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Los Angeles County Museum of Art

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum).

LACMA was founded in 1961, splitting from the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art. Four years later, it moved to the Wilshire Boulevard complex designed by William Pereira. The museum's wealth and collections grew in the 1980s, and it added several buildings beginning in that decade and continuing in subsequent decades.

LACMA is the largest art museum in the western United States. It attracts nearly a million visitors annually. It holds more than 150,000 works spanning the history of art from ancient times to the present. In addition to art exhibits, the museum features film and concert series.

Early years
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art was established as a museum in 1961. Prior to this, LACMA was part of the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art, founded in 1910 in Exposition Park near the University of Southern California.

Edward W. Carter helped orchestrate the fundraising effort for LACMA in response to J. Paul Getty's increasing reluctance to donate any more artworks to Los Angeles County. Getty had donated a few excellent artworks such as the Ardabil Carpet and Rembrandt's Portrait of Martin Looten, but then became aware of their shabby and disorganized presentation in the county's aging multipurpose museum and chose to establish his own art museum next to his house.

Howard F. Ahmanson, Sr., Anna Bing Arnold and Bart Lytton were the first principal patrons of the new county art museum. Ahmanson made the lead donation of $2 million, convincing the museum board that sufficient funds could be raised to establish the new museum. In 1965 the museum moved to a new Wilshire Boulevard complex as an independent, art-focused institution, the largest new museum to be built in the United States after the National Gallery of Art.

William Pereira Buildings
The museum, built in a style similar to Lincoln Center and the Los Angeles Music Center, consisted of three buildings: the Ahmanson Building, the Bing Center, and the Lytton Gallery (renamed the Frances and Armand Hammer Building in 1968). The board selected LA architect William Pereira over the directors' recommendation of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for the buildings. According to a 1965 Los Angeles Times story, the total cost of the three buildings was $11.5 million. Construction began in 1963, and was undertaken by the Del E. Webb Corporation. Construction was completed in early 1965. At the time, the Los Angeles Music Center and LACMA were concurrent large civic projects which vied for attention and donors in Los Angeles. When the museum opened, the buildings were surrounded by reflecting pools, but they were filled in and covered over when tar from the adjacent La Brea Tar Pits began seeping in.

1980s
Money poured into LACMA during the boom years of the 1980s, a reportedly $209 million in private donations during director Earl Powell's tenure. To house its growing collections of modern and contemporary art and to provide more space for exhibitions, the museum hired the architectural firm of Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates to design its $35.3-million, 115,000-square-foot Robert O. Anderson Building for 20th-century art, which opened in 1986 (renamed the Art of the Americas Building in 2007). In the far-reaching expansion, museum-goers henceforth entered through the new partially roofed central court, nearly an acre of space bounded by the museum's four buildings.

The museum's Pavilion for Japanese Art, designed by maverick architect Bruce Goff, opened in 1988, as did the B. Gerald Cantor Sculpture Garden of Rodin bronzes.

In 1999, the Hancock Park Improvement Project was complete, and the LACMA-adjacent park (designed by landscape architect Laurie Olin) was inaugurated with a free public celebration. The $10-million renovation replaced dead trees and bare earth with picnic facilities, walkways, viewing sites for the La Brea tar pits and a 150-seat red granite amphitheater designed by artist Jackie Ferrara.

Also in 1994, LACMA purchased the adjacent former May Company department store building, an impressive example of streamline moderne architecture designed by Albert C. Martin Sr. LACMA West increased the museum's size by 30 percent when the building opened in 1998.

Renzo Piano Buildings
In 2004 LACMA's board of trustees unanimously approved a plan for LACMA's transformation by architect Rem Koolhaas, who had proposed razing all the current buildings and constructing an entirely new single, tent-topped structure, estimated to cost $200 million to $300 million. Kohlhaas edged out French architect Jean Nouvel, who would have added a major building while renovating the older facilities. The list of candidates had previously narrowed to five in May 2001: Koolhaas, Nouvel, Steven Holl, Daniel Libeskind and Thom Mayne.

However, the project soon stalled after the museum failed to secure funding. In 2004 LACMA's board of trustees unanimously approved plans to transform the museum, led by architect Renzo Piano. The planned transformation consisted of three phases.

Phase I started in 2004 and was completed in February 2008. The renovations required demolishing the parking structure on Ogden Avenue and with it LACMA-commissioned graffiti art by street artists Margaret Kilgallen and Barry McGee. The entry pavilion is a key point in architect Renzo Piano's plan to unify LACMA's sprawling, often confusing layout of buildings. The BP Grand Entrance and the adjacent Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM) comprise the $191 million (originally $150 million) first phase of the three-part expansion and renovation campaign. BCAM is named for Eli and Edy Broad, who gave $60 million to LACMA's campaign; Eli Broad also served on LACMA's board of directors. BCAM opened on February 16, 2008, adding 58000 sqft of exhibition space to the museum. In 2010 the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion opened to the public, providing the largest purpose-built, naturally lit, open-plan museum space in the world.

The second phase was intended to turn the May building into new offices and galleries, designed by SPF Architects. As proposed, it would have had flexible gallery space, education space, administrative offices, a new restaurant, a gift shop and a bookstore, as well as study centers for the museum's departments of costume and textiles, photography and prints and drawings, and a roof sculpture garden with two works by James Turrell. However, construction of this phase was halted in November 2010. Phase two and three were never completed.

Zumthor proposal
Specifics about the third phase, which initially was to involve renovations to older buildings, long remained undisclosed. In November 2009, plans were made public that LACMA's director Michael Govan was working with Swiss architect and Pritzker Prize laureate Peter Zumthor on plans for rebuilding the eastern section of the campus, the Perreira Buildings between the two new Renzo Piano buildings and the tar pits. Architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill collaborated with Zumthor on the building's design. With an estimated cost of $650 million, Zumthor's first proposal called for a horizontal building along Wilshire Boulevard. It would have been wrapped in glass on all sides and its main galleries lifted one floor into the air. The wide roof would have been covered with solar panels. In a later concession to concerns raised by its neighbor, the Page Museum, LACMA had Zumthor alter the shape of his proposed building to stretch across Wilshire Boulevard and away from the La Brea Tar Pits.

In June 2014, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved $5 million for LACMA to continue its proposed plans to tear down the structures on the east end of its campus for a single museum building. Later that year, they approved in concept a plan that would provide public financing and $125 million toward the $600-million project.

On April 8, 2019, the Zumthor-designed building was approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. The final approved building designed was scaled back from the original 387500 sqft to 347500 sqft, with gallery space shrinking from 121000 sqft to 110000 sqft. The new proposal also dropped the black form aesthetics, reducing it to a one-level, aboveground, glass-enclosed, sand-colored concrete building, to save costs. The design still calls for an arm above Wilshire Boulevard.

Other than necessary mechanical systems and bathrooms, the building's entire second story will be devoted to gallery space. Arranged in four broad clusters around the building, each one of the twenty-six core galleries is designed in the form of a square or a rectangle at various scales. Other services, among them the museum's education department, shop and three restaurants, will be at ground level, as will a 300-seat theater in the section of the building on the southern side of Wilshire Boulevard.

The total cost was estimated to be at $650 million, with LA county providing $125 million in funds and the rest raised by fundraising. LACMA raised $560 million by 2019 and $700 million by 2022. The total estimate is now at $750 million by 2023.

In 2020, four buildings on the campus were demolished to make way for a reconstructed facility. His design drew strong community opposition and was lambasted by architectural critics and museum curators, who objected to its reduced gallery space, poor design, and exorbitant costs. The re-designed final building was criticized by some local architects, including the Los Angeles Times editorial architect Christopher Knight, calling the plans "half baked". Antonio Pacheco called the plans an "affront to L.A.'s architectural and cultural heritage." Especially criticized was the plan's reduction in gallery space. The plans raised significant controversy from Angelenos as well, prompting a "Save LACMA" campaign. Los Angeles owns air rights above Wilshire, so the city council must give approval to the project, since part of the structure goes over the street.

Demolition of the Pereira buildings began in April 2020. The demolition was completed in October of that same year. By 2021, construction slowed with the discovery of on-site fossil finds. In the meantime, the Zumthor building opening has been pushed back to 2024.

Watts Towers
In 2010 LACMA partnered with the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department in an effort to ensure the preservation of the Watts Towers, offering its staff, expertise, and fundraising assistance. As of 2018, LACMA is working with Los Angeles County to develop a site at the Earvin "Magic" Johnson Park, which is close to Watts Towers.

South Los Angeles Wetlands Park site
In 2018, LACMA secured a 35-year lease on an 80,000-square-foot, city-owned former Metro maintenance and storage yard from 1911 in the South Los Angeles Wetlands Park area.

Las Vegas Museum of Art
In 2023, LACMA and the foundation of the philanthropist Elaine Wynn announced their partnership to launch the Las Vegas Museum of Art (LVMA). That same year, the Las Vegas council approved negotiations to dedicate a parcel of land for the proposed 90,000-square-foot, three-story building of the Las Vegas Museum of Art in Symphony Park.

Local Access
With the support of a 2021 grant provided by Art Bridges and the Terra Foundation for American Art, LACMA launched a collaboration called Local Access, in which the museum shares portions of its collection with the Lancaster Museum of Art and History, Riverside Art Museum, Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College, and California State University, Northridge, Art Galleries.

Exhibitions
In 1971, curator Maurice Tuchman's revolutionary "Art and Technology" exhibit opened at LACMA after its debut at the 1970 World Exposition in Osaka, Japan. The museum staged its first exhibition by contemporary black artists later that year, featuring Charles Wilbert White, Timothy Washington and David Hammons, then little known. The museum's best-attended show ever was "Treasures of Tutankhamun", which drew 1.2 million during four months in 1978. The 2005 "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" drew 937,613 during its 137-day run. A 1999 show of Vincent van Gogh masterpieces from the artist's eponymous Amsterdam museum is the third most successful show, and a 1984 exhibition of French Impressionist works is fourth. In 1994, "Picasso and the Weeping Women: The Years of Marie-Therese Walter and Dora Maar" opened to rave reviews and large crowds, drawing more than 153,000 visitors.

Since the arrival of current director Michael Govan, about 80% of just over 100 featured temporary exhibitions have been of Modern or contemporary art while the permanent exhibitions feature work dating from antiquity, including pre-Columbian, Assyrian and Egyptian art through contemporary art.

