We Are the Art

This book was published by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles about the project Retirement Bash. Retirement Bash was a performance project created through a collaboration between Elana Mann and Culver City High School Art Students from the Academy of Visual and Performing Arts (AVPA). Mann and the students developed Retirement Bash during a five-week workshop, which included learning about performance art, community outreach, and in-class experiments. At the end of the workshop, the students and Mann presented a three-hour interactive event, where each student performed an original artwork. During the Retirement Bash performance, outdated sayings, symbols, images, and mottoes were performatively “retired” by the students, while new sayings and ideas were introduced. This project was commissioned by the Community Outreach Program of the Education Department at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and AVPA.