MOAH will be closed for install of our next exhibition, Imprints, opening on May 11.
About the Census
Every 10 years, the U.S. Census counts every resident in the nation. A complete and accurate count of California’s population is essential to the state. The Lancaster Museum of Art and History and the neighborhoods which immediately surround the Museum, historically, have had high Low Response Scores (LRS). Neighborhoods with Low Response Scores typically go undercounted and remain underrepresented and underfunded.
For the first time, the Census participation will be conducted primarily through online self-responses instead of hard copy mailing efforts. This change has the potential to drastically impact state and county funding. Many critical factors can be barriers to participation in the Census including education, race, languages spoken, poverty level, homelessness, immigration status and level of trust.
The Lancaster Museum of Art and History believes that change happens at the speed of trust. The Museum has found the best way to build trust between an organization and its community, breaking down these barriers, is by embedding artists who reflect the communities in which they live and work, who look the same and speak the same language. Through a series of workshops, community gatherings, candid photography, and a public exhibition, the artists-in-residence will increase the self-enumerated responses of these identified Low Response Score (LRS) neighborhoods in the 2020 Census.
This is especially important for areas like the Antelope Valley. In the Antelope Valley, approximately 101,320 people are living in Hard to Survey (HTS) Block Groups. The Museum of Art and History and the neighborhoods that immediately surround the Museum are designated as Very High or High Low Response Score (LRS) neighborhoods. The Lancaster Museum and Public Art Foundation (LMPAF), the Museum of Art and History and the City of Lancaster believe that organizations and community leaders must be proactive, educating, encouraging and empowering residents to participate in the Census!
Generously sponsored by
Housing Corporation of America
#CountMeIn Photo Videos
#CountMeIn Videos
#CountMeIn Photo Gallery
#CountMeIn Census Block Map
Below you will find a map of each neighborhood block group located in downtown Lancaster. Block groups can vary in size and population typically from 1,000 to over 3,000 people in any one block group. Block groups with “Very High” Low Response Scores (LRS) are seen in red; block groups with “High” Low Response Scores are seen in orange; and block groups with “Medium” Low Response Scores are seen in yellow. Block groups seen in green are regarded as having a “Low” Low Response Score.
Do you live in one of these block groups? If so, what is level is your Low Response Score?
#CountMeIn is working towards having each block group decrease their Low Response Scores by 10% or from “Very High” to “High,” “High” to “Medium” and “Medium” to “Low.”
#CountMeIn Artist in Residence
Robin Rosenthal has been developing creative place-keeping projects in the Antelope Valley since 2015, when she was commissioned Artist-in-Residence by the LA County Arts Commission for their NEA Our Town funded AV Art Outpost initiative (on which LMPAF was a partner). She is the Founder and Artistic Director of Real93543, an emerging local arts organization whose programming engages Littlerock and Southeast Antelope Valley residents in an arts-based process of strengthening local ownership and social connection—highlighting community-specific narratives through documentary media, educational programs, and public art. (See Real93543’s projects at www.real93543.org.) With a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA from Queens College, CUNY, Rosenthal taught studio art at San Antonio College and the San Antonio Art Institute, and exhibited her experimental videos nationally before coming to Los Angeles to work in film and television. Her award-winning documentary filmmaking practice, as half of the Littlerock-based Pony Highway Productions, draws from her background as an artist, educator, and motion picture industry professional, and informs her work in creative place-keeping.
Short link to Positively Littlerock Story Map Tour: https://arcg.is/18X4D1
YouTube link to Real93543 In a Day video: https://youtu.be/ZzcDyJgwAsM
Edwin Vasquez is a self-taught artist. Vasquez has studied with other notable Antelope Valley Artists and Teachers such as Glen Knowles, David Babb, Rich Sims and Warren Scherich. Over the years, Vasquez has been featured in several group exhibitions including the State Latin American Visual Arts in Rhode Island (where his work was recognized by Governor Lincoln D. Chafee), Communication at Casa 0101 in Los Angeles, Don’t Sleep! at the Latino Art Museum in Pomona and is a regularly selected artist in Lancaster’s Museum of Art & History’s annual All-Media Juried Art Exhibition. Vasquez has participated, as both an Artist and Curator, in numerous local exhibitions.
