ABOUT TARFEST
TARFEST 2020 is made possible in part by support from the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs, the California Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts/Art Works and The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles. Some of this year’s sponsors include Television City, The Original Farmers Market, Olympia Medical Center, Lagunitas Brewery, The Beverly Connection, Los Angeles City Councilmembers David Ryu, CD 4 and Paul Koretz, CD 5, the Greater Miracle Mile Chamber of Commerce, and other organizations, businesses and individual who believe in advancing creativity and free, innovative arts programming in Los Angeles. A special thanks for the support and participation of cultural partners LACMA and the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County (NHMLAC) for their support the past 17 years.
TARFEST and LAUNCH LA, provides important performance and exhibition opportunities to some of the region’s finest emerging artists, performers, and cultural innovators on the historic Miracle Mile of Los Angeles and beyond. LAUNCH LA is a 501(3)(c) not-for-profit social enterprise that believes exposure to the arts enhances quality of life and strengthens community. Passionate about promoting all contemporary art forms and their hybrids, LAUNCH LA recognizes the need for exemplary productions that create important cultural happenings with the assistance of commercial partners, cultural institutions and like-minded individuals and organizations.
Launch Productions (LAUNCH LA) incorporated in 2010, taking over production of Tarfest music and art festival. Our gallery opened the following year in temporary spaces on Wilshire Blvd, before finding a permanent home on S La Brea Ave in 2013. In our 9 years of nonprofit operations, LAUNCH LA has provided opportunities to over 600 individual artists at over 60 individual events from Miracle Mile to Downtown. In addition to our gallery, we have partnered with other nonprofit organizations, arts venues, local businesses and artist groups to produce exhibitions in neighborhoods across the city. Partners include LA Mart, Pacific Design Center, Big Pictures LA, SlamDance, Korean Cultural Center and most recently, Backspace LA. In 2016, LAUNCH LA expanded capacity by producing a series of pop up exhibitions in Chinatown. In 2017, we initiated an annual low entry fee open call exhibition, providing new exhibition opportunities for emerging artists. At least two participating artists are awarded gallery shows from these Open Call events.
Providing support and community for artists is an important part of our function. Through artist talks, portfolio reviews and studio visits as well as informal sessions covering topics such as contemporary marketing and resources for artists, providing connections with vendors or consultation on navigating the production of exhibitions in the public sphere, we strive to advance the art and practices of working artists.
Tarfest is LAUNCH’s annual free music and arts festival held each September at the La Brea Tar Pits Park. Contemporary culture melds with archaeological past in an oasis in the middle of the city, drawing an audience from all over Los Angeles for a day of music, art and family fun. Now in its 17th year, the festival is crafted to advance LAUNCH LA’s goal of bringing the public into direct communication with art and artists. It is an important and affordable cultural offering to families and young adults in the Mid City area.
Through participation in the Annenberg Alchemy Leadership Seminar and Wells Fargo Executive Director Training Institute, LAUNCH LA has strengthened its leadership and infrastructure while forming relationships with many LA area organizations such as Elysian Valley Arts Collective and Avenue 50 Studio. In 2018, our Executive Director and Board Chair completed Annenberg's Alchemy Plus Leadership Seminar, with a focus on board development. Since that time we have restructured our board according to identified needs and added three new board members.
In 2018, the California Arts Council awarded LAUNCH LA a grant to hire a data collection consultant. The consultant assessed the type of organizational data needed then looked at our processes for collecting and tracking it. She developed a detailed plan for gathering, analyzing and reporting data describing our audience reach and program efficacy. By crafting an effective process, we are gaining valuable insight into our impact on our target audience. We are better able to identify areas for improvement and needs to be addressed. In 2019, we were awarded funding to hire a Public Relations consultant to create and implement a marketing strategy to raise our visibility and help us strategically communicate our mission and programming to our constituency - increasing the effectiveness of our outreach to artists, audiences and potential funders.
Mayor Garcetti has called LA "the city where creativity lives". It has more working artists than any other major metropolis, including New York. As such, there is an ongoing need for support for the arts organizations such as LAUNCH LA.
