by Alex Khatchadourian
The densely populated blocks of Hawthorne Boulevard between Marine Avenue and Rosecrans Boulevard are teeming with familiar businesses that have long populated the distinctive six-lane road that stretches twenty miles from Palos Verdes through Torrance, Lawndale, Hawthorne and Inglewood. A bustling Jack in the Box, a two-story WSS shoe store, a few dentist and doctor’s offices, clusters of insurance and tax consulting firms, inexpensive motels and nail or beauty salons with hand-painted signs.
It’s an unusual place for an art museum. But nothing about ESMoA was ever like most art museums. The cutting-edge, community-based art institution—and yes, those two qualities can coexist, just as El Segundo itself is both innovative and a homey small town—recently relocated to Lawndale. In the process, the El Segundo Art Museum also reinvented itself, becoming the Experimentally Structured Museum of Art.
Once housed in the tall, architecturally interesting former post office building on El Segundo’s Main Street, ESMoA now stands prominently in the 14900 block of Hawthorne Boulevard. The museum’s recent move to Lawndale marks a new chapter in the organization’s 10-year history.
ESMoA is no stranger to unexpected experimentation. In El Segundo, ESMoA founders Eva and Brian Sweeney wanted to create a space that would redefine the notion of a museum. They did away with the intimidating, pristine white walls that characterize a typical museum building and instead opted for unconventional artworks—such as artworks hung in salon-like arrangements or glued directly to the museum walls from floor to ceiling. Or they redesigned the entire space to resemble the Wizard of Oz’s yellow brick road, at the end of which there is a high-energy drag show.
ESMoA defined itself by its experimental nature and created a hub for art in El Segundo, inevitably leaving a lasting impression on the city. It was no coincidence that the community’s creative scene flourished since ESMoA’s arrival in El Segundo. In addition to its own groundbreaking shows – many of which garnered national and even international attention – ESMoA played a key role in the City Council’s creation of the Arts and Culture Advisory Committee. This led to the creation of the Cultural Development Program, which continues to provide critical funding for the El Segundo Art Walk.
The ESMoA arrived in El Segundo with a mission and left after completing that mission.
“After 10 years, we felt like we had planted a lot of seeds that helped promote and establish the arts in El Segundo,” says Eva Sweeney, executive director of ESMoA. “We created a meaningful space that sparked creativity in the community. But at some point, we started to wonder how we could have the same impact in other communities.”
John McCullough, the organizer of the El Segundo Art Walk, said ESMoA was critical to the success of ESAW. He said the museum’s change of location does not diminish its ongoing influence in El Segundo.
“ESMoA has been a fantastic partner since the beginning of the Art Walk,” he said. “Their leadership has helped plan and grow the event into what it is today. They will always play a role in the El Segundo Art Walk.”
Sweeney knew she wanted to move ESMoA to another small town where the fruits of the nonprofit’s labor could be felt right in the neighborhood where it had set up shop. While driving through the South Bay, Sweeney passed by a 4,000-square-foot, vacant space in Lawndale that was for sale. She knew immediately that this would be the perfect new home for ESMoA.
“I live in Manhattan Beach and I know that El Segundo, Redondo, Hermosa and Manhattan are all very affluent cities and they don’t have the same need for an arts-centered community center as a city like Lawndale,” Sweeney says.
Unlike El Segundo, which has four distinct business areas converging—the small, sleepy Mayberry-esque shops downtown, the bustling Chevron refinery, the Fortune 500 companies, and the professional sports teams like the Lakers, Chargers, and Kings—Lawndale’s largest employers are two large school districts, the Lawndale Elementary School District and the Centinela Valley Union School District. The city is predominantly made up of young, multigenerational families; it has eight elementary schools and four high schools within its two-square-mile radius. It’s the perfect environment for Sweeney and her team to pursue their evolving mission of making art accessible and free to a community.
