Finding Aid: Michael Several Archives in Public Art 

For an appointment, please contact the Special Collections department, Doheny Memorial Library, 213 740 5900.

 

Michael Several received his B. A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.  He has conducted over 200 interviews of artists, architects, city planners, and art administrators in connection with research on the public art in Los Angeles.  He has published three guides to the public art in downtown Los Angeles, a guide to the public art in Lincoln Park in East Los Angeles, and a guide to 25 of the most significant works on public sculpture located in Los Angeles County.  In addition, he has written comprehensive entries on more than 170 public art woks located in downtown Los Angeles for the web site http://www.publicartinla.com, articles for the journal Public Art Review, and for publications of the Los Angeles Conservancy.  He served as the historian on a comprehensive Los Angeles City funded mural survey and conservation project, and administered several sculpture conservation surveys and oral history projects.  The Several archives (13 boxes) held at the Special Collections department of the USC Libraries are comprised of folders containing memoranda, photographs, articles and other miscellaneous materials related to public art in the downtown area of Los Angeles. First donation date: ca 2000.  Second donation: Fall 2006. Third donation: Fall 2007.

Box 1

 

Civic Center

Memos, notes, plans, articles, brochures, photographs

 

Ed Ruscha

Articles, art event notices, photographs

 

Mural on Flower Street – Market Area

Agenda for public art committee meeting

 

South Broadway murals

Budget, memos, photographs, project proposals and summaries, artist biographies, articles, notes

 

Chinatown

Joan of Arc sculpture description; Chinese Celestial Dragon mural description

 

Victor Clothing Cultural Trust

Proposal, memos, budget

 

Metropolis Building

Articles

 

Maya Theater

Photographs, information about Ferdinand Perret, articles

 

Joan of Arc

Photographs, notes

 

Alonzo Davis

Articles, photographs, exhibition catalog

 

Dearden’s (Elroy Torrez)

Photographs, information about the mural, correspondence, articles, notes

 

823 S. Los Angeles Street

Photographs, biographical notes

 

Daffodil Metamorphosis – South Park

Meeting minutes, budget statement, memos

 

Gyro/Cone (Pershing Square)

Articles

 

Pride of Neighborhood/SPARC

Articles, brochures, correspondence, film negatives, press releases, postcards, photographs, notes, grant proposals, reports

 

Concrete Project

Email

 

Myrna Lloyd/Inspiration

Description, notes

 

The Helmsman

Notes, description

 

Council Items re: Murals

Minutes of city council meetings, articles, reports

 

LAUSD

Roster of schools from the late 1990s

 

Mural Removals

Reports

 

Housing Authority

Mural related official communiqués, memos, notes

 

Civic Fund

Memo on the mural “As if Everything was that Easy to Change” by Gilberto A. Romero, memo on Kim Grover’s mural in Los Angeles

 

Clean and Green

Notes, information on LAUSD school murals

 

DWP

Notes on Clean and Green

 

Cultural Grants

Notes, official reports, information on grant fund disbursals

 

City Property Murals

Memo

 

DOT (Department of Transportation)

Notes

 

Mural Conservancy

Notes

 

Murals from Community Based Agencies, LACC, etc.

Notes, memos

 

Miscellaneous Historic Documents

Memo on the Mechicano Arts Center mural, memos on the Devonshire Community police station mural

 

City Wide Murals Project

Memos, applications for mural inclusion in the city’s permanent collection

 

CAD – Youth Arts Services Program

Memo

 

Los Angeles Arts Recovery fund

Official recommendations, booklet on The Echo Park murals project

 

SYETP

Notes

 

Cultural Affairs Commissioners – Municipal Art Commission – Murals

Meeting minutes

 

City Hall Murals

Articles

 

Operation Restore

Notes on Project Restore, Project Restore newsletter

 

City Hall Mall, Margaret Garcia

Information on “Let There Always be Sky” mural, photographs, notes, articles, meeting minutes

 

Unity – Peter Burns

Notes

 

LA Energy

Proposals for the LA Bicentennial murals projects, photographs

 

Flight of the Angel (By Hitoshi Yashida)

Photographs, articles, notes

 

City Hall East (Sheets)

Photographs, brochure on City Hall and its murals, articles, meeting minutes, notes, information on the murals at the Griffith observatory

 

America Tropical

Articles, notes, photographs of the unrestored mural, brochures

 

Fr. Serra (Junipero Serra)

Articles, notes, brochures, photographs, correspondence

 

Fort Moore

Notes, articles, photographs, correspondence

 

Felipe de Neve

Notes, articles, photographs, slides, correspondence

 

Fr. Hidalgo in Front of Church in Dolores

Photographs, notes, articles, brochures

 

Recuerdo de Ayer, Suenos de Manana

Notes, photographs, memos

 

Box 2

 

Murals

Inventories, articles, documents

 

Aricles re:Public Art 1900-1950

 

Central Library

Correspondence, photographs, brochures, articles, notes

 

Bike Rack Project

Maintenance agreements, documents, articles, photographs, plans

 

Box 3

 

Little Tokyo

Articles, short histories, notes, Little Tokyo redevelopment project documents

 

Little Tokyo Gardens

Histories, brochures, photographs, interview notes with Takeo Uesugi

 

FOLTA (Friends of Little Tokyo Association)

Memos, exhibition catalog, notes

 

People in Little Tokyo

Notes, newspaper articles

 

Japanese American WWII Veterans Memorial

Notes, fact sheets, memos, 100th/44nd newsletter, official meeting minutes

 

Little Tokyo List of Outdoor Art

Checklist

 

Internment Project

Notes, commemorative information

 

Margaret Garcia

Notes on Tribute to Hirosukai

 

PARTI Conference

Public Art: Realities, theories, and Issues, Los Angeles, October 1994.  Notes, memos

 

LTCDAC

Little Tokyo Community Development Advisory Committee.  Meeting minutes and agendas.

 

New Otani

Photographs of the garden, notes, brochure on the hotel.