More recent exhibits, focusing on popular culture and entertainment, have also been well-received, both by critics and patrons. Exhibits devoted to the works of movie-directors Tim Burton and Stanley Kubrick drew especially positive reactions and responses.

Collections
LACMA's more than 120,000 objects are divided among its numerous departments by region, media, and time period and are spread amongst the various museum buildings.

Modern and Contemporary Art
The Modern Art collection is displayed in the Ahmanson Building, which was renovated in 2008 to have a new entrance featuring a large staircase, conceived as a gathering place similar to Rome's Spanish Steps. Filling the atrium at the base of the staircase is Tony Smith's massive sculpture Smoke (1967). The plaza level galleries also house African art and a gallery highlighting the Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies.

The modern collection on the plaza level displays works from 1900 to the 1970s, largely populated by the Janice and Henri Lazarof Collection. In December 2007, Janice and Henri Lazarof gave LACMA 130 mostly modernist works estimated to be worth more than $100 million. The collection includes 20 works by Picasso, watercolors and paintings by Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky and a considerable number of sculptures by Alberto Giacometti, Constantin Brâncuși, Henry Moore, Willem de Kooning, Joan Miró, Louise Nevelson, Archipenko, and Arp. The Contemporary Art collection is displayed in the 60000 sqft Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM), opened on February 16, 2008. BCAM's inaugural exhibition featured 176 works by 28 artists of postwar Modern art from the late 1950s to the present. All but 30 of the works initially displayed came from the collection of Eli and Edythe Broad (pronounced "brode"). Long-time trustee Robert Halff had already donated 53 works of contemporary art in 1994. Components of that gift included Joan Miró, Jasper Johns, Sam Francis, Frank Stella, Lari Pittman, Chris Burden, Richard Serra, John Chamberlain, Matthew Barney, and Jeff Koons. It also provided LACMA with its first drawings by Claes Oldenburg and Cy Twombly.

Back Seat Dodge '38 (1964), by Edward Kienholz, is a sculpture portraying a couple engaged in sexual activity in the back seat of a truncated 1938 Dodge automobile chassis. The piece won Kienholz instant celebrity in 1966 when the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors tried to ban the sculpture as pornographic and threatened to withhold financing from LACMA if it included the work in a Kienholz retrospective. A compromise was reached under which the sculpture's car door would remain closed and guarded, to be opened only on the request of a museum patron who was over 18, and only if no children were present in the gallery. The uproar led to more than 200 people lining up to see the work the day the show opened. Ever since, Back Seat Dodge '38 has drawn crowds.

American and Latin American art
The Art of the Americas Building has American, Latin American, and pre-Columbian collections displayed on the second floor and temporary exhibition space on the first floor. Formerly known as the Anderson Building, the Art of the Americas Building comprises galleries for art from North, Central, and South America.

From 1972 to 1976, Donelson Hoopes served as Senior Curator of American Art.

LACMA's Latin American Art galleries reopened in July 2008 after several years renovation. The Latin American collection includes pre-Columbian, Spanish Colonial, Modern, and contemporary works. Many recent additions to the collection were financed by sales of works from an 1,800 piece holding of 20th century Mexican art compiled by dealer-collectors Bernard and Edith Lewin and given to the museum in 1997.

The pre-Columbian galleries were redesigned by Jorge Pardo, a Los Angeles artist who works in sculpture, design, and architecture. Pardo's display cases are built from thick, stacked sheets of medium-density fiberboard (MDF), with spacing of equal thickness in between the 70-plus layers. The laser-cut organic forms undulate and swell out from the walls, sharply contrasting to the rectangular display cases found in most art museums.

The museum's pre-Columbian collection began in the 1980s with the first installment of a 570-piece gift from Southern California collector Constance McCormick Fearing and the purchase of about 200 pieces from L.A. businessman Proctor Stafford. The holdings recently jumped from about 1,800 to 2,500 objects with a gift of Colombian ceramics from Camilla Chandler Frost, a LACMA trustee and the sister of Otis Chandler, former Los Angeles Times publisher, and Stephen and Claudia Muñoz-Kramer of Atlanta, whose family built the collection. A sizable portion of LACMA's pre-Columbian collection was excavated from burial chambers in Colima, Nayarit and other regions around Jalisco in modern-day Mexico. LACMA boasts one of the largest collections of Latin American art due to the generous donation of more than 2,000 works of art by Bernard Lewin and his wife Edith Lewin in 1996. In 2007 the museum signed an agreement with the Fundación Cisneros for a loan of 25 colonial-style works, later extended until 2017.

The Spanish Colonial collection includes work from 17th and 18th century Mexican artists Miguel Cabrera, José de Ibarra, José de Páez, and Nicolás Rodriguez Juárez. The collection has galleries for Diego Rivera and Rufino Tamayo. The Latin American contemporary gallery highlights works Francis Alÿs.

Asian art
Shiva as the Lord of Dance LACMA edit.jpg statue depicting Shiva dancing as Nataraja from LACMA

]] The Hammer Building houses the Chinese and Korean collections. The Korean art collection began with the donation of a group of Korean ceramics in 1966 by Bak Jeonghui, then president of the Republic of Korea, after a visit to the museum. LACMA today claims to have the most comprehensive holding outside of Korea and Japan. The Pavilion for Japanese Art displays the Shin'enkan collection donated by Joe D. Price. In 1999 LACMA trustee Eric Lidow and his wife, Leza, donated 75 ancient Chinese works valued at a total of $3.5 million, including important bronze objects and prime examples of Buddhist sculpture. LACMA also has a rich collection of relics from India, mostly consisting of sculptures of Jain Tirthankaras, Buddha and Hindu deities. Many Paintings from India are also present in the LACMA.

Greek, Roman, and Etruscan art
The second floor of the Ahmanson Building has Greek and Roman Art galleries. A large portion of the museum's ancient Greek and Roman art collection was donated by William Randolph Hearst, the publishing magnate, in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Islamic art
The museum's Islamic galleries include over 1700 works from ceramics and inlaid metalwork to enameled glass, carved stone and wood, and arts of the book from manuscript illumination to Islamic calligraphy. The collection is especially strong in Persian and Turkish glazed pottery and tiles, glass, and arts of the book. The collection began in earnest in 1973 when the Nasli M. Heeramaneck Collection was gifted to the museum by philanthropist Joan Palevsky.

Decorative arts and design
In 1990 Max Palevsky gave 32 pieces of Arts and Crafts furniture to LACMA; three years later, he added an additional 42 pieces to his gift. In 2000, he donated $2 million to LACMA for Arts and Crafts works. He supplied about a third of the 300 objects displayed in a 2004–05 LACMA exhibit, "The Arts and Crafts Movement in Europe and America: 1880–1920" and in 2009, the museum presented "The Arts and Crafts Movement: Masterworks From the Max Palevsky and Jodie Evans Collection". With a single acquisition in 2009, LACMA became a major center for the study and display of 18th- and 19th-century European clothing when it bought the holdings of dealers Martin Kamer of London and Wolfgang Ruf of Beckenried, Switzerland—about 250 outfits and 300 accessories created between 1700 and 1915, including men's three-piece suits, women's dresses, children's garb, and a vast array of shoes, hats, purses, shawls, fans, and undergarments.

Permanent art installations
Los Angeles sculptor Robert Graham created the towering, bronze Retrospective Column (1981, cast in 1986) for the entrance of the Art of the Americas Building. A new contemporary sculpture garden was opened directly east of the museum's Wilshire Boulevard entrance in 1991, including large-scale outdoor sculptures by Alice Aycock, Ellsworth Kelly, Henry Moore, and others. The centerpiece of the garden is Alexander Calder's three-piece mobile Hello Girls, commissioned by a women's museum-support group for the museum's opening in 1965. Situated in a curving reflecting pool, the mobile has brightly colored paddles that are moved by jets of water.

The Ahmanson Building's atrium was remodeled to hold Tony Smith's Smoke, which had not been displayed since its original 1967 presentation at Washington, D.C.'s Corcoran Gallery of Art. The massive black painted aluminum artwork is made up of 43 piers and is 45 ft long, 33 ft wide, and 22 ft high. The newly fabricated work was initially on loan from the artist's estate, but in 2010, after several months of intense fundraising efforts, "the museum acquired the work for an undisclosed amount reported to exceed $3 million and [with an insurance valuation of] 'over $5 million. The purchase was "made possible by The Belldegrun Family's gift to LACMA in honor of Rebecka Belldegrun's birthday", per the museum.

Eli and Edythe Broad contributed $10 million to fund the purchase of Richard Serra's Band sculpture, on display on the first floor of BCAM when the building opened.

Surrounding the BCAM building and LACMA's courtyard is a 100 palm tree garden, designed by artist Robert Irwin and landscape architect Paul Comstock. Some of the 30 varieties of palms are in the ground, but most are in large wooden boxes above ground. Directly in front of the new entrance to LACMA on Wilshire Boulevard, where Ogden Drive once bisected the 20-acre campus between Wilshire Boulevard and 6th Street, is Chris Burden's Urban Light (2008), an orderly, multi-tiered installation of 202 antique cast-iron street lights from various cities in and around the Los Angeles area. The street lights are functional, turn on in the evening, and are powered by solar panels on the roof of the BP Grand Entrance.

Originally Jeff Koons' Tulips (1995–2004) sculpture was inside the Grand Entrance building and Charles Ray's Fire Truck (1993) was outside in the courtyard, both lent by the Broad Art Foundation. Both sculptures were removed after being on display for 3 months due to unexpected damage from patrons and wear.

On February 2, 2007, Michael Govan, with Koons, revealed plans for a 161 ft-tall Koons sculpture featuring an operational 1940s locomotive suspended from a crane. The sculpture would be located at the entrance on Wilshire Boulevard, between the Ahmanson Building and the Broad Contemporary Art Museum. By 2011, after "the fundraising climate soured and Koons' California fabricator, Carlson & Co, went out of business after completing a $2.3-million feasibility study" and a $25 million estimated cost, Govan said "We don't have a final method of construction, and I don't have a final fundraising plan." Koons said they are now working with the German fabricator Arnold, outside of Frankfurt, to do an additional engineering study, and Govan says he has committed to spending half a million dollars for that study. The museum has J.B. Turner Engine (1986), a small Koons piece which was shown in the 2006–2007 "Magritte and Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images" exhibition.

