Catherine Gudis

“Skid Row, By Design” is a multi-tiered collaborative project with Los Angeles Poverty Department’s Skid Row History Museum & Archive (SRHMA) aimed to illuminate the deep historical roots and community activism shaping the 50 blocks of downtown LA’s Skid Row. The project engages and enhances the SRHMA collection of oral histories and activists’ papers, with the goal of filling gaps in the documentary record. It also encompasses co-produced research with community members, curatorial conversations, and public dialogues in association with an upcoming exhibition and performance exploring contradictions between public policy and public compassion for homelessness. The collaboration culminates in the development of a book project entitled “Skid Row, By Design” that offers an accessible history of Skid Row, representing, in part, the museum’s collections (and the community wisdom in abundant evidence in the archive) and materials related to the LA Poverty Department’s work in Skid Row since 1985.