Opinion: Boyle Heights activists should try visiting art galleries before protesting them

To the editor: How sad that the residents of Boyle Heights don’t welcome the Nicodim Gallery. And how absurd to call the Los Angeles Police Department’s attempt to stop defacement of private property by local youth “criminalizing youth and creating racial division in the community.” (“Boyle Heights activists protest art galleries, gentrification,” Nov. 5)

Huh? Obscene reference to “white art” scrawled on a business? Who exactly is making racial slurs here? Where did young people learn that this is “white art”?

I have been a volunteer art docent at two local museums for many years, and it saddens me to see how some of the children who visit with their schools have never been to an art museum or any kind of museum before. Before their parents talk gentrification and colonialism, let them think about what a welcome addition art galleries would be.

How about creating a grass-roots movement that will encourage local youth to connect with the art, make friends with gallery owners and be introduced to art on the local level? Wake up and look at the art!

Lisa Davis, Los Angeles

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To the editor: This piece underlines the rift between not just economic classes but cultures and the understanding of what art is and where and how it should be displayed.

When I worked in Boyle Heights, art was everywhere — in the form of graffiti and large, colorful murals on building sides and walls. I do recall one gallery that featured art from prison inmates, some of the items quite remarkable.

Residents in Boyle Heights fear being removed from their homes and for the culture they know and love. They must find a political champion to help them maintain what they can but also know they must assimilate or the very idea of America is a fraud. My belief applies to every corner of the country, not just Boyle Heights.

Carleton Cronin, West Hollywood

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To the editor: Ironically, due to a perceived threat to their way of life, an established group of Boyle Heights residents (Boyle Heights Alliance Against Artwashing and Displacement) advocates vandalism, intimidation and expulsion of economic migrants (new white business owners) who have come to their community in search of opportunity.

It seems to me that the “basket of deplorables” contains more diversity than we thought.

Davin Gumm, Santa Ana

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