Levitated Mass by artist Michael Heizer is the latest project at LACMA. On December 8, 2011, this 340-ton boulder, 21.5 ft wide and 21.5 ft in height, was ready to leave its quarry in Riverside County, after months of postponements. It sits atop the 456-foot-long trench which allows people to walk under and around the massive rock. The move started on February 28, 2012, and completed on March 10, 2012. The art piece was opened on June 24, 2012, by Heizer, Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, and Los Angeles City Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Photography
The Wallis Annenberg Photography Department was launched in 1984 with a grant from the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. It has holdings of more than fifteen thousand works that span the period from the medium's invention in 1839 to the present. Photography also is integrated into other departments. Although LACMA's photo collection encompasses the entire field, it has many gaps and is far smaller than that of the J. Paul Getty Museum. In 1992 Audrey and Sydney Irmas donated their entire photography collection, creating what is now the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Audrey and Sydney Irmas Collection of Artists' Self-Portraits, a large and highly specialized selection spanning 150 years. The couple donated the collection two years before a major exhibition of the collection was mounted at LACMA; the display included photos of and by artistic photographers ranging from chemist Alphonse Poitevin in 1853 to Robert Mapplethorpe in 1988. Among other self-portraits in the collection were those of Andy Warhol, Lee Friedlander, and Edward Steichen. Audrey Irmas continues to buy for the collection, but now all the additions are gifts to LACMA. In 2008 LACMA announced that the Annenberg Foundation was making a $23 million gift for the acquisition of the Marjorie and Leonard Vernon collection of 19th- and 20th-century photographs. Among the 3,500 master prints are works by Steichen, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Eugène Atget, Imogen Cunningham, Catherine Opie, Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger, Ave Pildas and Man Ray. The gift also provided an endowment and capital to help build storage facilities for the museum's photographic holdings, leading to its photography department being renamed the Wallis Annenberg Department of Photography. In 2011 LACMA and the J. Paul Getty Trust jointly acquired Robert Mapplethorpe's art and archival material, including more than 2,000 works by the artist.

Film
LACMA's film program was founded by Phil Chamberlin in the late 1960s. In 2009 LACMA announced plans to cancel its 41-year-old film series, citing declining attendance and funding. The decision drew widespread criticism from cinephiles, including film director Martin Scorsese, who wrote an open protest letter that was published in the Los Angeles Times. In response, the museum expanded its movie offerings and partnered with Film Independent to launch a new series. In 2011 LACMA and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced partnership plans to open a movie museum within three years in the former May Co. building. The Academy Museum opened in 2022.

Individual donors
In 2014, LACMA received a $500 million donation of art from businessman Jerry Perenchio. The 47-piece collection contains works by Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, René Magritte, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, and Pablo Picasso. LACMA executive director Michael Govan said it was the biggest gift in the museum's history, and The Washington Post called it "conceivably one of the greatest art gifts ever, to any museum". Perenchio's donation, which becomes effective upon his death, occurs only if the museum completes construction of the new building designed by Peter Zumthor.

The $54 million Resnick Pavillon was made possible by a $45 million gift from the philanthropists for whom it is named. On March 6, 2007, BP announced a $25 million donation to name the entry pavilion under construction as part of LACMA's renovation campaign the "BP Grand Entrance". The $25 million gift matches Walt Disney Co.'s 1997 gift for Disney Hall as the biggest corporate donation to the arts in Southern California. Previously, in 2006, LACMA had announced that the new entrance would be called the "Lynda and Stewart Resnick Grand Entrance Pavilion", in honor of their $25 million gift.

On January 8, 2008, Eli Broad revealed plans to retain permanent control of his roughly 2,000 works of modern and contemporary art in the independent Broad Art Foundation, which loans works to museums, rather than giving the art away. Broad, as recently as a year prior, had said that he planned to give most of his holdings to one or several museums, one of which was assumed to be LACMA. However, LACMA remains the "preferred" museum to receive works from the foundation.

Broad, previously vice chairman of LACMA's board of directors, financed the $56-million Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM) building at LACMA; he also provided an additional $10 million to buy two works of art to be displayed in it. BCAM displayed 220 pieces borrowed from Broad and his Broad Art Foundation when it opened in February 2008. In 2001 LACMA was criticized for hosting a major exhibition of Broad's collection without having secured a promised gift of the works, an act that is prohibited at many prominent art institutions because it can increase the market value of the collection.

In 2002 the Annenberg Foundation gave the museum $10 million to establish a special endowment fund to support exhibitions, art acquisitions and educational programs at the discretion of its director. In recognition of the gift, LACMA named its leadership position the Wallis Annenberg directorship. In 2001 Wallis Annenberg endowed a curatorial fellowship program with a $1-million gift. In 1991, the foundation contributed $10 million to LACMA's endowment and in 1999 it donated $100,000 to provide arts education training for Los Angeles elementary school teachers.

In 2001 the museum lost out on the modern art collection of Nathan and Marian Smooke, a former museum trustee and industrial real-estate developer whose heirs sold much of his collection at auction rather than donating it.

In 1996 the museum suffered yet another serious blow when the Gilbert Collection of Italian mosaics and other decorative objects, promised as an eventual bequest, and parts of which had been on display for decades, was withdrawn. The would-be donor claimed that the Museum had reneged on a written agreement to provide more exhibit space for it. The collection is considered one of the finest in the world of its kind. Moreover, unlike the Hammer and Simon collections, it did not remain in the Los Angeles area but was removed to the United Kingdom.

Armand Hammer was a LACMA board member for nearly seventeen years, beginning in 1968, and during this time continued to announce the museum would inherit his whole collection. Hammer's collection included works from Van Gogh, John Singer Sargent, Thomas Eakins, Gustave Moreau, Edgar Degas, and Paul Cézanne. When LACMA was offered a collection of works by Honoré Daumier, Hammer bought the works on the promise that he would give them to the museum. To LACMA's surprise, Hammer instead founded the Hammer Museum, built adjacent to Occidental's headquarters in Los Angeles.

Between 1972 and 2020, the Ahmanson Foundation spent about $130 million to finance the museum's acquisitions of 99 artworks, including masterpieces like Magdalene with the Smoking Flame by Georges de La Tour, others by Rembrandt, Watteau and Bernini, and a suite of 42 French oil sketches. The donations were not made with any contractual stipulations that the works remain on view. In 2020, the foundation suspended the acquisition program.

In the early 1970s Norton Simon, the chairman of Norton Simon, Inc., which owned Avis Car Rental, Hunt's Foods, Max Factor Cosmetics, Canada Dry Corp., and McCall's Publishing, among other interests, agreed to take the financial responsibility of the troubled Pasadena Museum of Art. Norton Simon Museum He subsequently donated his extensive collection to the new entity, now the Norton Simon Museum of Art. He had earlier made some indication of donating the work to LACMA.

From 1946 to his death in 1951, William Randolph Hearst was LACMA's largest benefactor. He remains the largest donor to the museum in number of objects. His donations formed the museum's collection of Greek and Roman antiquities, medieval and early Renaissance sculptures, and much of the collection of European decorative arts.

Art councils
Over the course of the LACMA's history, ten art councils—each supporting a specific area of the collection—have acquired or helped acquire nearly 5,000 works of art for the museum. The art councils comprise groups of art enthusiasts and professionals who pay a minimum of $400 a year in dues and organize projects to raise money for a favorite department. Founded in 1952, the Art Museum Council is LACMA's first volunteer support council and supports the whole of the museum's endeavors. The Modern and Contemporary Art Council, founded in 1961, is the longest-running support group for contemporary art at any museum in the country. In 1980, the museum's then active Black Historical Advisory Group, led by former trustee Robert Wilson, drove the museum to acquire Extended Forms (1975) by one of America's foremost sculptors Richard Hunt. In 1986 the Annual Collectors Committee weekends were started and have raised a total of $16 million for the purchase of 157 works, valued at $75 million. The Photographic Arts Council, founded in 2001, is the youngest of ten 10 support groups, offering its members visits to artists' studios and private collections, curator-led tours of exhibitions and lectures about the care and conservation of photographs.

Collectors Committee
Each year a distinguished group of donors contributes directly to the enrichment of LACMA's permanent collection through participation in the Collectors Committee, creating a fund to spend on art through purchasing tickets ranging between $15,000 and $60,000 for the event. Once a year, the Collectors Committee members meet at the museum to hear acquisition proposals from the various curators. Each curator has roughly five minutes to plead their case to the patrons, who vote later that day at a black-tie gala event at the museum on which artworks should become the next acquisitions for the permanent collection. The 2012 gala raised more than $2.8 million. Since its inception in 1986, the event has brought some 170 works of art into the museum's collection.

LACMA Art + Film Gala
Inaugurated in 2011, the annual Art + Film Gala dinner features entertainment by international artists and is designed to help the museum shore up support from Hollywood leaders. Gala prices range from $5,000 for an individual gold ticket to $100,000 for a platinum table. The 2022 gala raised more than $5.1 million for the museum's operations and collections, up from approximately $4.5 million in 2018, $4.1 million in 2013 and just under $3 million in 2011.

Gala honorees have included Judy Baca and David Fincher in 2023; Helen Pashgian and Park Chan-wook in 2022; Betye Saar and Alfonso Cuaron in 2019; Catherine Opie and Guillermo del Toro in 2018; Mark Bradford and George Lucas in 2017; Kathryn Bigelow and Robert Irwin in 2016; Alejandro González Iñárritu and James Turrell in 2015; Barbara Kruger and Quentin Tarantino in 2014; Martin Scorsese and David Hockney in 2013; the late Stanley Kubrick and Ed Ruscha in 2012; and Clint Eastwood and John Baldessari in 2011.

Deaccessioning
Along with other museums that have consigned works to auction in the past, LACMA has been sharply criticized for pruning its art holdings. In 2005, on the occasion of the expansion, reorganization and reinstallation of its collection in 2007, LACMA auctioned 43 works at Sotheby's. The works sold included paintings by Amedeo Modigliani, Camille Pissarro and Max Beckmann, sculptures by Alberto Giacometti and Henry Moore, and works on paper by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Edgar Degas. The biggest sale of works by the museum since the early 1980s, it was expected to fetch $10.4 million to $15.4 million; it eventually resulted in a total of $13 million. Among the most valuable was a Modigliani portrait of the Spanish landscape painter Manuel Humbert, which sold for $4.9 million.

Programs
In 1966 Maurice Tuchman, then curator of modern art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, introduced the Art and Technology (A&T) program. Within the program, artists like Robert Irwin and James Turrell were placed, for example, at the Garrett Corporation, to conduct research into perception. The program yielded an exhibition that ran at LACMA and traveled to Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan. It also contributed to the development of the Light and Space movement.

