREMOTO. Incorporating elements from demolished structures and indigenous trees, it represents a departure from traditional ecological narratives, inviting visitors to reconnect with nature amidst the city's hustle.

  • A group of people, mostly women, gathered on a nature trail in a wooded area, listening to a woman in a yellow sweater who appears to be explaining something about the plants or environment.

    Herb Club LA

    Herb Club LA, founded by Andrea Jimenez, was created to make space to help people reconnect with nature and with each other. This is is a crucial step to improve the health of individuals, communities, and our environment. ultimately, we gather to learn about our plant kin, hoping to plant the seed to become better land stewards (inside & out).

  • A group of musicians performing outdoors on a grassy area, with children and audience members watching. The band includes a keyboardist, saxophonist, guitarist, drummer, and various other instrumentalists. A man in a colorful striped shirt is singing or speaking, holding a tambourine. There are children playing with toys and a backdrop of trees and a building.

    Art In The Park

    Since 1996, Art in the Park has provided arts and cultural programming to our community in Northeast Los Angeles.

    They provide our neighborhood low- to no-cost arts and educational programs for all ages, and organize workshops, exhibitions, and performances by local and visiting artists and educators, creating new opportunities for local access to contemporary and historical arts programs relevant to our part of the city.

  • Signboard for The Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers & Native Plants, located at 10459 Tuxford St, with phone number 818-768-1802. The sign is green with white and yellow text, surrounded by natural plants and flowers, and installed in a garden area.

    Theadore Payne Foundation

    Theodore Payne Foundation (TPF) is a nonprofit organization that inspires and educates Southern Californians about the beauty and ecological benefits of California native plants. Located on 22 acres of canyon land in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, the TPF headquarters includes a full-service nursery featuring native plants, seeds, and nature-themed books and merchandise, alongside display gardens, wildland hiking trails, an art gallery, indoor and outdoor educational facilities, and extensive plant production areas. TPF invites all to explore the role of native plants in local ecology, aiming to make the communities of Southern California more beautiful, sustainable, and environmentally friendly.

  • Exterior view of a white historic building with arched windows and a tower, housing the Beyond Baroque Foundation and L.A. Theatre Works, surrounded by greenery, with sunlight shining from the left side.

    Beyond Baroque

    Beyond Baroque is one of the United States' leading independent Literary | Arts Centers and public spaces dedicated to expanding the public's knowledge of poetry, literature and art through cultural events and community interaction. Founded in 1968 as an experimental literary magazine, Beyond Baroque is based out of the original City Hall building in Venice, California. The Center offers a diverse variety of literary and arts programming including readings and workshops. The building also houses a bookstore with the largest collection of new poetry books for sale and an archive that houses over 40,000 books, including small press and limited-edition publications, chronicling the history of poetry movements in Los Angeles and beyond.

  • A plant nursery with wooden frameworks and potted plants arranged on shelves and the ground, surrounded by greenery and trees.

    Plant Material

    Plant Material is an ecologically and aesthetically opinionated store selling horticulture, garden tools and art objects of consequence. They believe that as individuals, families and communities, the time has come for us to begin tending our gardens and our city with a new ethic and reinvigorated botanical point of view.

  • A woman with curly black hair, red-tinted sunglasses, wearing a white top and yellow pants, sitting outdoors on a bench with colorful pillows, holding two small puppies, surrounded by green plants and flowers.

    Teapot Gardens

    Teapot is a paradise garden that cultivates love of the outdoors as a catalyst for creativity, community healing, and co-creation by connecting artists and intergenerational families in park-deprived neighborhoods.

  • Interior of a bookstore with wooden display shelves filled with books, a wooden table with various books and magazines, a reception desk with a laptop, a colorful abstract wall backdrop, and potted plants.

    Tomorrow Today

    Tomorrow Today is a bookstore, rapid response press, community space, and sooo much more located right in the heart of Chinatown. Through A+ curation Tomorrow Today bears the torch of a classic info shop in LA, carrying radical texts and zines that educate and inspires the movements of tomorrow, today.

  • People sitting on the floor, eating bowls of food, with some people kneeling and exchanging food in a communal setting.

    Active Cultures

    Active Cultures is a public arts organization in Los Angeles exploring the confluence of food and art through public projects, programs, and publishing.

  • Building with beige walls, red panels, and black doors, partially obscured by a tree with green leaves in front.

    2220 Arts + Archives

    Operating as a volunteer-run community arts center, 2220 is an interdisciplinary event space that is focused on experimentation, improvisation and adventure across a broad spectrum of artists and art practices. Its calendar is curated and cooperatively programmed by roughly a dozen LA-based independent programmers and cultural nonprofits, including many that are longstanding in the city.

  • S.P. Community Garden with colorful flowers and plants, sign in foreground, tents and people in background, a mural of firefighters on a building, and blue sky and palm trees overhead.

