Written by: Alix Fournier  |  Photographed by: Samantha Romero

It’s easy to sound hyperbolic when explaining a place like Inner-City Arts. There’s a specialness that pervades all aspects of the organization. Instantly, the bright white and thoroughly modern exterior reigns gorgeously amongst the neighboring Industrial Revolution architecture. What once housed a car repair garage, has blossomed into a five building campus nestled around a thriving urban oasis replete with a park-like setting of plants and trees; where a pomegranate harvest is hotly coveted. Most importantly, it’s a place where the children of the county’s schools where no arts programs exist can be surrounded by, touch, and incorporate the garden’s beauty in their art. “It’s here for them”, says Geoffrey Anenberg, Vice Chair of the board.

It’s here, in a part of Los Angeles that sits on the edge of an often fraught dichotomy of revitalization and poverty, where creative culture is often born and bred. This is, and will be increasingly so, a hive of world changing output. As Mr. Anenberg frankly says, “If one is going to come into this neighborhood and do radically high-end, culturally progressive, and thoughtful stuff while creating one of the greatest creative economies in the world…we must create as many points of overlap and impact.”

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