In 2014, the museum opened its Art + Tech Lab, building on the legacy of the original Art and Technology program and its associated 1971 exhibition. Since then, the Art + Tech Lab has presented an annual series of artists’ projects that engage with contemporary technology.

Funding
Andrea Rich won praise for doubling the museum's endowment, to more than $100 million, and for increasing attendance and pursuing programs and acquisitions that might appeal to the varied segments of the city's diverse population, like Islamic, Latin American and Korean art. Rich resigned in part because of disputes with Eli Broad, including one over hiring a curator for the new Broad contemporary art center. In 2008, LACMA made a formal offer to merge with MOCA and to help that museum raise new money from donors.

Per the Los Angeles County Code and various operating agreements, Museum Associates, a nonprofit public benefit corporation organized under the laws of the state of California, manages, operates, and maintains the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 2011, LACMA reported net assets (basically, a total of all the resources it has on its books, except the value of the art) of $300 million. That year, the museum's endowment grew from $99.6 million to $106.8 million. By issuing $383 million in tax-free construction bonds, the museum paid for its ongoing expansion and renovation, which has yielded the new Broad Contemporary Art Museum and the Resnick Exhibition Pavilion as well as other improvements. The Los Angeles County provides around $29 million a year, covering more than a third of the museum's operating expenses.

LACMA typically raises around $40 million from donations and membership dues, which are accounted for as gifts, paying for almost half of LACMA's average expenses of about $92 million.

Attendance
Although attendance has grown in recent years, it still remained at 914,356 visitors in 2010. In 2011, around 1.2 million visitors went to LACMA, making it the first time the museum broke the one million mark. In 2015, attendance reached 1.6 million.

Directors

 * Richard (Ric) F. Brown – 1961 – 1966
 * Kenneth Donahue 1966 – 1979
 * Earl A. Powell III – 1980 – 1992
 * Michael E. Shapiro – 1992 – 1993
 * Between 1993 and 1995, Chief Deputy Director Ronald B. Bratton was handling financial and administrative activities and Stephanie Barron, chief curator of modern and contemporary art, was coordinating curatorial affairs.
 * Graham W. J. Beal – 1996 – 1999
 * Andrea L. Rich – 1999 – 2005
 * Michael Govan – 2006–present

In 1996, LACMA's board of trustees decided that the traditional dual role of director as chief administrator/artistic director should be split, and appointed Andrea Rich as president and chief executive officer of the museum, while Graham W. J. Beal ran its artistic programs. As part of a 2005 restructuring, the president position was again made the second-ranking job in the institution.

LACMA provides a home to the director. For that purpose, it has owned a 5100 sqft Hancock Park property since 2006. In 2020, Museum Associates acquired a 3300 sqft house on a 7800 sqft lot in Mid-Wilshire for $2.2 million.

Board of trustees
LACMA is governed by a board of trustees which sets policy and determines the museum's strategic direction. Board membership is one of the few concrete ways to measure philanthropy in the museum world. LACMA costs $100,000 to join; each board member commits to donating or raising at least another $100,000 a year for the nonprofit museum. The museum currently has over 50 active board members; 30 of them have joined since 2006. Since 2015, the board has been co-chaired by Elaine Wynn and Tony Ressler.

Notable current trustees include the following:
 * Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani (since 2021)
 * Nicole Avant (since 2014)
 * Willow Bay
 * Colleen Bell (2011–2014, since 2019)
 * Thelma Golden (since 2016)
 * Mellody Hobson (since 2019)
 * Bobby Kotick (since 2004)
 * Lee Boo-jin (since 2023)
 * Cheech Marin (since 2022)
 * Rich Paul (since 2022)
 * Lionel Richie (since 2021)
 * Carole Bayer Sager
 * Ryan Seacrest (since 2014)
 * Casey Wasserman (since 2004)
 * Elaine Wynn (since 2011)
 * Dasha Zhukova (since 2009)

Notable past trustees include:
 * Donald Bren (from 1986)
 * Brian Grazer (from 2009)
 * Bryan Lourd (from 2011)
 * Michael Lynton (since 2007)
 * Lynda Resnick (from 1992)
 * Barbra Streisand (2007–2014)

Notably, Tom Gores stepped down from his post as a board trustee in 2020, after advocacy groups Worth Rises and Color of Change had called for his removal over his investment in Securus Technologies.

title: Los Angeles County Museum of Art


text:
Worshipful Company of Masons

The Worshipful Company of Masons is one of the ancient Livery Companies of the City of London, number 30 in the order of precedence of the 111 companies. It was granted Arms in 1472, during the reign of King Edward IV; its motto is “God Is Our Guide”.

The Masons’ Company (not to be confused with the Freemasons), which emerged in the late Middle Ages, played an important role in medieval and early modern London. It regulated the craft of stonemasonry, for example by ensuring that standards and the training of apprentices were properly maintained, at first just in the City of London, but subsequently also in the City of Westminster and seven miles from each. It was also an important social organisation in the lives of its members. Like most Livery Companies, it maintains its social function, but the Company’s economic and administrative role has changed over time and it no longer oversees the craft in this traditional way, although it remains actively involved in supporting those training in stonemasonry and in promoting the use of natural stone. It remains one of the few Livery Companies today whose craft, particularly its tools, would be recognisable to its early members. Of all the ancient crafts used in Britain, masons have left the most impressive and most permanent evidence of their work. Members of the Company are known to have taken part in the construction of many of these famous structures, for example, the London Guildhall, and St Paul’s Cathedral.

History
Although a ‘mistery’ (i.e. craft) of masons may have existed beforehand, the elections to the Common Council in 1376 provide the first secure evidence for the existence of an organised guild of masons in London, and by 1389, if not earlier, there was a fraternity of masons in London too, so the roots of the company were embedded at that time and developed during the following century into the company we would recognise today. By 1463, the Masons’ Hall was established near the Guildhall; the sale of the Company’s Hall was agreed in 1865, and a plaque now marks the place where the Hall stood in Masons’ Avenue. In 1472, the Company was granted armorial bearings, and in 1481 they ratified a set of ordinances before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London. At the behest of King James I, in 1609-10 the City livery companies were required to form associations to provide funds for use in the Ulster Plantation. Although this venture passed into history a long time ago, over 400 years later the Masons Company maintains its friendly relationships with the Mercers’, Cooks’ and Broderers’ companies that formed the Association at the time. In June 1675, Thomas Strong, a liveryman and subsequently Court Assistant of the Masons’ Company, laid the foundation stone of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and thirty-three years later, in 1708, his brother Edward Strong, a Past Master of the Company, laid the last stone on the lanthorn of the Cathedral. In 1677, the Company was formally incorporated by Royal Charter.

Moving forward to the twentieth Century, to mark the 500th anniversary of the Grant of Arms, in 1972, there was a new exemplification of the coat of arms by the College of Arms. The Natural Stone Craft Awards were presented by HRH The Duke of Gloucester (a Liveryman of the Company) for the first time in 1986. In 1990, The Company formed an Association with the Corps of Royal Engineers. 2004 saw the re-siting and restoration of Temple Bar to Paternoster Square, having been originally built by Master Masons’ Edward and Joshua Marshall in 1673.

Membership
The Masons’ Company is currently limited to 250 Liverymen and 50 Freemen.

Yeoman Masons, a category of membership that was re-constituted in 2008, has no limit, but currently stands at over 60 members.

Current activities / fellowship and social activities
The two key annual events are the Master’s Banquet, often at Mansion House in March and the Livery Dinner with the Associated Companies in November. The Company’s wide social programme involves talks and visits to places of historical and architectural interest throughout the year, along with various fellowship events.

The Company’s support for the craft of stonemasonry continues with the Duke of Gloucester Awards for Excellence in the Craft of Stonemasonry, which take the form of a Certificate and cash prize.

Affiliations / organisations with which the Company has links
The Masons’ Company maintains direct contact with those involved in stonemasonry, training, the construction industry, and the City Civic. These include the Council of City and Guilds, the Cathedrals’ Workshop Fellowship, the Stone Federation of Great Britain, the Building Crafts College, the City and Guilds of London Art School, the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, the Weald and Downland Living Museum, the Incorporation of Masons of Glasgow, and the Construction Livery Group representing 18 livery companies. In common with many other livery companies, the military is also well supported, including HMS Portland, 36 (Engineer) Regiment, No.14 Squadron RAF, Royal Regiment of Scotland and 15 Company, South West London Army Cadet Force.

Charities
The Masons’ Company Charitable Trust and the Masons’ Company Craft Fund are the two independent charities which work in parallel with the Company.

The Craft Fund is primarily interested in fostering the craft of stonemasonry, focussing on those studying at a selection of recognised colleges across the country in addition to working with the Cathedrals’ Workshop Fellowship in the delivery of apprenticeships.

The Charitable Trust has a wider remit and provides funding for educational projects, donations to heritage and stone related projects and the City of London’s and Lord Mayor’s charitable projects.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Worshipful Company of Masons


text:
South London

South London is the southern part of London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the boroughs, in whole or in part, of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Richmond, Southwark, Sutton and Wandsworth.

South London originally emerged from Southwark, first recorded as Suthriganaweorc, meaning 'fort of the men of Surrey'. From Southwark, London then extended further down into northern Surrey and western Kent.

Emergence and growth
South London began at Southwark at the southern end of London Bridge, the first permanent crossing over the river, with early development of the area being a direct result of the existence and location of the bridge.

Southwark was first known as Suthriganaweorc , the fortress of the men of Surrey, mentioned in the Burghal Hidage as part of military system created by Alfred the Great to defeat the Great Heathen Army of the Vikings. Southwark was also known as the Borough due to be it being an incorporated (nationally represented) Borough from 1295. From 1550 to 1899 it was administered as part of the City of London and referred to as the ward of Bridge Without.

In 1720, John Strype's 'Survey of London' described Southwark as one of the then four distinct areas of London; in it he describes the City of London, Westminster (West London), Southwark (South London), and 'That Part Beyond the Tower' (East London). The area now usually referred to as North London developed later. As late as the mid 18th century, however, there were no other bridges crossing the river and as a result urban growth was considerably slower in the south than in areas north of the Thames.

The opening of Westminster Bridge and other subsequent bridges to the west encouraged growth in the south-west, but only Tower Bridge was built to the east of London Bridge, so south-east London grew more slowly, at least until the Surrey Commercial Docks were built.

