Our Diary of the Getty's Architecture Project: Where Are the Women?
This is the fourth installment of our Pacific Standard Time Presents diary, tracking modern architecture happenings all over the city. Check out our previous entries:![]()
Four men onstage (and a bonus man on the wall)
*The Getty's Big, New Exploration of L.A. Architecture
*SCI-Arc's Gala and a Concert at Jackie Treehorn's House
*Everything Loose Will Land, A+D and Machine Project
"Where are the women?"
This was the question posed to me via Twitter last night as I dutifully documented the latest Pacific Standard Time Presents panel. "So many men" chimed in my friend on Instagram. Over on Facebook, critic Mimi Zeiger sparked another conversation lamenting the dearth of females in the lineup for tonight's "Why L.A.?" event. The same could be said about this one. Or this one. Or this one.
Yes, it would definitely appear that many of the featured speakers in the Getty's architecture project look much like the Getty itself: Big, bald and white.
(Okay, maybe they're not all bald.)
For the museum exhibitions themselves, I kinda understand: It's tougher to feature the role of women while focused on a time period when there were few practicing female architects in the city. But it would seem that these events around the shows would be a fantastic opportunity to engage not only the legends of the era but all the amazing women working in L.A. today.
Not that females haven't been featured: Denise Scott Brown was in town for the Getty's "Minding the Gap" event last week (and the subject of another gender-biased controversy), and I've written about the contributions of ladies like Sylvia Lavin and Deborah Sussman in this column. But I'd really love to see more women speaking about how this influential Modern era shaped their contemporary practice. Especially since so many of the organizers of these events are dynamic, amazing females themselves.
This is a diary, not an op-ed, so I'll get back to the champagne sloshing in a second. But my challenge to all the organizers is this: We have a whole PSTP summer ahead of us. Add more speakers! Add more events! Let's diversify and try to include some different perspectives. Okay? Okay.
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