L.A. Stakes Its Claim as a World Art Center, The Benefits of Regional Collaboration

The Times has a good article about almost 170 exhibits in 130 institutions, highlighting the birth of what is now known as the L.A. art scene.

Funny thing is that the shows are spread from San Diego to Santa Barbara,(more than 200 miles) a vast region, making it a triumph of branding, so strong that for many Los Angeles and Southern California have become interchangeable places.

"Still, for many Los Angeles artists and critics, Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980, is a long-needed accounting of the emergence of the region as an art capital in the same league as New York, Berlin and London. Indeed, Los Angeles these days has more than its share of ambitious museums, adventurous art galleries, wealthy collectors, top-notch art schools and — perhaps most important — young artists drawn here by relatively cheap rents, abundant light and an atmosphere that encourages experimentation."

The overall region has always done well at creating collaborations-like Supersonic-a huge annual joint regional MFA show.

I guess, I wonder why the Pittsburgh to Cleveland region which is also loaded with low costs and a wide variety of creative assets has done so little to create these kinds of connections or any kind of regional brand.