The development of a dense network of railway lines in the mid nineteenth century significantly accelerated growth. The County of London was formed in 1899, which incorporated these boroughs south of the river: Wandsworth, Lambeth, Battersea, Camberwell, Southwark, Bermondsey, Deptford, Lewisham, Greenwich and Woolwich. During the first half of the 20th century, towns in the Home Counties such as Kingston, Croydon and Bromley gradually coalesced with South London, until Greater London was formed in 1965.

Transport
A significant feature of south London's economic geography is that while there are more than thirty bridges linking the area with West London and the City, there is only one, Tower Bridge, linking the area with East London.

Very little of London's underground rail network lies south of the river, largely due to the challenging geology; however, 21st-century technology makes tunnelling much cheaper (though stations are still expensive) and this may lead to an improved underground provision in south London with the Crossrail 2 line proposed alongside extensions to the Northern and Bakerloo Lines.

South London contains an extensive overground rail network and all of London's trams operate within the area.

List of boroughs
The 12 boroughs included, in whole or part are:

A small area of land, on which the southern end of Blackfriars Bridge stands, is not part of Southwark. It forms part of the City of London, a sui generis local authority which is mainly located north of the Thames.

Formal use
The term 'south London' has been used for a variety of formal purposes with the boundaries defined according to the purposes of the designation.

Constituency review, 2017
In 2017 the government asked the Boundary Commission for England to reconsider the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies. The commission's study, was to start with existing regions of England and then group the local authorities within that area into sub-regions for further sub-division. The south London sub-region included the 11 boroughs which lay south of the river, plus the parts of cross-river Richmond upon Thames that did so.

An earlier 2013 study, whose recommendations were not adopted, took a different approach by including all of Richmond in its south London sub-region.

Sub-region policy
For the purposes of progress reporting on the London Plan, there was a south London sub-region in operation from 2004 to 2008 consisting of Bromley, Croydon, Kingston, Merton, Richmond and Sutton. In 2001 this area had a population of 1,329,000. This definition is used by organisations such as Connexions.

Between 2008 and 2011 it was replaced with a South East sub-region consisting of Southwark, Lewisham, Greenwich, Bexley and Bromley and a South West sub-region consisting of Croydon, Kingston, Lambeth, Merton, Sutton, Richmond and Wandsworth.

In 2011 a new south London region was created consisting of Bromley, Croydon, the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, Richmond upon Thames, Merton, Sutton, Wandsworth, Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham.

Climate
South London is, like other parts of London and the UK in general, a temperate maritime climate according to the Köppen climate classification system. Three Met Office weather stations currently collect climate data south of the river; Kew, Hampton and Kenley Airfield, on the southern edge of the urban area. Long term climate observations dating back to 1763 are available for Greenwich, although observations ceased here in 2003.

Temperatures increase towards the Thames, firstly because of the urban warming effect of the surrounding area, but secondly due to altitude decreasing towards the river, meaning the southern margins of south London are often a couple of degrees cooler than those areas adjacent to the Thames. Often snow can be seen to lie on the North Downs near Croydon when central London is snow free.

The record high temperature at Greenwich is 37.5 C recorded during August 2003. Sunshine is notably lower than other London area weather stations (by about 50–100 hours a year), suggesting Greenwich may be a fog trap in winter, and that the hillier land to the south may obscure early morning and late evening sunshine.

The highest temperature recorded across south London was 38.1 C on the same occasion at Kew Gardens. Although the Met Office accepts a higher reading from Brogdale in Kent, many have questioned the accuracy of this and regard the Kew reading as the most reliable highest UK temperature reading.

Associated organisations

 * South London Gallery
 * South London Botanical Institute
 * South London Press
 * South London Radio
 * South London Storm
 * South London Theatre

title: South London


text:
Music of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Like the surrounding Balkan countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina has had a turbulent past marked by frequent foreign invasions and occupation. As a result, Bosnian music is now a mixture of Slavic, Turkish, Central European, Mediterranean, and other influences.

History
During its period as a part of Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina was covered in state-supported amateur musical ensembles called Cultural-Artistic Societies (Kulturno-Umjetnička Društva, KUDs) which played Bosnian root music and released a few recordings on local labels.

Original Bosnian music
Rural folk traditions in Bosnia and Herzegovina include the shouted, polyphonic ganga and "ravne pjesme" (flat song) styles, as well as instruments like a droneless bagpipe, wooden flute and šargija. The gusle, an instrument found throughout the Balkans, is also used to accompany ancient Slavic epic poems. There are also Bosnian folk songs in the Ladino language, derived from the area's Jewish population.

Bosnian roots music came from Middle Bosnia, Posavina, the Drina valley and Kalesija. It is usually performed by singers with two violinists and a šargija player. These bands first appeared around World War I and became popular in the 1960s. This is the third oldest music following after the sevdalinka and ilahija. Self-taught people, mostly in two or three members of the different choices of old instruments, mostly in the violin, sacking, saz, drums, flutes (zurle) or wooden flute, as others have already called, the original performers of Bosnian music that can not be written notes, transmitted by ear from generation to generation, family is usually hereditary. It is thought to be brought from Persia-Kalesi tribe that settled in the area of present Sprecanski valleys and hence probably the name Kalesija. In this part of Bosnia it is the most common. Again, it became the leader of First World War onwards, as well as 60 years in the field Sprecanski doline. This kind of music was enjoyed by all three peoples in Bosnia, Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs, and it contributed a lot to reconcile people socializing, entertainment and other organizations through festivala. In Kalesija it's maintained each year with the Bosnian Festival Original music.

Studio Kemix firm Dzemal Dzihanovic from Živinice together with his artists brought this kind of music to perfection at the end 20th century. With its entirely new form of modernity, it is most common in the Tuzla Canton and the cradle of this music city Živinice was named Bosnian town of original music. Songs are performed preferably in a diphthong, the first and second voice which is a special secret performance of this music and some performers sing in troglasju as they do Kalesijski triple that was recorded in 1968, as the first written record of the tone on the album, along with Higurashi no naku.

Sevdalinka
Probably the most distinctive and identifiably Bosnian of music,    Sevdalinka is a kind of emotional, melancholic folk song that often describes sad subjects such as love and loss, the death of a dear person or heartbreak. Sevdalinkas were traditionally performed with a saz, a Turkish string instrument, which was later replaced by the accordion. However the more modern arrangement, to the derision of some purists, is typically a vocalist accompanied by the accordion along with snare drums, upright bass, guitars, clarinets and violins. Sevdalinkas are unique to Bosnia and Herzegovina. They arose in Ottoman Bosnia as urban Bosnian music with often oriental and sometimes Sefardi influences. Examples are "Kad ja pođoh na Benbašu", the unofficial anthem of the city of Sarajevo, and "Kraj Tanana Sadrvana". Though not as common as it once was, traditional Sevdalinka singers like Kadir Kurtagić, Emina Ahmedhodžić, Hašim Muharemović and Muhamed Mešanović-Hamić are still popular to the extent that their recordings are available.

More modern performers Beba Selimović, Zehra Deović, Silvana Armenulić, Safet Isović, Himzo Polovina, Zaim Imamović and Hanka Paldum have used non-native instruments, including the accordion, clarinet, violin and guitar.

Ilahije i Kaside (Religious Songs)
Ilahije (Anasheed) are religious songs that came after or before sevdalinkas. These songs usually deal with religion, but some of them tell tales of how two lovers (male and female) come together.

Modern folk
"Modern" folk was referred to as "novokomponovana narodna muzika" ("newly composed folk music") for a while, although the term went out of use in favor of simply "narodna" or "folk". It is based on various influences, sevdah stories with music of Serbia and/or Turkey often with incorporated elements of pop music. During the time of Yugoslavia, the genre developed jointly in Bosnia and Serbia, and performers from both sides of today's borders still enjoy certain popularity on the other side.

 * Halid Bešlić
 * Šerif Konjević
 * Amir Rešić Nino
 * Enes Begović
 * Halid Muslimović
 * Haris Džinović
 * Kemal Malovčić
 * Šemsa Suljaković

Classical music
Bosnian composers of European classical music include Nihad Hrustanbegovic, Dino Zonić, Mirsad (Giga) Jelešković, Ališer Sijarić, Igor Karača, Dino Rešidbegović, Hanan Hadžajlić, Anđelka Bego-Šimunić, etc.

Film music
Bosnian composers of film scores include Saša Lošić and Nihad Hrustanbegovic

Pop and rock
Rock music has been very popular in Bosnia and Herzegovina since the mid-20th century. Popular and influential rock bands and artists have included Indexi, Bijelo dugme, Divlje jagode, Plavi orkestar, Crvena jabuka, Zabranjeno pušenje, Hari Mata Hari ,(Rezonansa), (Cod) and others from the Sarajevo school of pop rock

 * Vukašin Brajić
 * Alen Islamović
 * Laka
 * Letu štuke
 * Dino Merlin
 * Teška Industrija
 * Regina
 * Skroz
 * Samir Mujagić-SMS
 * Mugdim Avdić-Henda
 * Knockout
 * Rizzo Ruža
 * Sopot (dub)
 * Igor Žerajić
 * Zoster (Jazz / Reggae / Rock)

 * Rezonansa
 * Brano Likic
 * Baglama Band

Metal and hardcore
Heavy metal music is fairly underground within the musical scene in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In the mid '80s, two metal bands were formed in capital Sarajevo: Bombarder and Parasite from which D.throne emerged as next generation in 1991. One of the pioneer thrash metal bands Monolit was founded in Mostar also during the '80s. Modern extreme metal scene originate from city of Tuzla.

