Based in Pasadena, California, West of Rome Public Art (WoR) is
incorporated as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) arts organization. WoR serves as a
conduit of cultural activity, dedicated to the realization of artists’ projects,
exhibitions, and public interventions that encourage dialogue and
community interaction primarily within the Los Angeles region.
Functioning without a permanent exhibition space, WoR is not anchored to
any specific location and is therefore free to explore a diversity of urban
spaces for its projects. Each show, installation or event takes place in a
uniquely chosen site, sometimes off the beaten track, sometimes in the
middle of a high traffic street. These unorthodox exhibition sites are
dictated by circumstance, time and the nature of each project, and for a
designated period of time, become places of discovery for both the casual
passer-by and the attentive art visitor.
Los Angeles is a particularly challenging location for such an undertaking,
as it is a city that continually reinvents itself, with ever-changing
geographies and cultural needs. With the ability to be flexible and open-
minded, WoR provides both established and emerging artists the unique
opportunity to develop and realize ambitious ideas for which a more
conventional setting might be prohibitive.
The scale, nontraditional location, and ongoing commitment of WoR to
each individual project underscore the dynamic, continually evolving spirit
of West of Rome Public Art. WoR is, furthermore, open to collaboration
with more established institutions and community organizations to bring
works by artists into a broader public context, while building larger
audiences for the art of our time.
The WoR board members are:
Lonnie Blanchard
DIRECTOR - Lonnie C. Blanchard III is the principal of The Blanchard Law Group, with three decades of litigation and transaction experience. His knowledge goes beyond private legal practice with significant hands-on business experience as a public company executive and entrepreneur. He is an avid collector of art and an active participant in the Los Angeles art community. He has served on many boards, including the Mountain School of Arts (MSA). Moreover, in his professional practice as general counsel, Blanchard has consulted non-profits on the set-up of their boards. He has a law degree from the UCLA School of Law and a MBA from Indiana University Kelley School of Business.
Rochelle Branch
DIRECTOR - Rochelle Branch is the manager of the Cultural Affairs Division of the Pasadena Planning and Development. Along with the Pasadena Arts & Culture Commission, Branch helped foster implement Cultural Nexus, the city’s master plan for arts and culture. Under the umbrella of the Nexus Plan, Cultural Affairs Division programs include collaboration with Pasadena Unified School District on arts education, administration of the city’s one percent for public art mandate, grants and technical assistance to artists, and the biannual Pasadena ArtNight/Art Weekend event. She also works with the Pasadena Convention and Visitors Bureau on cultural tourism.
Branch holds a master of fine arts administration from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in art history from Hampton Institute. She has managed the city’s public art program for the past 10 years. Before coming to Pasadena she was director of public programs at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles, including the annual Festival of Masks.
A member of the city of Los Angeles Public Art Committee, her professional experience includes curatorial, outreach and public programs as well as development. She has worked at Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, the Bronx Museum of Arts and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City among others.
Emi Fontana
EXECUTIVE AND CREATIVE DIRECTOR - Emi Fontana lives and works in Los Angeles.
Fontana was born in Milan, and she studied art history, classic and Venetian Renaissance
painting in Rome. During the rise of counterculture, Fontana still as teenager, became
involved in the creative concerns of the 1977 Italian Student Movement, one of the most
challenging and provocative periods in Italian culture. She was also involved in the
production of seminal underground publications, such as “Il Male” and “Frigidaire.” In the
early 1980s, Fontana worked at the National Broadcasting Radio and in advertising. In the
late 1980s, Fontana began working as an independent curator and private dealer; with
Laura Ruggeri and Gianni Romano, she initiated the first archive of women artists working
in Italy, which is currently part of the Archive of Via Farini in Milan. In 1991, with funding
from the British Council, she curated An English View, the first Young British Artists’ show
in Italy. Galleria Emi Fontana opened in 1992 in a non-traditional location and soon became
internationally known for its program dedicated to emerging artists who are now some of
the most influential and highly regarded artists working today. In the gallery’s first year,
Fontana exhibited works exclusively by female artists, a challenging and unique decision in
Italy at that time. The first show that Fontana organized in Los Angeles was a small survey
of Italian conceptual artist Ketty La Rocca (Italian, 1938-1976) at the Italian Cultural
Institute of Los Angeles in 2002.
