‘As Compton Natives, It Is Our Lifelong Goal to Give Back to the Community’
Gallery 90220’s Founder on Empowering a New Generation of Black and Brown Artists in Los Angeles
Gallery 90220, a new art gallery housed in an industrial stretch of Historic South-Central Los Angeles, was designed by a team of three alumni of the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design. Kevin Sherrod, Chris Doerr and Wayne Thomas, now work together at the global architecture, design, and planning firm Gensler, which hosted the gallery redesign as a community impact project.
Read the UCLA Arts article and listen to an episode of our podcast "Works In Progress" about designing Gallery 90220 here.
Ribbon cutting - Left to Right: Kevin Sherrod, Gallery 90220 founder and executive director David Colbert Jr., Chris Doerr, and Wayne Thomas. Photo by Cindy Escarcega. "David Colbert Jr. had an idea. He thought of the uniqueness and history of his hometown in Compton, California, and the rich culture that pulsated throughout the city. He began to envision an event like the Los Angeles Art Walk he frequently visited but with a remixed Compton flair. The event would be a recurring festival that would use the arts to bring the people of the city together...
Through mutual friends, David became acquainted with Kevin Sherrod, a designer at Gensler Los Angeles. Kevin was a supporter of CAW and was working on a project with Compton College on housing solutions when the two first connected. The Compton College project called for a complex integration of the city's culture into the design, and Kevin was still working out some of the conceptual thinking for one of the buildings. As part of his research, he reached out to David for feedback. "I made the call to David because of the Art Walk, and I knew he had a relationship with Compton College," Kevin said. "I wanted to vet my idea and make sure I was grounded in a framework that made sense for the community."
David and Kevin hit it off and began discussing the importance of creative expression and the need for safe spaces for young people of color to express themselves in the community. Both personally identified with the lack of access to creative space and were committed to finding a way CAW could fill that void. In those conversations, the pair started to consider different spatial possibilities. "We talked about it being an installation or a node that was part of a larger artistic boulevard, creating a thoroughfare of enlightenment and education. I suggested it might be hallmarked by some type of attractor—it could be Compton College at one end or some kind of museum," Kevin explained.
Eventually, David told Kevin about the gallery. With no location, no prospects, and only the seeds of an idea, Kevin offered to create a conceptual 3D model that David could display at a future Art Walk. The hope was that the model would serve as a tool to show patrons of the Art Walk how a physical gallery could look. That was in the beginning months of 2020. "I was highly appreciative of Kevin doing that for me. I had no idea that that would become a physical reality in one calendar year," David said, remembering how, shortly after those talks with Kevin, his fortune took an unexpected turn...
When Kevin received the video text, he brought the project to Gensler. After hearing about the Art Walk, David's vision, and this new opportunity to support the development of a gallery space, Gensler gave the green light. The firm would deliver the project pro-bono. "Everyone was glowing with excitement and wanted to be as supportive as possible," Kevin said of those initial interactions. Soon, two of Kevin's colleagues, Chris Doer and Wayne Thomas, joined the project, making up the design team that would work on the gallery for the next year. — Sean Joyner, Aug. 5, 2021
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the Archinect website.
HEADER IMAGE: From left to right: Sean Joyner, Wayne Thomas, Kevin Sherrod, Chris Doer. © Roshon Bonner Photography
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