Seeds and a dish with chicken and berries on a decorative table

David Horvitz performs at Soup & Tart: Los Angeles, June 8, 2023.

Active Cultures is a public arts nonprofit in Los Angeles that explores the intersection of art, food, and ecologies through artist-led projects and programs.

Upcoming Projects

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ECOTONES

A program series with Life on Earth

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Enzo Camacho & Ami Lien: Langit Lupa, A Film Screening, Conversation, and Celebration

With Xenia Tupas

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Enzo Camacho & Ami Lien: Langit Lupa, The Symposium

With Josen Masangkay Diaz, Joy Sales, and Lucy MSP Burns.

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FEATURED PROJECT

The Banana Leaf is a Container Technology

During this year’s fall equinox, artist Paige Emery created a Filipinx Kamayan feast in collaboration with chef Ria Dolly Barbosa, amidst the olive grove of Arlington Garden. As part of the ECOTONES series, the program offered a spread of food and flowers served on banana leaves, where we were seated on the earth and eating by hand—as Emery invited us to gather under the changing season’s sun and experience ecopoetic rituals interspersed throughout the course of the afternoon.

Paige Emery: The Banana Leaf is a Container Technology, 2024, produced by Active Cultures and The Brick at Arlington Garden Pasadena. Photo by Jessica Howes.

Angel Dimayuga, Active Cultures Secret Supper, 202

Angel Dimayuga, Active Cultures Secret Supper, 2024. With tortang talong, corn maque choux, roasted shallot ajo blanco, biko, and more. Secrets from Angel including a Balvenie ice rock blessing and herbal poppers.

AC hosts the Secret Suppers to share our gratitude for our closest supporters; to uplift the practice of artists in our city; and to feed our year-round public art programming.

The final supper of the year is December 3! And we’d love you to come to the table. Visit our website or reach out to learn more about joining our membership circle.

We are so grateful to our Secret Supper sponsor William Grant & Sons, host and AC Board Member Raina Kumra, Angel, and AC’s beloved members and artists.

@angela.dimayuga @kumratronic @williamgrantusa @thebalvenie @moonbeam_kitchen @lauramfried @semchale @kankankim 📷 @jessicahowes_

Watering is a communal hydration ritual, a gatheri

Watering is a communal hydration ritual, a gathering facilitated by artist Meech Boakye that considers hydration as a medium for collective healing.

For the second in a series co-presented by Active Cultures and The Brick, the gathering centers on a screening of Jumana Manna’s Foragers (2022), a film that explores the restricted practices of foraging wild edible plants in Palestine under Israeli law. This program invites participants to question how ecological conservation can be weaponized as a political tool for displacement.

💧 Link in bio for full details and to RSVP!

@ghostyboi
@thebrick_la
@jumanamanna

Support for this program series is provided by Kim and Keith Allen-Niesen, The Maurice Marciano Family Foundation, and Olivia Marciano.

For the fall equinox, artist Paige Emery created a

For the fall equinox, artist Paige Emery created a Kamayan feast amidst the olive grove of Arlington Garden, inviting us to gather under the changing season’s sun and experience ecopoetic rituals interspersed through the course of the afternoon.

Thank you to Paige, chef Ria Dolly Barbosa, The Brick, and Arlington Garden for their partnership and care in producing the first program in the ECOTONES series. We are so grateful to our community for a moving afternoon around the Kayaman.

Check out Paige’s recent writing for MOLD to learn more about this facet of her practice — link in our bio!

@paigeemery_
@riadollybarbosa
@thebrick_la
@arlingtonpasadena

Photos by @jessicahowes_

We are hiring a part-time Curator—come work with

During this year’s fall equinox, artist Paige Em

During this year’s fall equinox, artist Paige Emery will create a Filipinx Kamayan feast in collaboration with Los Angeles chef Ria Dolly Barbosa, amidst the olive grove of Arlington Garden.

For the first in a series co-presented by Active Cultures and The Brick, the program offers a spread of food and flowers served on banana leaves, where we will be seated on the earth and eating by hand—as Emery invites us to gather under the changing season’s sun and experience ecopoetic rituals interspersed throughout the course of the afternoon.

🌱 Link in bio for full details and to RSVP!

@paigeemery_
@riadollybarbosa
@thebrick_la
@arlingtonpasadena

Support for this program series is provided by Kim and Keith Allen-Niesen, The Maurice Marciano Family Foundation, and Olivia Marciano.

Image: Paige Emery preparing Kamayan at Bulalayaw Village. October 2021. Courtesy of the artist.

We’re looking for a Project Manager to join the

We’re looking for a Project Manager to join the team in support of Ami Lien and Enzo Camacho’s Langit Lupa—the artist duo’s first major project in Los Angeles and California—with a focus on their work with Filipinx migrant and activist grassroots groups in our city.

Working closely with AC and the lead artists, the Project Manager will be responsible for supporting the project with a focus on community engagement, artist support, and facilitating our work with local partners.

Full job description and link to apply in our bio!⁠

Image: Enzo Camacho and Ami Lien, Langit Lupa (Heaven and Earth), 2023. Film still. Courtesy of the artists.

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