“We don’t follow traditional guidelines for a museum,” says Sweeney. “That’s why we like to call ESMoA an art lab. Our mission is to bring art closer to the community and to the people. We want to remove the intimidating barriers of traditional art spaces and allow people to redefine creativity so that everyone feels like they can be creative in their own way.”
ESMoA is both a movement and an organization. While ESMoA brought a fresh perspective, pure playfulness, and a new kind of artistic street cred to El Segundo that contributed to a broader, community-wide acceptance of the arts, ESMoA’s presence in Lawndale could have an even greater impact. This city has few public arts institutions that engage with the community. ESMoA will provide its new neighbors with creative resources and community activities that previously seemed out of reach in the area.
To that end, Sweeney has built her new ESMoA team with people who represent the city’s culture and demographics. The team now includes education specialist Dulce Stein, a veteran curator and gallerist for local institutions like El Camino College and smart galleries in Los Angeles as well, who has spent the past 30 years as a staunch community activist. Bryan Puertas, ESMoA’s communications associate, and Alondra Alvarado, who is completing an internship offered by the Getty Museum to encourage diversification of arts organizations, all grew up in the area and reflect its predominantly Latinx community. Each also brings a fresh, young perspective to the museum’s programming and marketing.
Community members participate in one of the organization’s free weekly art sessions, which are held on-site and open to the public.
“Having grown up in Compton, which is demographically similar to Lawndale, I understand the struggle of a community that doesn’t have adequate funding for arts programs or free creative spaces like this one,” says Alvarado. “Because we’re in this space, we owe it to our neighbors and local businesses to collaborate and continue to come up with new ideas for programs and workshops that offer people who normally work long 12-hour shifts a little creative diversion that’s not only fun, but free. We’re not going to stand still and will continue to challenge ourselves and create new adaptations of what ESMoA can be and offer for our community.”
Since ESMoA officially opens in December 2023, all programming is community-focused and participation is completely free: weekly art sessions where inspiration and techniques are drawn from featured artworks; teacher-led mindfulness meditation and yoga sessions; a weekly group where people can create text and visual artworks culminating in short “zine” publications that are physically released; poetry readings; art-focused panel discussions; musical story times; “Chalk Away,” where the community and a featured artist come together to create a chalk mural in public space; documentary film screenings; gardening workshops that combine the art of sowing native plants and creating ground paintings; Spanish-guided walking tours of ongoing exhibitions; in-person and virtual school visits for teachers and their students.
You know what I mean. ESMoA is planting seeds in several fields, working with art educators from local public schools.
“I love that we can accommodate high school art teachers in this space,” Puertas says. “I could see how important this was to these teachers and how relieved they were to now have a place to bring their art students.”
“For many students, art and creativity are not always a priority because they are often more interested in finding a well-paying job immediately after high school, especially students from immigrant families,” says Puertas. “A place like ESMoA shows students that art is a viable path for them, something tangible. I am Latino and it is really inspiring and encouraging to see Latino artists in this space doing their work and being able to make money from it.”
Sweeney is extremely pleased with the new ESMoA team and the progress they have already made in the community. And while she dedicates the majority of her time and experience to creating sustainable funding for the organization, she can’t wait to see how ESMoA and the City of Lawndale can continue to grow together.
“The most important thing we can do is listen to what our community wants to be a part of so we can support and organize them,” says Stein, an education specialist at ESMoA. “Here at ESMoA, we have everything someone needs to unleash their creativity – materials, canvases, a space to create – and all anyone has to do is show up. There’s nothing better than seeing the shock on a person’s face when they ask how much it costs and I say it’s free. I know what it means to them to have that access and not be scammed – the opportunities to learn, to grow, to be safe, to be happy, to express themselves. Opportunities are what this place brings to the area.”
Admission to ESMoA is free and open to the public on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 11am to 5pm. There are weekly programs and educational programs, as well as special events by appointment. Visit: esmoa.org
