Dirty Looks Inc.
Fund: $45,000
In July 2020, Dirty Looks Inc.—a curatorial collective founded by Bradford Nordeen that uses historical and contemporary time-based media to explore the queer histories, spaces, and aesthetics of New York and Los Angeles—will mount Dirty Looks: On Location, a 31-day, 31-site festival in Los Angeles. The group began organizing festivals in New York City in 2012 when local curators staged filmic events within community centers, gay bars, or former sites of queer congregation, extending the artworks’ reach to the very communities from which they emerged, and telling the stories of key venues that didn’t survive. In the summer of 2018, Dirty Looks staged the first Los Angeles iteration of the festival, tracing the City’s queer cultural geography in iconic locations such as Jewel's Catch One, the longest running black gay dance bar in Los Angeles. For the July 2020 event, 75+ artists and arts professionals will participate, produce, organize, and screen in distinct city spaces throughout July. The full 13-member curatorial committee to be announced this summer will include Jackie Clay, Chris Cruse, Nikki Darling, and Transgress Fest. Curators will have a full year to work with the selected artists/sites/venues as well as host public programs to gather community input for this highly politicized project. The curatorial committee will also expand its role as presenter by commissioning two new original works for this next iteration of the festival, making the project generative and creating new work from the stories that built queer Los Angeles.