After many months of planning, Todd Lerew is finally getting to enjoy the fruits of his labor. As Program Manager for the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, he’s been busy producing the first ever Mobile Museum Fair.

  • 21 Collections exhibit can be viewed at Central Library
  • Collection features works from museums across Los Angeles
  • Plans underway to make it an annual event

“It’s really an examination of the storytelling power of collections,” said Lerew.

“The way people are able to preserve knowledge and stories just by keeping and preserving the things that are important to them.”

What’s important to Lerew is exposing Angelenos to the many diverse cultures that make up Los Angeles. So he’s invited 25 museums, including the African American Miniatures Museum.

Karen Collins is one of the commissioned artists.

“The idea of the Homeless Crisis came from walking the streets of L.A., Downtown Los Angeles,” said Collins. “Everywhere you go, it’s a crisis.”

Everyone has a different story and it’s all part of the 21 Collections exhibit at the Central Library, which Lerew curated after visiting 600 museums throughout Greater Los Angeles.

“The thing that all of these participants have in common today is this idea of the power of collections, that we should actually be keeping something and stewarding it, protecting things in order to tell the stories that really represent our lives,” said Lerew.

Wanting to share that experience, he invited mobile museums to Downtown Los Angeles and it’s a wide range of institutions: some pop culture, some cultural, some musical, and some natural history.

“We bring students into the truck here, the mobile museum, and it’s meant to transport them to a different place where they’ve never been. To an archaeological dig site,” says Hannah Owens of the Natural History Museum.

With over 650 museums throughout Greater Los Angeles, it isn’t possible to host every one, so Lerew hopes to make the Mobile Museum Fair an annual event, something both adults and kids can enjoy.

“The thing that all of these participants have in common today is this idea of the power of collections, that we should actually be keeping something and stewarding it, protecting things in order to tell the stories that they really represent our lives,” he said.

Only by collecting these stories is it possible to create an accurate picture of what L.A. is all about.