L.A.’s Boathouse Gallery Resurfaces

The Northridge earthquake cracked two major freeways, collapsed towering parking structures and turned fragile glassware into so much confetti, but it’s difficult to imagine a casualty of the 1994 disaster that has been more sorely missed by the surrounding community than the Boathouse Gallery at Plaza de la Raza. The graceful red-brick building beside the lake in Lincoln Park is the historic centerpiece of Plaza, a vibrant cultural center just east of downtown, and the gallery had become an important community showcase for Latino visual art.

No Boathouse Gallery, no art exhibitions at Plaza. It was almost as simple--and as sad--as that.

But now, after languishing in disrepair for nearly four years and undergoing $550,000 worth of retrofitting and renovation in the last year and a half, the Boathouse Gallery is open again. With the exterior restored and the interior freshly painted and carpeted to accommodate changing exhibitions, the gallery has started its new life. The first show, “Hecho en Califas: The Last Decade,” presents paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints and mixed-media constructions by 31 contemporary California artists.

“It was very painful to see the Boathouse behind a chain-link fence,” said Rose Marie Cano, executive director of Plaza de la Raza. Although classes in art, dance, music and drama have continued in the modern buildings at Plaza, the damaged Boathouse was an eyesore as well as a poignant reminder of lost exhibition opportunities.

The long, low building--punctuated by a square tower and graced with covered walkways and arched windows decorated with elaborate wrought-iron grills--was erected in the late 19th century as a social center and dock for recreational boats. The surrounding park, called East Lake Park until 1917, when its name was changed to Lincoln Park, once boasted a zoo, a carousel and a skating rink, as well as the 8-acre lake.

The park thrived through the 1940s and ‘50s but deteriorated in the ‘60s with an influx of criminal activity, Cano said. In 1969, Lincoln Park was deemed so unkempt and dangerous that city officials called for its closure and planned to demolish the Boathouse along with a couple of newer buildings used for offices and arts programs. But the threatened loss led to an effort to save the park, which was still considered the heart of the community.

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In the beginning, champions of the park collected a mere $36 to fund their cause, but they had more than enough passion to attract a groundswell of support. The late actress Margo Albert, among other high-profile activists, helped to enlist influential civic, business and political leaders, including her husband, Eddie, of “Green Acres” fame. The result was that the $110,000 allotted to the closure of the park was used to preserve it. Then, in 1984, the park’s supporters raised $1.5 million from private sources to build a new art studio, a multipurpose room and a 200-seat theater, now called the Margo Albert Theatre.

“It’s an oasis,” said actor Edward Albert, Margo and Eddie’s son, of the complex at Plaza de la Raza. Located only a few miles from Los Angeles’ civic center, the cultural center is buffered by a broad expanse of greenery and the placid lake.

The park looks rather forlorn, and it is said to attract the homeless and drug dealers. But when all of Plaza’s charms converge--including spraying fountains, sparkling lanterns, quacking ducks, colorful artworks, romantic music and happy children--it’s a magical place, Edward Albert said, his eyes shining as he described the opening celebration of the gallery. Having acquired his love of the park from his parents, Albert has served on Plaza’s board of trustees since 1989.

Cano also has a long history with Plaza. She arrived 20 years ago and took charge 15 years later--after working for 11 executive directors. “I had seen what those 11 people did wrong, so I spent the first two years cleaning up and fixing things,” she said, alluding to staff and trustee relationships as well as improvements to the facilities. Like many nonprofit arts centers, Plaza has chronic financial problems, but she has built an endowment of $2 million that provides a measure of security.

“Hecho en Califas” inaugurates the renovated Boathouse Gallery because it was the proposal that most appealed to AT&T;, the show’s major sponsor, Cano said. A collaborative effort of community-based centers in the Latino Arts Network of California, the show will appear at five other venues in the state--the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose, the Richmond Art Center in Richmond, La Raza Galeria Posada in Sacramento, Arte Americas in Fresno and Centro Cultural de la Raza in San Diego--after its Los Angeles appearance.

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San Diego artist Richard Alexander Lou curated the show, selecting 31 artists from a pool of 60 recommended by the participating art centers. His intent, as stated in the the show’s catalog, was to illustrate prominent issues that have arisen and changes that have occurred during the last decade of art-making in California’s Latino, Chicano and indigenous communities.

In the past, the Boathouse Gallery hosted exhibitions of works by major Mexican painters Frida Kahlo and David Alfaro Siqueiros, as well as local artists. The new program is still being planned, Cano said, but it will provide a showcase for children who take classes at Plaza, professional artists who live in the community and internationally renowned figures.

Big-name artists bring in crowds, but it’s the kids who are the heart of the institution, she said, so serving them is at the top of her agenda.

* “Hecho en Califas: The Last Decade,” Plaza de la Raza, 3540 N. Mission Road, through March 25. Mondays-Fridays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (323) 223-2475.