Protesters with indicators designed by artist Patrick Martinez in downtown LA on June 8, 2025 (photograph courtesy Patrick Martinez)
LOS ANGELES — In response to the ICE raids and subsequent protests that started final week in Los Angeles, a number of arts organizations have made statements in solidarity with immigrants and activists. On Monday, 4 artwork areas positioned in downtown LA — the Japanese American Nationwide Museum, Chinese language American Museum, LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, and Grand Performances — issued a joint assertion calling the occasions of final weekend a “manufactured crisis.”
“We oppose the unjust mass deportations of immigrants and the unconstitutional presence of the military in our city,” the assertion reads. “We fully support the community’s right to peacefully assemble and make their voices heard. While there may be individuals whose purpose is to instigate violence and chaos, they are not the majority, and we do not want people to fear coming into downtown Los Angeles. It is the heart of one of the most diverse cities in the world, where everyone is welcomed.”
Others adopted swimsuit, together with the Social and Public Artwork Useful resource Middle (SPARC), a bunch devoted to the preservation of public artwork and social justice based by muralist Judy Baca. In an announcement on Instagram, the group declared “unwavering solidarity with our immigrant communities, adding, “We are appalled by the ongoing attacks and rhetoric that seek to dehumanize and divide […] Please stay safe. You are not alone. We stand with you.”
Vacation spot Crenshaw, the bold public artwork undertaking unfolding in a traditionally Black space of South LA, additionally vowed unwavering solidarity with individuals impacted by the federal authorities’s actions. “Our hearts are with every family facing injustice, every parent worried for their child’s safety, and every individual who deserves to live with dignity, security, and peace,” the group posted on Instagram, additionally sharing a listing of authorized support and immigration assets. So did the Vincent Worth Museum of Artwork, positioned in predominantly Latinx Monterey Park, east of LA.
Photographer Erika Weitz documented the anti-ICE protests in downtown Los Angeles. She advised Matt Stromberg: “I love LA culture, which means I will show up, bear witness, and be in solidarity with the people who bring that culture to Los Angeles. I wouldn’t want to live in a city without immigrants. The diversity of culture is the best part of Los Angeles. We have to protect that at all costs.” (photograph © Erika Weitz)
“We reaffirm our commitment to inclusion, respect, and the right of every individual to feel safe in the place they call home,” the museum added. “We urge everyone to stay informed, be vigilant, and support each other with compassion and courage.”
Although impacted by the curfew imposed on downtown LA, the Institute of Modern Artwork, Los Angeles (ICA) dedicated to offering “a safe space and a place of welcome for people of all backgrounds and experiences.”
“We stand in solidarity with those peacefully protesting the unjust deportation of undocumented immigrants and the unconstitutional military presence in our city,” ICA added in an announcement.
Hollywood home gallery 839 issued a direct enchantment to LA Mayor Karen Bass on , imploring her to instruct LAPD to “arrest federal agents violating the civil rights of Angelenos.”
“Legal precedent exists for local jurisdictions to hold federal actors accountable when they break state law or act outside constitutional bounds. If Bass will not act to protect her people, she will be complicit,” the gallery added, alongside a picture with the slogan “ICE out of LA.”
A joint assertion by 4 LA museums and artwork organizations (by way of Instagram, screenshot Hyperallergic)
Whereas these statements got here from principally smaller and impartial arts organizations, there was a noticeable silence so removed from town’s bigger arts establishments together with LACMA, MOCA, the Hammer, the Getty, and the Broad. (None of those establishments responded to Hyperallergic’s request for remark by press time.)
Along with declarations of help and outrage, different organizations have taken extra direct motion. Because the starting of the yr, the nonprofit Self-Assist Graphics has been providing immigrant rights workshops and distributing “Know Your Rights” posters, additionally accessible totally free obtain on their web site.
“There’s immediate action, but afterwards there’s a continuing need. How can we continue supporting the community beyond this very moment?” requested Natalie Godinez, govt director of binational artwork and advocacy group Artwork Made Between Reverse Sides (AMBOS). This ranges from being a hub to distribute data, month-to-month fundraisers to help already-established support teams, and connecting with networks in Mexico to help individuals as soon as they’re deported. “The spectrum of help is massive, from giving money, to using our bodies, to knowledge generation,” AMBOS founder Tanya Aguiñiga advised Hyperallergic.
Artist Lalo Alcaraz’s poster in help of union chief David Huerta (courtesy the artist)
Artists, too, have lent their help, creating new work, or in lots of circumstances sharing work produced over the previous a number of years highlighting the sustained and rising anti-immigrant rhetoric within the nation. Patrick Martinez handed out about 50 of his indicators studying “DEPORT ICE” and “THEN THEY CAME FOR ME” in neon letters eventually Sunday’s protest in Downtown LA.
“It would be easy for me as an artist to compartmentalize all of these catastrophes in the world that we are all witnessing and concentrate on my art career, but that’s not how I operate,” Martinez advised Hyperallergic. “The two go hand in hand, when I make work it is to represent the time we are living in.”
Andrea Nuch and Kiyo Gutiérrez, “ice and soil/hielo y tierra” (2025) (photograph by Pistor Orendain, courtesy the artist)
Nadya Tolokonnikova was within the midst of her durational efficiency Police State at MOCA Geffen when the protests erupted. The museum closed early on Sunday as a result of unrest, however Tolokonnikova stayed and continued her efficiency to an empty gallery. “I feel this very tangible, visceral solidarity between people suffering from the police state in a part of the world where I’m from — and here, in the US, where families are torn apart, mothers arrested and deported while picking their kids up from school, children crying for help as their fathers are dragged away,” she wrote on Instagram. As if echoing Kruger, she added, “I’m thinking how the Western idea that history inevitably moves toward progress is a mirage. There’s no guarantee of a better tomorrow.”
One other art work created simply earlier than final Friday’s raids took on an surprising significance in mild of what would comply with. Utilizing ice and soil, artist Kiyo Gutierrez constructed a large-scale message studying “NO HUMAN IS ILLEGAL” on the banks of the LA River. Gutierrez acquired her MFA from the College of Southern California final month and had supposed to stay in LA, however the present administration’s tightening of visa restrictions are forcing her to return to her native Mexico.
“As if guided by a premonition, the ritual was performed last Thursday, June 5th, 2025, just one day before the devastating ICE raids in Los Angeles that tore families apart. The physical repetitive gestures required to compose the sign, like banging heavy bags of ice against the concrete, then delicately yet urgently placing the cubes before they melt, and finally gently covering them with soil, echo the resilience, care, and relentless urgency that define the immigrant experience,” she advised Hyperallergic. “May artificial man-made borders melt like ice under the sun, flowing away with the rivers’ currents, and may we never forget that NO HUMAN IS ILLEGAL and nobody should be criminalized for crossing ‘borders’ on stolen land.”