Emi Fontana officially launched West of Rome in 2005 with Meant To Be Lived In (Today
I’m Feeling Prismatic), a large-scale, site-specific installation by Olafur Eliasson in a
postmodernist house in the Pasadena hills. The following project, Monica Bonvicini’s Not
for you in 2006, occupied a 50,000-square-foot retail space in Pasadena. In 2007, Relay, a
collaborative video installation by T. Kelly Mason and Diana Thater, took place in a former
bridal shop in Los Angeles’s Westwood neighborhood. Also in Westwood in 2007, Liliana
Moro presented a group of cast-bronze sculptures of attacking dogs in the landmark 1950s
Angelino-style building, which is home to the Italian Cultural Institute. In 2008, West of
Rome branched out with a non-profit segment. The initial project was the first part of the
public art exhibition Women in the City, which took place in Los Angeles in 2008. Women in
the City was awarded by Public Art in Review as best public art project of 2008. In July
2009, West of Rome Public Art gained its status as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
Current projects include production and curatorship of a collaborative piece by Mike Kelley
and Michael Smith, A Voyage of Growth and Discovery, that will be exhibited in Los
Angeles in Spring 2010.
Joanne Heyler
DIRECTOR - Joanne Heyler is a Los Angeles native and a longtime presence on the Los Angeles and international art scenes. She began her career at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, and briefly worked in art publications and writing before commencing her work with The Broad Art Foundation, where she has been Director and Chief Curator since 1995. She curates the Broad Collections, which have grown by 60% during her tenure, and directs the Foundation’s “lending library” program for museums and university galleries worldwide. Joanne is closely involved in advising on and coordinating the Broads’ major philanthropic projects in visual arts, such as the prospective building of a new Broad Art Foundation museum and headquarters, the forthcoming Zaha Hadid-designed Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, the Broad Contemporary Art Museum at LACMA and the Foundation’s recent agreement providing major funding to preserve MOCA’s independence, among other initiatives. Joanne received her B.A. from Scripps College in 1986, and in 1988, her M.A. in the History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of London University. She is a board member of West of Rome starting this year.
Lauren Taschen
DIRECTOR - Lauren Weiner Taschen is in charge of VIP Relations West Coast USA of Art Basel Miami Beach. She married German art book publisher and collector Benedikt Taschen in 2005. Lauren Taschen and Benedikt Taschen were the Gala co-chairs of the Hammer Museum's 2008 Gala in the Garden in Los Angeles.
David Wasserman
DIRECTOR - David D. Wasserman is focused on US real estate opportunities and has over 23 years experience in all aspects of real estate as a developer and an investor. He is based in New York.
Mr. Wasserman, a native of Providence, Rhode Island, earned an A.B. Degree at Columbia University, New York in 1981. Thereafter, Mr. Wasserman became a J.D. at Boston University School of Law in 1984 and then practiced at Finley, Kumble and Wagner in the New York and Los Angeles offices. He concentrated on real estate transactions, leasing and corporate finance. In 1987, he was named “of counsel” to Edwards & Angell and concurrently joined Bernard and Richard Wasserman at Wasserman Real Estate Capital as a Principal.
Sonia Campagnola
ASSISTANT TO THE DIRECTOR, CURATOR - Sonia is responsible for assisting in the planning and development of West of Rome’s curatorial projects. She is the Los Angeles editor of all written materials, including publicity and the WoR website. She is the Senior West Coast Editor of Flash Art International and has written for a variety of publications, including Frieze, Rolling Stone Italia, Art and Auction, and Afterall online. One of her most recent essays was commissioned by the Hammer Museum about Aïda Ruilova’s new video installation. Campagnola has done numerous reviews as well as interviews with emerging and established artists such as Kaari Upson, Eric Wesley, Aaron Curry, Manfred Pernice or Georg Herold, and art world luminaries such as Yvon Lambert, Dean Valentine, Eli Broad, and Michael Govan. For two years, 2007-2008, she wrote the column “Live from Los Angeles” on the pages of Flash Art International.
Carole Ann Klonarides
CONSULTANT - Carole Ann Klonarides has served as the main consultant since July 2009. She is an independent curator, writer and consultant for artists and nonprofit art organizations. From 2006 to 2007 she served as a consultant for the Getty Research Institute for "California Video," an exhibition and publication involving the acquisition of the Long Beach Museum of Art Video Collection. She served as Director of the Artist Pension Trust, Losd Angeles (2004-06); Curator of Programming at the Santa Monica Museum of Art (1997–2000) and Media Arts Curator at the Long Beach Museum of Art (1991–95). Over the past fifteen years she has lectured and taught video history and media arts at California art schools and universities, including CalArts, UCLA, UCI, Otis, and Art Center.
Caren Spitler
ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR - Caren Spitler is the adnministrative director of West of Rome Public Art and West of Rome Inc. since 2005. With a background in photography, Spitler is a published rock music writer and photographer, and started the Los Angeles edition of the Hard Rock magazine, No Cover (2000-2004). She has worked in the entertainment industry as an accountant, and was an event planner for weddings. In 1995 she opened a high-end bridal salon in Old Town Pasadena, which was a recognized competitor to the Neiman Marcus Bridal Shop, until the sell of the business in 2000.
