Laboratory for the Future Opening Reception
Reception Celebrates Completion of Debra Scacco’s Multiyear Artist Residency with the City of Santa Monica
The city is invited to a special reception marking the culmination of artist Debra Scacco’s multiyear residency with the City of Santa Monica Public Works Department (Water and Resource Recovery & Recycling Divisions).
Scacco’s project, Laboratory for the Future, explores and celebrates the often unseen labor, natural systems, and built infrastructure that sustain the city and region. The exhibition presents art as data visualization through a range of works, including maps of Santa Monica’s water systems, rubbings of infrastructure sites, sculptures inspired by wells and reservoirs, and pieces crafted from Pacific Ocean driftwood.
The exhibition also highlights We Are Essential, a photo campaign with photography by Monica Orozco, as well as documentation of the 2024 festival of the same name—an event produced by Scacco to honor essential workers. Additional images and materials from her extensive research into invisible infrastructural systems are also on view.
Visitors are encouraged to enjoy Open Studios at the Airport Arts Center (Studios 3026) during and after the event, where artists will open their studios to the public from 12:00–5:00 p.m.
Laboratory for the Future is a project of City Yards Artist in Residence Debra Scacco, made possible by the City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs Division, the Percent for Art Program, and the City of Santa Monica Public Works Department.