ESMoA

In 2011, three members of the El Segundo community hosted two art exhibitions at the former El Segundo Fire Station. The community's response was overwhelmingly positive. In turn, the trio felt compelled to respond to this enthusiastic desire for an engaging art scene. Two years later, ESMoA, an experimental art laboratory, was born. ESMoA is operated by Artlab21 Foundation, an organization dedicated to fostering education and appreciation for the arts. ESMoA, founded as an arts laboratory rather than a museum, specializes in experimental theme-based exhibitions that generate innovation and community engagement. For this reason, ESMoA has dubbed these exhibitions as "Experiences." Since its founding in 2013, ESMoA has welcomed more than 80,000 visitors to participate in 29 Experiences and its accompanying public programming. Additionally, ESMoA's Schools Program builds crucial relationships with hundreds of classrooms across the region and the laboratory hosts several Artists in Residence each year. Through this work, ESMoA promotes its underlying beliefs that art is at the very foundation of human societies and that its role as an arts institution is to catalyze creative thinking.