Bloom Fest This Sat Aug. 14th 2010
Written by timoi
|
09 August 2010
So I have been working on new accessories....really cute things for the ladies...come visit me here ; ).
BLOOMFEST
BLOOMFEST LA: Arts District Open Studio Tour & Street Festival (Summer)
Date:
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Time:
12:00pm – 11:00pm
Location:
Bloom Square – Arts District
Street:
714 Traction Avenue
City/Town:
Los Angeles, CA
Description
FLAVORPILL and LARABA presnt: Bloomfest Open Studio Tour & Street Festival
On August 14th the TRUE Downtown Arts District will open the doors of cafés, galleries, performance venues, and 40 studios (and counting) in the second happening of a new Open Studio Tour series. This series will coincide with the annual street fair known as Bloomfest which will feature 15 live bands, vendor booths and food trucks.
Here is a bit about Joel Bloom excerpted from the L.A. Times:
Joel Bloom, a pioneering community activist who helped shape the downtown Los Angeles arts district and was its unofficial mayor, with his shoebox-sized general store serving as the area’s town hall.
“He gave the arts district its personality, and he was unabashed in his great love for it,” said Councilwoman Jan Perry, who represents the area sandwiched between Little Tokyo and the banks of the Los Angeles River. “Joel was charismatic and ruled the roost over there for many, many years.”
The humble Bloom’s General Store, founded in 1994 to give the growing community a place to pick up toothpaste or rent a video, stands nearby.
“There’s a spark here — hopefully we can light it,” Bloom told The Times in 1994 before opening the store in the industrial corridor.
The downtown arts district began in the late 1970s as a haven for artists who worked in the lofts and often illegally lived in them.
By the time Bloom moved there in 1986, the city had legalized the live-work spaces, and hundreds of artists had flocked to the area then known as the warehouse or lofts district.
“I get a feeling here I haven’t gotten anywhere else. It may look desolate, but it’s not. There’s no place I’d rather be,” Bloom said in the 1994 article.
A City Council resolution passed earlier this month recognized Bloom’s community activism, which encompassed fighting to bring light-rail projects to downtown neighborhoods, advocating for affordable housing, organizing a well-regarded neighborhood watch program and leading downtown neighborhood councils.
“He was a very gruff old man,” said Edward Walker, a longtime friend who works at Bloom’s store. “He could yell at you one moment, but the next he would be your friend. Still, if you needed something, he would be the first one there.”
Bloom burnished his reputation as “the godfather” of the community of 1,500 by helping to spearhead a campaign that resulted in the city officially designating it in the 1990s as the arts district, Walker said.
Bloom also led the successful fight to keep the Los Angeles Unified School District from building a distribution warehouse in the neighborhood. In 2000, the Southern California Institute of Architecture moved into the area instead.
“Without Joel, we wouldn’t have an arts district in its present form,” Walker said. “It’s kind of a Mayberry filled with bohemian artists. Everyone knows everybody, and everyone knows Joel.”
In the late 1970s, he moved to Los Angeles along with Second City comedian George Wendt, with whom he roomed in Chicago.
Bloom bartended at Al’s, joined Shakespeare Festival/LA as stage manager and put down roots in what would become the arts district.
“We’ve always been dismissed as that industrial area east of downtown,” Bloom told The Times in 1997. “Well, we’re more than that. There’s a heart here. And a soul.”
The corner of Traction Avenue and Hewitt Street came to be known as the heart of the community, the site of a scruffy general store where Bloom was known to greet customers by bellowing, “Whaddaya want?”
Talent Line-up to be announced. For vendor booth info and participation in the tour please e-mail
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