Koo's Art Center

Koo's Art Center is an art gallery and music venue located at 530. E Broadway in Long Beach, California, USA. Koo's is a 501(c)3 nonprofit art center that hosts a wide variety of fine arts, music (performances), film screenings, social demonstrations, literary events, and more. Koo's features a dedicated gallery space that is changed monthly to coincide with Long Beach's Second Saturday Art Walk. In addition, Koo's also has weekly hardcore/punk/indie music shows. The mission of Koo's Art Center is to promote social awareness and self-empowerment through community and the arts.

History

anta Ana

Koo's began as a small art cafe in Santa Ana in the early 1990s. It featured a living room area dedicated for spoken word artists as well as for bands to play. Koo's also served coffee and sometimes assorted snacks from its kitchen. Koo's also had several running programs: the 17th Parallel break dance group, the Mural Project and the Awareness Through Arts and Community (ATAC) Program. Koo's also served as the base for the Santa Ana Food Not Bombs. These programs helped to serve the local Santa Ana youth community and Orange County at large. Because of this commitment for serving the local population, in 1998 Koo's was awarded a $10,000 grant from MTV's Do Something Foundation to help fund its many programs. However by 2001 the space was proving to be too limited in order for Koo's to fully partake in its vision.

Garden Grove and San Pedro

After closing down in Santa Ana, Koo's did not immediately settle upon a new location. Koo's was instead able to promote shows at the Drop-In Center in Garden Grove, Sacred Grounds in San Pedro, and The Brown Brothers Building in San Pedro. However, by 2003 a new permanent location was found for Koo's in Long Beach's art district.

Long Beach

By 2003 Koo's had a new location and that is 530 E. Broadway in Long Beach's art district. This new larger space was able to accommodate a far larger art gallery as well as much larger music shows. Currently Koo's is building up new programs for the new Long Beach location. Koo's currently has a fine arts gallery, a monthly performance art showcase called 10x10, and weekly musical events.

Current projects

Music

Koo's currently hosts several music shows a week in a variety of different musical genres. Koo's has hosted hundreds of musical performers over the years. Some of the most notable include: Atreyu, The Black Heart Procession, Braid, Bright Eyes, Death from Above 1979, Deerhoof, The Get Up Kids, Hum, Jimmy Eat World, The Locust, Melt-Banana, Pinback, Some Girls, Thrice, The Ataris, Xiu Xiu] and many others.

Fine arts

Koo's hosts a monthly art gallery that is changed on the second Saturday of each month to coincide with the Second Saturday Art Walks hosted in the arts district of Long Beach every month.

10x10

10×10 is a performance arts showcase that allows for 10 performers to entertain the audience however they please for ten minutes a piece. These can include anything from spoken word to musical performances as well as ballet or painting.

ee also

*Punk rock
*ABC No Rio
*924 Gilman Street
*AAA Electra 99
*SolArt

External links

* [http://www.koos.org/ Koo's Art Center website]