The Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) is proud to announce the inaugural cohort of Resident Artists for the LACI AIR program. A call for submissions issued earlier this year drew applicants from all parts of the region for the opportunity to access new tools, technologies, and subject matter experts in sustainability at the La Kretz Innovation Campus.

There will be an AIR Artist Reception and an opportunity to meet the newly selected Resident Artists on Wednesday, May 23, 6pm – 9pm at LACI at the La Kretz Innovation Campus, 525 Hewitt Street, in the Downtown Los Angeles Arts District. Guests will be invited behind the scenes to tour the Advanced Prototyping Center and hear about the artists projects during a brief program in the La Kretz Innovation Campus amphitheater. Featured artist works will also be on display.

AIR, LACI’s Artist-In-Residence program, is a unique program providing advanced equipment training and research opportunities for professional artists to create art focused on the impacts of climate change. AIR empowers innovation by uniting the creative and cleantech communities in the shared aim of addressing global environmental problems and programming that reflects the racial, ethnic and gender diversity of Los Angeles.

Meet the 2018 Artist Residents:

Rebecca Bruno will use dance and sculpture to examine natural regenerative cycles (as seen in permaculture) and their relationship to external variables such as air quality and climate change. Bruno will conduct a series of public movement workshops both on campus and off.

Nova Jiang will use interactive sculptures and installations, which invite playful viewer participation to explore the infrastructural history of Los Angeles, and highlight the human and natural systems which shape its urban condition.

Debra Scacco will use cartographic drawing, sculpture and installation to examine structure and connectivity by mapping past, present and future rivers, highways and transit lines of Los Angeles.

About AIR
AIR incubates artists working with ideas of water, sustainability, transportation, energy and related themes. Resident Artists will receive a $10,000 stipend, training and six-month access to the Advanced Prototyping Center (a $10M+ facility including machine shop and wet labs), and the opportunity to work side-by-side with LACI portfolio companies, including scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs working in related fields. Limited edition pieces and a work-in-progress exhibition will showcase how access to research, government, non-profits and start-ups in cleantech are embedded in the artists’ work.

As part of LACI’s Enhancing Community pillar, AIR is committed to working to build inclusive networks of creative people that can support one another in the making of environmentally-focused work, supporting creative practitioners in underrepresented communities through workshops and events, and leveraging internal and external networks and resources at LACI to empower artists as agents of change.

AIR was made possible in part by the generosity of The Durfee Foundation.

About LACI
The Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) is a private non-profit organization helping to accelerate the commercialization of clean technologies and ensuring an inclusive green economy by unlocking innovation, transforming markets and enhancing community. Founded as a cluster-driven economic development initiative by the City of Los Angeles and its Department of Water & Power (LADWP), LACI is recognized as one of the most innovative business incubators in the world by UBI. In the past six years, LACI has helped 73 portfolio companies raise $184M in funding, $220M in revenue, create 1,700 jobs, and deliver more than $379M in long term economic value.