LAUNCH LA
170 S. La Brea Ave., Upstairs
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Thursday – Saturday 12 – 6pm
Administrative Offices:
LAUNCH Productions
5858 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 205
Los Angeles, CA 90036
James Panozzo, Executive Director
Email info@launchla.org
Phone 323.899.1363
MISSION:
LAUNCH LA believes exposure to the arts enhances quality of life and strengthens community through the shared appreciation of creative expression in all its forms and hybrids. LAUNCH LA is passionate about providing artists with quality opportunities to present themselves and their creations that reflect our times to a curious and enthusiastic audience at important happenings throughout Los Angeles.
LAUNCH LA addresses these core values by presenting arts and culture programming throughout the year at its gallery and project space on La Brea Avenue, through multidisciplinary programs at TARFEST, our free music and arts festival held annually at the La Brea Tar Pits Park, now in its 13th year, as well as periodic showcases and collaborations in important Los Angeles communities.
James Panozzo – Founder/Executive Director
James created the non-profit social enterprise LAUNCH in 2010 to oversee the production of TarFest annually while also providing unique programming and exhibition opportunities to important artists in Los Angeles. He served as the Director of Lawrence Asher Gallery from 2004 – 2010, exhibiting emerging and mid-career painters, sculptors and installation artists. James co-founded TarFest in 2003 and continues to develop and manage its programs which provide opportunities to emerging artists at venues in the Miracle Mile District of LA.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS:
Steve Kramer – Chair
Stephen Kramer is an attorney practicing with the Kramer Law Group in the Miracle Mile District of Los Angeles. Steve graduated from USC in 1970, after studying at the American College in Paris. He went on to pursue his legal studies at UCLA School of Law and was admitted to practice in 1976. After spending over fifteen years in the “large firm” arena, Steve decided to open his own practice and he and his colleagues have been established in the Miracle Mile District of Los Angeles for almost fifteen years. Steve’s own practice emphasis is in the areas of Trusts, Estates and Probate, as well as serving as counsel to various non-profit organizations based in Southern California. In addition, Steve serves as President of the Miracle Mile Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the Mid City West Community Council.
Peter B. Cury
Peter B. Cury is the Design Director of The Hollywood Reporter. A native New Yorker, he moved to Los Angeles in 2010 for the opportunity to refresh, re-brand and redesign the eighty-year-old entertainment publication. Since joining the magazine, he has helped shape the look and feel of the magazine by focusing his attention on typography, illustration, photography and infographics.
Before making his move to Los Angeles, Peter was an award-winning magazine art director for InStyle Magazine and Condé Nast Portfolioamong other titles, and helped redesign People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly and Fortune Magazine. His illustrations, under the name Brunoillo, have appeared in GQ, Esquire, T Magazine (The New York Times Style Magazine) and Men’s Journal.
He has also designed several custom fonts, logos, books, infographics and marketing materials for a range of clients including The San Francisco International Airport, Coca-Cola, American Illustration, New LA Charter School, Big Brothers and Sisters of Los Angeles and ThePointsGuy.com.
Peter received his bachelor’s degree in Environmental Design from U.C. Berkeley.
Jordan Baron
Jordan comes to Launch LA after working with several nonprofit organizations. She brings a strong foundation of strategy and development experience, and is excited to be immersed in all of Launch LA’s wonderful undertakings, bringing the amazing Los Angeles emerging arts’ community to the LA audience.
Erica DeBear
Erica DeBear joined Launch LA in 2018. She was raised in Paris, France, and Westchester, New York. Upon receiving a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art and Philosophy at Mount Holyoke College, she worked at an art gallery on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. In 2010 she moved to Los Angeles to work as a VFX artist and concept artist for film, television, and commercials; Clients included: Disney, Apple, Marvel, and Activision. In 2015 she made the transition into residential real estate. She is a lifetime lover and creator of the arts and is excited to help expand Launch LA’s reach and impact on the creativite community that is Los Angeles.
Todd Carpenter
Todd Carpenter is an artist based in Los Angeles. His paintings, which examine the role of light in landscapes, have been exhibited in venues across the United States and Asia. He currently teaches painting in the Santa Monica College community education department, and has previously taught photography, environmental science, and the neuroscience of design at the Newschool of Architecture in San Diego. Prior to going into the arts, he worked as a product engineer and head of research and development for CircAid Medical Products. He holds a Master's Degree in Neuroscience from UCSD, and a Bachelor's degree in Psychobiology from UCLA.