WATTS TOWERS ARTS CENTER CAMPUS
Watts Towers Arts Center
Noah Purifoy Gallery
From Alkebulan "Africa" to Watts
curated by Rosie Lee Hooks & Rogelio Acevedo
John Outterbridge (March 12, 1933 – November 12, 2020) was an American assemblage artist and activist. His work centers themes of personal identity including family, community and the environment through the use of discarded materials. This obsession with found objects originated in his childhood growing up with a backyard full of salvaged materials from his father’s hauling jobs in North Carolina. He relocated to Los Angeles in 1963, where, surrounded by artists who were experimenting with materials, he too used found objects as his medium. He was a fervent advocate for arts access and education, serving as the third Director of the Watts Towers Arts Center from 1975-1992. During his tenure, the center was gifted this collection of West African Masks and Sculptures by Congressman Augustus Hawkins in 1985.
Augustus Freeman Hawkins (August 31, 1907 – November 10, 2007) was an American politician born in Shreveport, Louisiana. The youngest of five children, his family moved to Los Angeles in 1918. Originally planning on becoming an engineer, the Great Depression cut into his graduate school funding. He became interested in politics and unseated the long sitting Republican becoming the first African American to serve as a Californian representative in Congress. Hawkins was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and wrote over 300 state and federal laws in his time, the most famous of which are Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1978 Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act. He was known to care for the well being of education and the poor. Hawkins was known as the "silent warrior" because he would rather work behind the scenes to reach his goals.
This exhibition of masks and sculptures bears the name From Alkebulan “Africa” to Watts recalling the ancestral, indigenous name for the continent. Alkebulan translates to “Mother of Mankind” reflecting Africa’s role as the birthplace of humanity and civilization. The collection of 52 pieces focuses on artifacts from countries in West Africa/Alkebulan including the Bambara (Mali Ivory Coast, Guinea Burkina Faso, Senegal), the Bobo (Burkina Faso, Mali, Ivory Coast), the Bwa (Burkina Faso, Mali), the Senufu (Ivory Coast, Mali, Burkina Faso), the Dan (Ivory Coast, Liberia), the Mossi (Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana) and the Baule (Ivory Coast) tribes from whom many African Americans descend. The artifacts featured are Tyi Wara, Nwantantay Masks, rhythm pounders and other important objects used in various life cycle ceremonies from coming-of-age and fertility to burial and funeral rites.
Charles Mingus Youth Arts Center
Charles Mingus Gallery
“Spirits of the Ancestors” is a visual arts project initially conceptualized and developed by Watts Towers Arts Center Director Rosie Lee Hooks. She commissioned thirteen, critically acclaimed, master artists from our community to use shovels as their canvas to acknowledge and pay homage to the ancestors of the community. Artists include Toni Love, Judson R Powell, Charles Dickson, Willie Middlebrook, John Outterbridge, Varnette Honeywood, Mark S. Greenfield, Gilbert “Magu” Lujan, Elliot Pinkney, Kenzi Shiokava, L. Frank Manriquez, Joseph W. Beckles and Ramses.
All of the participants have a history with building arts institutions in Watts and the greater Los Angeles community, including two former directors of the Watts Towers Arts Center. We are privileged to have these world-renowned master artists who accepted such a challenge. The finished project–“Spirits of the Ancestors” is phenomenal and belongs to the Watts Towers Arts Center Campus. This wonderful collection was first unveiled at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Charles Mingus Youth Arts Center, February 6, 2003 in conjunction with the designation of Charles Mingus Day in Los Angeles. The current exhibition brings us full circle to commemorate the actual opening of the Charles Mingus Youth Arts Center.
The shovels were used as canvases for painting and mosaic in some instances, and an element of sculpture in others. They have been embellished with everything from American flags and mirrors to images of the Watts Towers and a full size trumpet. The shovels are each whimsical and unquestionably unique, much like the artistic community of Watts.
Spirits of the Ancestors
curated by Rosie Lee Hooks & Rogelio Acevedo
66 Signs of Neon Commemoration
In August 1966, precisely one year after the Watts Uprising, artists Noah Purifoy and Judson Powell transformed the charred remnants of a community in crisis into a profound artistic statement advocating for the importance of arts education. Venturing into the still-smoldering debris of their neighborhood, Purifoy and Powell salvaged three tons of fire-molded wood, lead drippings from melted neon signs, and other industrial artifacts. What began as a spontaneous collection of wreckage evolved into "66 Signs of Neon," a collaborative effort involving six additional artists who specialized in plastic and graphic arts: Max Neufeldt, Harry Drinkwater, Al Khanasa, Debby Brewer, Arthur Secunda, and Ruth Saturensky.
Working tirelessly over a thirty-day period, the group created sixty-six assemblages for the Simon Rodia Commemorative Watts Renaissance of the Arts held at Markham Middle School. These works sought to impose order upon disorder, finding beauty and creative potential within the ugliness of destruction. The project served as a powerful demonstration that education through creativity offers a vital path for self-discovery and resilience within a materialistic world.
From 1966 to 1971, this landmark exhibition traveled extensively, appearing in Berkeley and eight other California State Universities, the Kalamazoo Institute of Art, and the Huntington Gallery in Knoxville, KY, among numerous other national and international venues. By elevating "junk" to the status of fine art, Purifoy and his collaborators not only documented a pivotal moment in American history but also established the foundations of the Watts art movement. This August 2026, the collection celebrates its 60th anniversary.