Some notable acts include:
 * Acronian
 * Aesthetic Empathy
 * After Oblivion
 * Aggressor
 * Agonize
 * Aiqëhahirit
 * Anemija
 * Arjen
 * Bestias
 * Bombarder
 * Cadaver
 * Cave Ritual
 * Contusio
 * Corbansick
 * Cacafuego
 * D.Throne
 * Deathcircle
 * Divlje Jagode
 * Doberman
 * Festival of Mutilation
 * Flatline
 * Forensic Clinic
 * Gnu
 * Hetrem
 * Hobson Choice
 * Kaos
 * Kontra
 * Korov
 * Krov
 * Krv
 * Kursk
 * Maichinery
 * Mavet
 * Mephistos
 * Monolit
 * Mortipher
 * Motherpig
 * My Last Suicide
 * Nigrum Ignis Circuli
 * Niteris
 * Odar
 * Ofsajd
 * Parasite
 * Parricide
 * Sadismo
 * Silent Kingdom
 * Tanker
 * Terra Slaves
 * Tmärrdhë
 * Toxicdeath
 * Vetëvrakh

Electronic music
Bosnian electronic/dance music has also been very popular in Bosnia and Herzegovina since the mid-20th century. Popular producers and artists include Adi Lukovac (Adi Lukovac & The Ornaments), Mirza (Mizi) Čaušević (mentalEscape), Dr Mladen Milicevic, Dr. Igor Karača, Dr. Dino Rešidbegović, Dr. Hanan Hadžajlić, Axa, Basheskia, Meldeen (trance metal), Vuneny, Velahavle, Billain, Fa11out and dZihan & Kamien. Such producers and artists are responsible for various styles of electronic music such as drum and bass/neurofunk, trance music, breakbeat and industrial.

New generation of electronic music producers in Bosnia includes names such as Arnej, Siniša Tamamović, Mladen Tomić, Mr Inessential, DJ Mika, Narcis Jr. aka Monophonic/Mashala, Cycle Six, Chipi, Nadix, LudDogg, Demia E.Clash and many more.

 * Adi Lukovac & The Ornaments
 * AXA
 * Basheskia
 * Billain
 * dZihan & Kamien
 * Fa11out
 * Meldeen
 * S.SC
 * Velahavle
 * Vuneny

Hip hop
Hip hop music is new to Bosnia and Herzegovina, but became very popular throughout the urban public with the famous rapper Edo Maajka, who is the most popular rapper in Bosnia-Herzegovina and most famous throughout the rest of the former Yugoslavia.

 * Bosnian Music Awards
 * Buba Corelli
 * Capital City Crew
 * Disciplinska Komisija
 * Edo Maajka
 * Franco Balkan
 * Frenkie
 * Grasschanica records
 * HZA
 * Jala Brat
 * Kontra
 * Los Sin
 * Mayer
 * Neymar
 * Priki aka Preview
 * Sajfer
 * Santos
 * Smayla
 * Makk

World music
Lately, Bosnian world music scene (mostly Balkan influenced music) is growing bigger. Some of the bands are:
 * Mostar Sevdah Reunion
 * Damir Imamović
 * Divanhana
 * Dubioza kolektiv
 * Haris Abdagich & BalkanEros
 * Nihad Hrustanbegovic

title: Music of Bosnia and Herzegovina


text:
Music of Belgium

The music of Belgium is a cultural mix where Flemish Dutch-speaking and Walloon French-speaking traditions mix with those of German minorities and of immigrant communities from Democratic Republic of the Congo or other distant countries.

Early and classical music

Many of the major 15th- and 16th-century composers of the Franco-Flemish School—a current of vocal polyphony that played a central role in European art music of the time—were born and bred in the portion of the Low Countries that is situated in present-day Belgium, often in Hainaut. The late medieval composer and music theorist Johannes Ciconia (c. 1370–1412) had been born in Liège, but like many later Flemish polyphonists he spent much of his life working in Renaissance Italy. While it remains unclear why Flemish and other Netherlandish musicians exerted such a strong influence on Renaissance music throughout Europe (with a particularly strong axis developing between Liège and Rome), one possibility is the emphasis that was placed locally on music theory. Guillaume Dufay (c. 1397–1474), who was born near Brussels (he moved as a child to Cambrai, and also worked in Italy), was a key figure of the early 15th-century Burgundian School, and he was considered by his contemporaries to be the leading composer of the age. Another influential figure was Gilles Binchois (c. 1400–1460): probably born in Mons (or nearby Binche) he moved to Lille, the largest city of what is now French Flanders, and unlike many of his contemporaries, he maintained professional connections with the Burgundian court throughout his life. Johannes Ockeghem (c. 1410–1497) is also considered one of the leading composers of the 15th century; a native of Hainaut, he spent most of his career working for the French court.

The migration and influence of Netherlandish composers reached its height roughly between 1480 and 1520, in a period when talented musicians from Low Countries were recruited in courts and cathedrals across the continent, effectively providing the music school of Europe. The music of Josquin des Prez (c. 1450–1521) was considered an aesthetic model for much of the 16th-century High Renaissance; although referred to in his lifetime as a Frenchman (he worked in both France and Italy) he was probably born in Hainaut. Other influential composers of the period whose origins can be traces to the Belgian area of the Low Countries include Jacob Obrecht (c. 1457–1505), Pierre de La Rue (c. 1452–1518), Alexander Agricola (c. 1445–1506), and Gaspar van Weerbeke (c. 1445–c. 1516). Although the emigration of musicians from the Low Countries continued into the second half of the 16th century, the hegemony of Netherlandish influence was on the wane. One of the last truly influential figures of the era was Orlande de Lassus (c. 1532–1594). Another native of Mons, Lassus became one of the most versatile composers of the century, and (according to his entry in Grove) "the best-known and most widely admired musician in Europe."

André Ernest Modeste Grétry was the most famous composer - born in what is now called Belgium - of the 18th century. The 19th century supplied composers like Henri Vieuxtemps, César Franck, Guillaume Lekeu and Eugène Ysaÿe. At the end of the 20th century the most notable Belgian composers were Piet Swerts and Wim Mertens. One of Belgium's most prized people is Adolphe Sax. Adolphe Sax was born in Belgium and created what people know as the saxophone.

In the field of opera, baritones Jules Bastin and José van Dam have become the most famous and internationally successful Belgian opera singers. In the lighter classical genre, Flemish singer Helmut Lotti reached international success with his interpretations of popular opera songs for large audiences.

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Belgian artists like Wieland Kuijken and Marcel Ponseele contributed to the Historically informed performance of baroque music, with their ensembles La Petite Bande and il Gardellino.

Jazz and blues
One of the most famous jazz instruments, the saxophone, was invented by a Belgian: Adolphe Sax.

Some known Belgian blues artists are Elmore D (who sings in English and Walloon dialect), and the Flemish Roland van Campenhout (also known as Roland).

In the 1930s, the Belgian romani guitarist Django Reinhardt became one of the first important jazz musicians to be born in Europe, and one of the most important jazz guitarists of all time. In 1949 Toots Thielemans joined a jam session in Paris with Sidney Bechet, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Max Roach and others. He moved to the US in 1952 where he was a member of Charlie Parker's All-Stars. Toots Thielemans is often credited by jazz aficionados and jazz critics to be the greatest jazz harmonica player of the century. His music has been used in films like Midnight Cowboy and Turkish delight, and television series such as Sesame Street and Baantjer. Other well known Belgian artists are Aka Moon, Bobby Jaspar, Bert Joris, Philip Catherine, Steve Houben, Octurn and René Thomas, and the first quartertone jazzpianist Seppe Gebruers (b. 1990). He is well known for his experimental approach and exploring microtonality in jazz. In his project 'Playing with standards' he plays with two grandpianos tuned a quartertone apart, and with the well known jazzstandards.

Folk and other traditional music
Bobbejaan Schoepen has been a pioneer in Belgian vaudeville and pop music since the late 1940s. Not only was he the first Belgian singer to manage an international breakthrough, he was also the first to use modern equipment, a personal tourbus and a system of artist sponsoring. He also introduced the first country & western recordings in the Low Countries and Germany. In the 1950s Bobbejaan Schoepen recorded his own absolutely crazy folk music often singing in Flemish dialect. He was also a virtuoso whistler.

From the late 1960s, Flanders saw a vivid revival of traditional music (and, to a lesser degree, of traditional dances) through the efforts of musicians like Wannes Van de Velde, Willem Vermandere, Walter De Buck, Hubert Boone, Herman De Wit and many more. They inspired a new generation of folk musicians through their written and recorded publications, and through festivals and regular summer academies and master classes.

Walloon folk music has not had as vibrant a revival as Flemish, but artists like Coïncidence, Remy Dubois, Luc Pilartz, Rue du Village and Claude Flagel have kept the folk traditions alive.

Contrary to general evolution, there has always been great openness across the so-called linguistical barriers - there are many collaborations between Belgian musicians of different language.

Chanson
The greatest Belgian chansonnier was Jacques Brel, whose classic songs have been covered by several international artists such as David Bowie, Frank Sinatra, Scott Walker and Terry Jacks. Despite his mainly French-language oeuvre, Salvatore Adamo achieved worldwide success from the 1960s onwards. Others like Pierre Rapsat, Arno, Maurane, Axelle Red and Lara Fabian have also enjoyed some success in other French-speaking countries.

The French chanson style also inspired some Dutch-speaking singers like Kor Van der Goten and Jan De Wilde.

Dialect singing
With the 1960s folk revival came a new interest into dialect singing. Pioneer Wannes Van de Velde soon got a following, mostly in the folk and traditional styles, but eventually extending into the comedy rock of The Clement Peerens Explosition and the hip-hop of Flip Kowlier. Others, while mostly performing in standard Dutch, will include an occasional phrase or even a complete song in dialect (ex. Johan Verminnen, Rue des Bouchers and Raymond van het Groenewoud, Je veux de l'amour).

Pop and rock
During 1950 through 1960 and following decades the most popular, enduring, commercial and critical successful Flemish singer was Will Tura, whose most well known hit in Flanders is "Eenzaam zonder jou" (1963) ("Lonely without you").

The most popular and enduring artists in Flanders and the Netherlands who sing in either their Flemish dialect or standard Dutch are Eddy Wally, Raymond van het Groenewoud, Willem Vermandere, De Kreuners, Clouseau, Gorki (band), Noordkaap, and De Mens.

In 1959 the Belgian singer of Italian descent Rocco Granata scored a big European hit with "Marina". The singing nun Soeur Sourire had an international number one hit in 1963 with Dominique. She won a Grammy Award for best gospel recording in 1964 for the song, and was nominated for several other categories, including Album of the Year. When folk and hippie culture finally hit a chord around the world the groups The Pebbles ("Seven Horses in the Sky", "I Get Around") and The Wallace Collection ("Daydream") had considerable international success. Irish Coffee, a hard rock band from Aalst also achieved considerable local success in the same era. Due to a lack of really professional management these few pop groups failed to build out a durable international career, a trend which continued during the 1970s when the most successful artists sang in their native tongue. The only real new international successful artist was Plastic Bertrand. (See "Punk" below).