    SPY Community Garden

    Located at 681 N. Venice Blvd, Safe Place for Youth’s Community Garden addresses food inequality by creating a sustainable food system for unhoused youth in West LA. Organic produce grown in the garden is distributed to SPY’s Access Center and five housing sites. SPY's Garden also offers paid internships and workshops for youth to develop life skills while cultivating self-esteem and self-sufficiency in a safe, healing environment.

    The SPY Community Garden, in partnership with Beyond Baroque, also hosts compost bins operated by LA Compost. These compost bins are open to the public!

  • 100 Acre Partnership

    The City of Los Angeles, California State Parks and the Mountains and Recreation Conservation Authority (MRCA) are formally working together as the “100 Acre Partnership” to collaboratively plan the largest, continuous open space along the LA River. The Partnership evolved from community and stakeholder feedback and the need for a coordinated planning and improvement approach across the 100-acre Taylor Yard site. Our fourth partner, the community, is critical to the success of these efforts.

  • A colorful drawing of a pink, orange, and purple unicorn with a rainbow mane, standing on a pink cloud.

    Muddy Heaven Farm

    Muddy Heaven is an urban farm project that began in a vacant lot in Highland Park in February 2021. With the help of friends on the weekends, we slowly dug beds and planted flowers, veggies, and herbs. Our all ages programming weaves together farming, cooking and play in order to build radical relationships with ourselves and each other. Our organically grown food, flowers, and herbs are distributed to the community through programming, CSA shares, and donations to local mutual aid networks.

  • Room filled with vintage and modern synthesizers, keyboards, and audio equipment, with chairs and wall art.

    Vintage Synthesizer Museum

    A jewel of Los Angeles, the Highland Park cradled Vintage Synth Museum is an active recording studio that opens its doors once or twice a month for inimate happenings. Lance is an angel, please show support!

  • Group of people sitting on the floor in a cozy room, engaged in a discussion, with the red 'Scribble' logo and a black scribble graphic overlayed on the glass window in front.

    Scribble

    Scribble is a non-profit counseling and arts center located in Highland Park, Los Angeles. They offer affordable individual, couples, group, and family therapy sessions on a sliding scale. Services are available in person as well as through telehealth in the state of California.

  • Storefront of a coffee shop with the sign 'Tierra Mia Coffee' and a smaller sign that reads 'Open'. The large window displays artwork and the door is painted teal.

    Heavy Manners Library

    Heavy Manners is a lending library, gallery, and bookstore that seeks to provide a space for developing, sharing, and discussing artwork and creative practice.

  • Gallery wall displaying colorful abstract paintings and artworks in an art exhibition space.

    Human Resources

    Human Resources was founded in 2010 by a team of creative individuals who seek to broaden engagement with contemporary and conceptual art, with an emphasis on performative and underexposed modes of expression. Human Resources is not-for-profit and seeks to foster widespread public appreciation of the performative arts by encouraging maximum community access. Human Resources also serves as a point of convergence for diverse and disparate art communities to engage in conversation and idea-sharing promoting the sustainability of non-traditional art forms.

  • A woman wearing a face mask and blue shirt crouching by a man in a red shirt, both tending to plants in a wooden planter by a river at dusk. A sign reads 'Lotus Community Garden'.

    Radical Gardening

    Radical Gardening was planted with houseless nieghbors in Echo Park, Los Angeles to build community and coexistence in a time of local encampment sweeps, global uncertainty, and ecological crisis. This garden rose up on the lawn-covered ground where an 18-year-old houseless girl, Brianna, died, her death never investigated due to lack of the city’s care. Building community from that very moment of dehumanization, building new life from death, Radical Gardening is the coming together and planting seeds with hopeful intentions, being present with the terra and with each other.

  • Book cover titled 'for the wild: An Anthology of the Anthropocene' with a background image of a bear lying on forest floor surrounded by ferns and leaves.

    For The Wild

    For The Wild Podcast is an anthology of the Anthropocene; focused on land-based protection, co-liberation and intersectional storytelling rooted in a paradigm shift away from human supremacy, endless growth and consumerism.

    We find regular care and motivation within this realm and simply want to share with you.

  • A woman is performing live electronic music using a synthesizer and wires, with beams of colorful laser lights across a dark background.

    Reflections

    An immersive curatorial platform for sound, light, and space. It’s a place to be. A space to dream. Each night pairs a legend of new age and ambient music with cinematic visuals, uniting sound, light, and sacred architecture for a uniquely visceral experience.

  • A black line drawing of a plant with the word 'AGRICULTURE' written below it.

    Agriculture

    Agriculture, and not in the literal sense, but close. A series of engagements in creative cultivation. A loosely-monthly series of gatherings curated by Cached.Media set to occur in places both usual and unusual on the Colorado Front Range. They are as close as anyone to the dirt here and this is an adventure in growing things together.