LA Freewaves, also known as Freewaves, is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization that exhibits new, uncensored, independent media, and produces free public art projects to engage artists and audiences on current social issues. Anne Bray, with representatives of other communities, founded LA Freewaves in 1989 and has worked to administer the non-profit since it was launched as an exhibition of multicultural video art at the American Film Institute's National Video Festival. Bray serves as director of the organization and has been working in the field of media arts since the mid-1970s as an artist and teacher.
Over the years, the Freewaves has broadened its programs to include hosting performance art events, Instagram live dialogues, and a large, free digital video art archive. They also expanded their output to online distribution and performance art in public spaces. The organization is known for its unconventional and far-reaching approaches to exhibiting experimental media art, venturing into Metro buses, nomadic “Road Shows”, cable television, video billboards, sidewalks, public parks, libraries, and high schools. Media artists including Cassils, Tony Cokes, Roger Guenveur Smith, Lynn Hershman, Miranda July, Alex Rivera, Bill Viola and Qui Zhijie have shown works in Freewaves programs.
Freewaves has held biennial art festivals showcasing independent and experimental media in venues throughout Los Angeles and hosts a variety of speakers on the topics of education, art, technology, race, gender, and media. The California Institute of the Arts described the festival as "The internationally renowned festival of independent film, video and new media." It has also been described as an "important voice for social justice and change in L.A.", and "the largest theatrical exhibition of alternative video in the greater Los Angeles area".
Video Archive
In 2005, Freewaves launched its online video archive as a platform to provide public access to the making, sharing, and exchange of new video art internationally. The Freewaves video archive features over 800 video art pieces from around the globe.
Festivals & Public Art Projects
1st Festival: A Celebration of Independent Video (1989) Freewaves was launched as a three-week festival of art, narrative, documentary and videos at the American Film Institute's National Video Festival in 1989. The first festival included the participation of 35 Los Angeles media and arts organizations, 300 artists, and various curators and involved of screenings, exhibitions, and installations mounted at 30 sites, biweekly cablecasts, panel presentations, and four thematic programs called “Road Shows" across Southern California.
2nd Festival (1991) Freewaves 2nd Celebration of Independent Video (March 1–31, 1991) was a larger festival, convening 100 arts organizations, cable stations, media centers and schools. The festival exhibited 44 thematic programs and 150 videos from high school and college students. The second festival also included artworks of new animation, ranging from computer graphics to personal tapes made on consumer equipment. LA Freewaves collaborated with the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art to organize video screenings for an opening night event and reception, various exhibitions and video screenings throughout Los Angeles, and eight one-hour cablecast programs that aired throughout March.
3rd Festival (1992) Freewaves connected a consortium of arts organizations, cable stations, media centers and schools to present its third decentralized festival of independent video throughout the Los Angeles area from mid-September to mid-October 1992. Curated by 60 independent and affiliated curators, 75 programs of 425 artists were exhibited widely across 29 cable stations and various venues across Los Angeles. The festival coalesced into a broad-based response to the 1992 L.A. Uprising in South-Central Los Angeles, featuring exhibitions and cable programs including “Beyond the Color Line: Reflections on Race”.
4th Festival: "T.V. at Large" (1994) LA Freewaves presented "TV AT LARGE", their 4th celebration of independent video, featuring video projections and live performances on their opening night at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre. The fourth festival also consisted of five one-hour shows presented at the AFI Video Festival and broadcast on cable television from mid-September to mid-October 1994. The cable TV programs included “Freewaves Cruisin’ the Airwaves”, “Legacies”, “Race, Identity, Sexuality: Unbound Voices”, “All in a Day’s Work”, and “Multi-Boom: Youth Sound Off About Difference”.