Real international success for Belgian acts began in 1980 with the rock group TC Matic. They were quite popular in the rest of Europe with numbers like "Oh La La La" and "Putain putain". Lead singer Arno later started his own successful solo career. Many groups and artists had considerable success in other countries, but they usually did not reach out much further than West Europe. Notable exceptions were Maurane, Jo Lemaire, Soulsister ("The Way To Your Heart", 1987) and Vaya Con Dios ("Puerto Rico", 1988, "What's a Woman?", 1990).

Indie rock
In the early 1990s many alternative rock bands finally started to achieve larger international acclaim and success. In Antwerp, a lively indie rock scene sprouts where dEUS is probably the most famous, next to other people and groups like Zita Swoon (formerly Moondog Jr), Evil Superstars, Kiss My Jazz, Dead Man Ray, K's Choice ("Not an Addict"), Admiral Freebee, and Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung. In the noise genre Antwerp houses the pioneer band Club Moral. Ghent also has a booming indie scene: Absynthe Minded, Das Pop, Millionaire, Zornik, Awaken and the successful Soulwax bring indie rock with a slightly rougher edge than their Antwerp fellows, while The Vogues (Brussels) have a British-influenced sound. Other popular artists are Triggerfinger, Gabriel Ríos and Ghinzu.

Punk
The most well-known Belgian punk bands are Chainsaw, The Kids ("Fascist Cops", "There will be no Next Time"), Janez Detd, Funeral Dress and Plastic Bertrand who had a worldwide hit with "Ça Plane Pour Moi" (1978). Lou Deprijck, the song's co-writer and producer, later also turned out to be the actual singer of the song. He previously already had international fame with his band Two Man Sound ("Charlie Brown", "Disco Samba").

West Flanders was home to the "H8000" (pronounced "Hate-Thousand") underground hardcore punk scene during the 1990s. Bands within the scene took heavily from heavy metal, and followed straight edge and vegan lifestyles. Some bands helped to pioneer the development of metalcore and then later on melodic metalcore and deathcore. Some groups from the scene include Congress, Liar, Blindfold, Shortsight, Regression and Spirit of Youth. Good Life Recordings signed and released much of the music for the scene.

Metal
The most well-known Belgian metal bands include death metallers Aborted, Ostrogoth, Killer, Emeth, Fractured Insanity, Warbeast Remains and Serial Butcher, grindcore quartet Leng Tch'e, Agathocles, black metal bands Enthroned, Saille and Ancient Rites, folk metal band Ithilien, heavy metal band Channel Zero and melodic black/doom metal band Amenra.

Hip-hop
Belgium's hip hop scene is partly rooted in the immigrant communities from Africa and Italy. Belgium, like neighbouring France, controlled African countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), Rwanda, and Burundi until the early 1960s. Like in France, immigrants from these countries started to study and live in Belgium.

Today, the Belgian hip hop scene is growing. Rappers like Coely, Roméo Elvis, Stromae and Damso are achieving commercial success in their country and abroad. Other contemporary rappers/formations are Stikstof, Woodie Smalls, L'Or Du Commun and Isha.

Hooverphonic is a famous Belgian trip hop band, which scored hits with "Eden" and "Mad About You".

Electronic music
The earliest Belgian electronica act was Telex ("Moskow Diskow", "Euro-Vision"). Frontman Marc Moulin was later moved on to pursue a solo career.

At the end of the 1980s Belgium started to play a very important role in the development of Techno music. The group Technotronic had a massive international hit with "Pump Up The Jam". A new genre, new beat was created and scored international hits with acts like The Confettis ("The Sound of C.", 1988). Bands like Front 242, Snowy Red, Public Relation and A Split-Second played a part in making the music genre EBM popular.

In the 1990s, acts like the partially Dutch-Belgian 2 Unlimited ("No Limit") and the Flemish Lords of Acid and Praga Khan, were internationally successful. Other internationally renowned Belgian dance acts are 2 Many Dj's (a spin-off from the group Soulwax), The Glimmers (formerly Mo & Benoelie), Junior Jack & Kid Creme, Sylver, Milk Inc., Kate Ryan, Lasgo, Ian Van Dahl, and Vive La Fête. The 2000s saw a proliferation of experimental electronic Belgian artists. Acts like Köhn, Ovil Bianca & Tuk got international acclaim and pioneered in the area of experimental electronic music in Belgium around the turn of the century. Jan Robbe, Kaebin Yield and Sedarka are key innovators of the "flashcore" sound, and others including Sickboy of the Belgian Breakcore Gives Me Wood collective were crucial in the development of breakcore and Mashup. Nowadays, singer Stromae has been a musical revelation in Europe and beyond, having great success. In 2015 Lost Frequencies had an international hit with his reworked version of Are You with Me, a song originally by Easton Corbin. Lately Angèle has also arisen to the international stage.

African music
Since the early 1980s, African musicians have played an important part on the Belgian scene, especially those from the former Belgian colony of Congo. Congolese-Belgian Princesse Mansia M'Bila, Rwandan-Belgian Cécile Kayirebwa and Dieudonné Kabongo led this wave that soon incorporated Argentine tango music, Moroccan oud and other music from around the world. The 1990s saw the emergence of Zap Mama, a group of Congolese-Belgian women who played a fusion of Pygmy and other African music with European influences.

title: Music of Belgium


text:
Worshipful Company of Plumbers

The Worshipful Company of Plumbers is one of the livery companies of the City of London. The organisation received the right to regulate medieval plumbers, who were, among other things, responsible for fashioning cisterns, in 1365. It was incorporated under a royal charter in 1611. Today, the company is no longer a trade association, instead existing as a charitable institution. (The company retains a link to plumbing by awarding medals and prizes in the general building industry.)

The Plumbers' Company ranks thirty-first in the order of precedence of Livery Companies. Its mottoes are Justicia Et Pax, Latin for Justice and Peace, and In God Is All Our Hope.

Court members have included Fiona Woolf and Paul Flatt.

title: Worshipful Company of Plumbers


text:
New Cross

New Cross is an area in south-east London, England, 4.5 mi south-east of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Lewisham and the SE14 postcode district. New Cross is near St Johns, Telegraph Hill, Nunhead, Peckham, Brockley, Deptford and Greenwich, and home to Goldsmiths, University of London, Haberdashers' Hatcham College and Addey and Stanhope School.

New Cross Gate, on the west of New Cross, is named after the New Cross tollgate, established in 1718 by the New Cross Turnpike Trust. It is the location of New Cross station and New Cross Gate station. New Cross Gate corresponds to the manor and district formerly known as Hatcham.

History
The area was originally known as Hatcham (the name persists in the title of the Anglican parishes of St. James, Hatcham along with its school, and All Saints, Hatcham Park). The earliest reference to Hatcham is the Domesday Book of 1086 as Hacheham. It was held by the Bishop of Lisieux from the Bishop of Bayeux. According to the entry in the Domesday Book Hatcham's assets were: 3 hides; 3 ploughs, 6 acre of meadow, woodland worth 3 hog and rendered £2.

Hatcham tithes were paid to Bermondsey Abbey from 1173 until the dissolution of the monasteries. A series of individuals then held land locally before the manor was bought in the 17th century by the Haberdashers' Company, a wealthy livery company that was instrumental in the area's development in the 19th century. Telegraph Hill was for many years covered by market gardens also owned by the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers. Until the creation of the London County Council in 1889, the area was a part of the counties of Kent and Surrey.

New Cross is believed to have taken its name from a coaching house originally known as the Golden Cross, which stood close to the current New Cross House pub. The diarist John Evelyn, who lived in Deptford, wrote in 1675 that he met a friend at 'New Crosse' in his coach before travelling down through Kent and on to France.

In the later 19th century, the area became known as the New Cross Tangle on account of its numerous railway lines, workshops and two stations — both originally called New Cross (one was later renamed New Cross Gate).

Hatcham Iron Works in Pomeroy Street was an important steam locomotive factory, the scene of a bitter confrontation in 1865 between its manager, George England, and the workers. The Strike Committee met at the Crown and Anchor pub in New Cross Road, now the site of Hong Kong City Chinese restaurant. George England's house, Hatcham Lodge, is now 56 Kender Street.

New Cross bus garage was formerly the largest tram depot in London, opening in 1906. During the 1926 General Strike in support of the miners, strikebreakers were brought in to drive trams from the depot. On 7 May, police baton charges were launched to clear a crowd of 2–3,000 pickets blockading the entrance (reported as "Rowdyism in New Cross" by the Kentish Mercury).

The last London tram, in July 1952, ran from Woolwich to New Cross. It was driven through enormous crowds, finally arriving at its destination in the early hours of 6 July.

On 25 November 1944 a V-2 rocket exploded at the Woolworths store in New Cross Road (on the site later occupied by an Iceland supermarket), 168 people were killed, and 121 were seriously injured. It was London's most devastating V-bombing of the entire war. On 25 November 2009 a new commemorative plaque was unveiled on the site by the Mayor of Lewisham, marking the 65th anniversary of the explosion.

On 13 August 1977, the area saw the so-called Battle of Lewisham, during which the far-right British National Front were beaten back by militant anti-fascists and local people.

On 18 January 1981, 13 young black people were killed in a house fire at a party. Unfounded suspicions that the fire was caused by a racist attack, and claimed official indifference to the deaths, led to the largest ever political mobilisation of black people seen in the UK.

29 June 2008, two university students from France were stabbed to death in a house.

Music
During the 1980s, the Goldsmiths Tavern hosted alternative cabaret nights, organised by Nikky Smedley. Playing host to fledgling acts including The Cholmondeleys, Julian Clary and Vic Reeves. Goldsmiths' Students' Union also had a reputation for putting on established and up and coming bands of the era including The B-52's, The Pogues, The Monochrome Set, Simply Red, Wet Wet Wet and Wild Willy Barrett..

In the 1990s New Cross club, The Venue was central to the Indie Rock and Brit Pop scenes and played host to gigs by many of their finest purveyors including Oasis, Radiohead, Pulp, Squeeze, Suede, Levellers, Cast, Shed Seven, Sleeper, Cornershop, Bluetones, PJ Harvey, Catherine Wheel, Belly, Ocean Colour Scene, Lush, Chumbawamba, Ash, Mudhoney, and Hole. Urban music magazine, Touch, and The Platform Magazine, an Islamic Hip-Hop journal are based in New Cross.

