Our collections are curated sets of material that explore topics chosen by the editors.

Museums in Crisis Last updated: November 14, 2018
A selection of essays, historical documents, interviews and op-eds on the controversial history of museums and patronage in Los Angeles—from early censorship debates, protests, and…
Against the Wall Last updated: November 14, 2018
From Renaissance Italy to post-Revolutionary Mexico, mural painting has been understood as a privileged art form that revels in grand, philosophical narratives, carefully built to…
America Deserta Last updated: October 31, 2018
Following Reyner Banham’s classic 1982 travelogue Scenes in America Deserta, this selection of essays, interviews, and historical documents locates the desert as a puzzling critical…
The Real City Last updated: October 24, 2018
As Los Angeles grew from small town to major city during the 20th Century, it became a living laboratory for all aspects of urban design,…
Promoting the Modern Last updated: October 10, 2018
It is easy to forget that Los Angeles didn’t have an art museum until the mid-1960s. Movies were big business, but art was marginalized, distrusted.…
Artists at Work Last updated: October 10, 2018
Inspired by the long sequence of interviews with writers, Writers at Work, that has been a feature of The Paris Review since George Plimpton first…
Some Place Chronicles Last updated: August 6, 2018
The Some Place Chronicles is a creative placemaking project set in four unincorporated communities of Los Angeles County. Numerous and varied engagements with the people…
Second Life Last updated: June 7, 2018
For our Second Life series, we work with writers and publishers to present selected essays, magazines, ephemera, and other previously published material that is out…
Epic Waves Last updated: July 31, 2017
Experiments in broadcast media.
The Experimental Impulse Last updated: May 11, 2015
In conjunction with The Experimental Impulse exhibition, presented at REDCAT as part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in LA, 1945-1980, this selection of commissioned essays,…
Hollywood Elegies Last updated: September 15, 2014
“On the hill, giant letters spell ‘Hollywoodland,’ but this is only another advertisement. It is silly to say that Hollywood, or any other city, is…