Vasquez was born in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala in 1964.
Jane Szabo is a Los Angeles based fine art photographer with a Master of Fine Arts from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. Her work investigates issues of self and identity. Using self-portraiture and still life as a vehicle to share stories from her life, her work merges her love for fabrication and materials, with conceptual photography. Szabo brings many facets of visual art into her photographic projects, incorporating sculptural, performance and installation elements into her work, and her imagery is often infused with humor and wonder. Szabo's background in the film industry, creating props and miniatures for theme parks, and overseeing set construction for film and television, undoubtedly informs her creative process.
#CountMeIn Events Calendar
#CountMeIn: A Census 2020 Project
Friday, July 19, 2020, 6 - 9PM
44857 Cedar Ave, Lancaster, CA 93534
Join the #CountMeIn team for its first official project workshop happening this Friday during Spotlight Cafe Open Mic Night beginning at 6 pm. The #CountMeIn team will be onsite asking participants to generate poetry/prose using the words "count," "me," and "in." These works can then be shared with an audience, letting them and your community know that our community matters and that you deserve to be counted on the upcoming Census.
This project is generously supported in part by the California Art Council, City of Lancaster and the Lancaster Museum and Public Art Foundation.
#CountMeIn: Census 2020 Book-Making Workshop
Saturday, August 3, 2020, 3 - 6 PM
742 W Lancaster Blvd, Lancaster, CA 93534
Join the #CountMeIn team at Li'l Book Bug on the BLVD for a fun bookmaking workshop. This workshop will utilize Census 2020 as inspiration to create a collaborative art book. The #CountMeIn team will be onsite leading participants through the creative process. All materials will be provided. These works can then be shared with an audience, letting them and your community know that our community matters and that you deserve to be counted on the upcoming Census. Artist-in-Residence, Jane Szabo, will be onsite photographing interested participants while they create the books.
This project is generously supported in part by the California Art Council, City of Lancaster and the Lancaster Museum and Public Art Foundation.
#CountMeIn: Tote Bag Screen Printing Workshop
Thursday, October 24, 2020 4 - 9 PM
665 W Lancaster Blvd, Lancaster, CA 93534
Join the #CountMeIn Team for its next #CountMeIn, A Census 2020 Project, Screen Printing Workshop! Taking place in the Fran and Hernando Marroquin Family Classroom, participants can grab a tote bag, or bandana, and impress upon them Census-minded artwork. Take the tote bag with you as peruse the great, organic food at The BLVD Farmer's Market!
This project is generously supported in part by the California Art Council, City of Lancaster and the Lancaster Museum and Public Art Foundation.
#CountMeIn: Chalk Drawing Engagement
Saturday, December 7, 2020 2:30 PM
Sacred Heart Church - 565 W. Kettering Street
The #CountMeIn team invites the Families of Sacred Heart Catholic Church to participate in an afternoon of chalk drawing.
Chalks and other materials will be provided for families to create their own colorful drawings on the asphalt, in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. During the event, the #CountMeIn team will share information about the upcoming 2020 Census and the value of being counted.
#CountMeIn: Artists’ Bookmaking
Saturday, January 25, 2020 11 AM - 3 PM
44857 Cedar Ave, Lancaster, CA 93534
On Saturday, January 25th the #CountMeIn Team invites a group of Antelope Valley artists to the Andrew Frieder Creative Space at MOAH:Cedar to make pages for a collaborative, accordion-fold art book, using the letters of the words #CountMeIn, and referencing inclusion, being counted, community, etc. The resulting artists’ book will be shown as part of MOAH’s #CountMeIn exhibit.
Artists will have access to materials in the well-stocked Andrew Frieder Creative Space, and can bring materials and mediums from their own practice as well.
#CountMeIn
#CountMeIn2020
#CountMeInAV
#Census2020
#LancasterMOAH