New Cross was noted as the birthplace of New Rave, and is fast gaining ground with London's fashion and music journalists, some even coming to regard it as South London's answer to Shoreditch in the wake of its commercialisation. The New Rave scene began with a tightly connected movement of artists, DJs, bands and squatters called !WOWOW! who have staged parties since 2003 in New Cross. New Rave champions Klaxons spent their formative years in New Cross and released their début single, Gravity's Rainbow, in April 2006 on Angular Recording Corporation, a label set up by two ex-Goldsmiths students. The area supports a fledgling student opera company, Opera Gold, run by Goldsmiths, University of London.

Sport
Millwall Football Club, founded by mainly Scottish workers at J.T. Morton, a cannery and food processing plant in Millwall on the Isle of Dogs in 1885, was based at The Den in Cold Blow Lane from 1910 to 1993. The ground attracted crowds of more than 45,000 at its peak, but by the 1980s was notorious for the club's repeated incidents of football hooliganism. Millwall moved a short distance to a new stadium, The New Den, situated off Ilderton Road and just within Bermondsey, at the start of the 1993–94 season. The club remains within the New Cross electoral ward.

Speedway racing was staged at the New Cross Speedway and Greyhound Stadium, situated at the end of Hornshay Street, off Ilderton Road. The venue became home to the New Cross Rangers in 1934 when the Crystal Palace promotion moved en bloc. The track, reputed to be one of the shortest and known as "The Frying Pan Bowl", operated until 1939 and re-opened in 1946 running until the early 1950s. The track re-opened for a short spell 1959 - 1961 and closed its doors to the sport for the last time mid season 1963. The stadium was also the scene of the UK's first stock car race at Easter 1954, with 26,000 in the crowd and thousands more locked outside. The stadium site is now an open space, Bridge House Meadows. The 1949 speedway film Once a Jolly Swagman, starring Dirk Bogarde, was filmed at New Cross.

Dance
For many years New Cross was home to the Laban Centre, now Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance which was based at Laurie Grove producing choreographers such as Matthew Bourne and Lea Anderson. In 2002 Laban moved to new studios in Deptford. However, it still uses its New Cross campus, where studios have since been refurbished.

Literature
Its library, New Cross Learning, which was formerly known as the New Cross People's Library, was saved from permanent closure after government cuts. A series of protests in 2011, namely from the ‘Save New Cross Library Campaign’ and the subsequent media coverage, garnered enough support to see it re-open in 2013 as a community led library. It now offers learning activities and workshops, and has a lending catalogue of over 5,000 books.

Demography
The New Cross ward of Lewisham has the lowest female life expectancy of all the wards of Greater London: 77.6 years. For males the rate was 74.3 years, tied with Camberwell Green in Southwark and only higher than Selhurst ward in Croydon.

Buildings

The proximity of New Cross to Deptford and Greenwich, both of which have strong maritime connections, led to the establishment of the Royal Naval School in New Cross in 1843 (designed by architect John Shaw Jr, 1803–1870) to house "the sons of impecunious naval officers". The school relocated further south-east to Mottingham in 1889, and the former school building was bought by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, who opened the Goldsmiths’ Company's Technical and Recreative Institute in 1891. This was in turn handed over to the University of London in 1904 and is now Goldsmiths, University of London.

The former Deptford Town Hall building in New Cross Road, now also used by Goldsmiths, was built in the Edwardian Baroque style by Lanchester and Rickards, 1903–5. Nautical references include carvings of Tritons, statues of admirals and a sailing ship weathervane on the clock turret.

New Cross Fire Station is a Grade II listed building at 266 Queens Road, built in 1893–94 to a design by the architect Robert Pearsall.

The Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses was once the South East London Synagogue. It was established in 1888 by Ashkenazi Jews who had emigrated to Britain from Eastern Europe. It was refused membership of the United Synagogue, but was admitted to the Federation of Synagogues. Immanuel Jakobovits was the rabbi just after the Second World War. The synagogue's first premises was a house at 452 New Cross Road. The first purpose-built synagogue was consecrated in March 1905 and was destroyed by a German air raid on 27 December 1940. After this the congregation moved temporarily to 117 Lewisham Way, returning to its original site at New Cross Road in 1946 – first to a temporary hut and then to a new purpose-built synagogue in 1956. During the period from 1945 to 1947 Immanuel Jakobovits, who later became the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, and was created a life peer in 1988, as Baron Jakobovits, was the rabbi. However, the congregation went into decline and the synagogue closed in 1985, by which time it only had 56 male members compared with 294 in 1939.

The Venue nightclub in New Cross Road has a long history as a place of entertainment. It opened as the New Cross Super Kinema in 1925, with a cinema on the ground floor and the New Cross Palais de Danse above, as well as a cafe. The name was shortened to New Cross Kinema from 1927, the plain Kinema in 1948, and finally Gaumont in 1950. It closed in August 1960, and remained derelict for some time. Part of the building was demolished before the old dancehall became The Harp Club and then The Venue in the late 1980s. The Venue nightclub has since renamed itself 'One For The Road' and following the Covid-19 outbreak functions less as a nightclub and more as a bar.

Also, the Duke of Albany public house (converted to flats in 2008) was the facade for The Winchester pub in the film Shaun of the Dead.

Rail
The area is served by two railway stations, New Cross and New Cross Gate.

Both stations are served by London Overground. From New Cross Gate passengers can travel to Crystal Palace and West Croydon to the south and Highbury & Islington to the north. New Cross acts as the terminus for the service from Dalston Junction. Trains sometimes continue to Highbury & Islington but this is more common during engineering works. Passengers can easily make a brief interchange at Dalston Junction for trains to Highbury and Islington

New Cross also has mainline suburban services operated by Southeastern. Trains generally run north to Cannon Street or Charing Cross to the north and south-east to Lewisham, Bexleyheath, Hayes and Dartford in Kent.

New Cross Gate has mainline suburban services operated by Southern. Trains here generally run north to London Bridge and south to London Victoria, East Croydon, Gatwick Airport Surrey and Sussex.

Roads
Three major roads meet in New Cross: the A202 (Queen's Road) which runs from New Cross to Victoria, the A2 (New Cross Road) which runs from London to Canterbury and Dover, and the A20 (Lewisham Way) which runs from New Cross to Folkestone and Dover.

Music connections

 * Bands such as Art Brut, Bloc Party, Blur, The Rocks, The Hancocks, Luxembourg, Indigo Moss and Athlete have all originated and been associated with the "New Cross scene".
 * British hip-hop producer JFlames grew up in Woodpecker estate and attended Deptford Green school.
 * British hip-hop artist Blade did most of his recording in the area, selling his records personally on the streets there and often name checking it in his songs.
 * 1970s glam rocker Steve Harley grew up in Fairlawn Mansions, New Cross, going to Edmund Waller and Haberdashers' Aske's schools.
 * Music hall star Marie Lloyd lived in Lewisham Way from 1887 to 1893.
 * Nathan Cooper and Chi-Tudor Hart, out of the electro group Matinée Club grew up in New Cross.
 * RnB group Damage. Two members of the group attended St James Hatcham C of E Primary School situated on St James in New Cross Gate.
 * The folk noir band Songdog lived in New Cross for a year or so after first moving to London from Wales. The transition period was difficult for the band members as they suffered from acute homesickness and for a time had rats, no hot water and no money, but frontman Lyndon Morgans says they took heart from the motto "Take Courage" (Courage being a brewery), which was emblazoned across the front of the Amersham Arms, a pub overlooking New Cross Station.
 * Dire Straits lived in Deptford and performed some of their earliest gigs in New Cross pubs.
 * Jools Holland performed and practised in pubs in New Cross at the beginning of his career.
 * The Band of Holy Joy was formed in New Cross in 1984.
 * British dance-pop artist Jessie Ware resides in New Cross with her husband and three children.
 * P Money, (b. 1989), British rapper, MC, and songwriter.

Other local links

 * Poet Robert Browning lived in Telegraph Cottage near New Cross Road during the 1840s

 * Trade unionist, Eddie Dempsey, born and raised in New Cross
 * Playwright and author Terence Frisby of the 1960s play and movie There's a Girl in My Soup was born in New Cross in 1932 but spent the majority of his childhood in Welling.
 * Politician Sir Isaac Hayward, leader of the London County Council, represented the Deptford division
 * Harry Mullan, boxing writer, lived in New Cross from the late 1960s to 1990s.
 * Wrestler Mick McManus was born in New Cross.
 * Actress Laila Morse (Gary Oldman's sister) who plays "Mo Harris" in EastEnders lives in New Cross.
 * Actor Gary Oldman was born and raised in New Cross, attending Monson Primary School. His film Nil By Mouth is loosely based on his life growing up in south-east London and was largely filmed in the area.
 * Footballer Kieran Richardson, former player for Fulham FC, spent some of his childhood in New Cross Gate
 * Fr. Arthur Tooth SSC, an Anglican priest, was the Vicar of St. James', Hatcham in the 1870s and, whilst he was there, was prosecuted for ritualist practices — an event that became nationally famous at the time.
 * Sir Barnes Wallis lived at 241 New Cross Road (on the corner of Nettleton Road) from 1892 to 1909.
 * Artist Edward Henry Windred (1875-1953) lived at 352 New Cross Road during the 1930s
 * Steve Wright (radio presenter)
 * Former Goldsmiths students include Graham Sutherland, John Cale, Mary Quant, Malcolm McLaren, Damien Hirst, Sam Taylor-Wood, Lucian Freud, Antony Gormley, Julian Opie, Hisham Matar, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Neil Innes, Brian Molko, Alex James, and Graham Coxon.
 * Princess Beatrice of York attended Goldsmiths, University of London as a B.A. (History) student, although she did not actually reside in New Cross.

Places nearby

 * Bermondsey
 * Blackheath
 * Brockley
 * Deptford
 * Greenwich
 * Lewisham
 * Rotherhithe
 * Southwark
 * Nunhead
 * Peckham
 * Telegraph Hill (Part of New Cross)
 * Crofton Park

In song

 * Carter USM wrote a song called "The Only Living Boy in New Cross" (1992). The song lists the diverse youth tribes that bought their records whilst the title is a play on a Simon & Garfunkel song "The Only Living Boy in New York".
 * The tragic New Cross fire was commemorated in a number of reggae songs and poems at the time, including Johnny Osbourne's "13 dead and nothing said", Benjamin Zephaniah’s "13 dead", UB40's "Don't Let It Pass You By" and Linton Kwesi Johnson's "New Crass Massakkah".

title: New Cross