On the last Sunday of each month, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather in downtown Los Angeles (noon-2pm), for a loosely structured conversational Salon featuring short presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another. If you’re interested in joining LAVA as a creative contributor or an attendee, we recommend Salon attendance as an introduction to this growing community. Please note that due to ongoing renovation work at Clifton’s Cafeteria, we are moving to a nearby location, and starting the Salon one hour earlier. 

Special program at the November 27 Salon:

 • LAVA Visionary SUSANNA DAKIN is a sculptor, performance artist, writer and once upon a time publisher of artists’ books, magazines and a community newspaper.She is currently on the Board of the 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica, California. She has taught sculpture and drawing, exhibited both in solo and group shows, and completed a few large-scale sculpture commissions. She has done several unique performance pieces at various venues in southern California.Dakin’s most well known work was a year-long performance campaign around the United States as “An Artist for President” in 1983-84, in which she advanced the idea that “The Nation is the art work and we the people are the artists.” The book about that campaign, as timely today as it was then, is being published in fall 2011. Dakin will reprise the campaign as a book tour.  About “An Artist for President”: In 1984, Reagan was running for his second-term, while pursuing what would become a relentless, multi-decades long retreat from democratic ideals. Susanna Dakin, sculptor, performance artist and High Performance Magazine publisher, had an outlandish notion: she declared with the Federal Elections Commission as an Artist/Candidate for President of the United States. Now a compelling and high-entertaining book, as timely today as it was then, An Artist for President makes a case for the vital role of art and creativity in all aspects of life, including politics. This “biography of an event,” records the loony ideas people hold about woman, artists and the political process. November is Election Month, so cast your vote for art, civil liberties and freedom of expression, by attending this fun refection on where we’ve been and where we’re going.

• LAVA is proud (and not too terrified, since we’ve been good this year!) to present the KRAMPUS CHOIR, who will literally kick-start the holiday season with their odes to the Real ghost of Christmas, Lord Krampus. You’ve heard all about Santa’s Evil Twin, who follows the Jolly One with burlap sack in hand, taking gifts away from miscreant children and giving them a thrashing to boot! This long-toothed, tongued charmer now has his very own CHOIR, who, in dulcet harmony, will regale our Visionaries and guests with such favorites as, “Bleeding through the Snow,” “O Shining Lump of Coal,”  and “Bring a Switch, Jeannette Isabella.” King Krampus himself will be on hand to autograph your child’s deficiency notices.  Don’t miss this one-time-only event! 

The Los Angeles Athletic Club is located at 431 West 7th Street, on the north-east corner of 7th and Olive Streets. When you enter the Athletic Club, inform the person at the desk that you are there as a guest of club member Richard Schave attending the LAVA event. They will sign you in, and send you upstairs to the third floor. If you want to have breakfast, please arrive no later than 10:30am. The price per person for the buffet breakfast is $15.50 (including taxes and gratuity), and the buffet includes orange juice, hot and cold cereal, yogurt, fresh and dried fruits, eggs, bacon/sausage, potatoes, muffins, croissants, etc. (Alternately, the 8th floor snack bar, which is not in the Salon space, will be open serving sandwiches, wraps and salads after 11am.) If you want to attend the Salon, you should arrive by 11am. We recommend parking under Pershing Square at Fifth and Olive, which is also the nearest Metro Station. If you order food, the Athletic Club will validate for their parking lot. 

Location

Los Angeles Athletic Club431 West 7th StreetLos Angeles, CA, 90014United StatesPhone:323-223-276734° 2′ 47.3964″ N, 118° 15′ 18.468″ WSee map: Google Maps