Brookfield Properties has become one of the defining forces in Downtown Los Angeles real estate, and this summer the company is making its presence felt beyond the balance sheet. Through its Arts Brookfield initiative, the company has committed to a season of free arts and music programming across its DTLA portfolio — including FIGat7th, the Wells Fargo Center and Ernst & Young Plaza.
The summer series, which runs from June through September, brings together local musicians, visual artists and performance groups for a programme that is as much about community building as it is about corporate identity. "We believe that great public spaces are animated by great art," said a company representative at the programme launch. "Downtown Los Angeles is a city in the middle of a genuine renaissance, and we want Brookfield's properties to be part of that story."
The Arts Brookfield model — pioneered at Brookfield Place in New York and now being exported to LA — centres on free, accessible cultural events held in the plazas and common areas of major commercial real estate developments. In practice this means lunchtime jazz sets in the FIGat7th courtyard, weekend folk and indie showcases at Ernst & Young Plaza, and gallery-quality art installations in the lobbies of Brookfield's office towers.
For Downtown Weekly LA, the Brookfield summer series represents exactly the kind of investment in DTLA's cultural fabric that the neighbourhood has long needed. The Historic Core and South Park have benefited enormously from private sector arts investment in recent years, and the Brookfield programme adds serious institutional muscle to what has largely been a grassroots creative scene.
The full calendar of Arts Brookfield summer events is available through the Downtown Weekly LA community calendar. Events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.