LADP PERFORMS: CITY OF DANCE | HOLLYHOCK HOUSE
Hollyhock House
at Barnsdall Art Park
4800 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Saturday, June 6 | 4:00 PM
Saturday, June 20 | 11:00 AM
Free and Open to all. RSVP for event details and updates.
At Hollyhock House and Barnsdall Art Park, City of Dance meets a century‑old vision for art in public life. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for arts patron Aline Barnsdall, this UNESCO World Heritage Site was conceived as a radical experiment in community, creativity, and shared space.
Today, City of Dance brings movement back to Olive Hill, honoring the site’s history while inviting Angelenos to experience dance woven into its architecture.
Information on arrival and parking at Barnsdall Art Park.
The Vision on the Hill
Barnsdall Art Park sits atop Olive Hill, purchased in 1919 by Aline Barnsdall, an oil heiress, radical arts patron, and early champion of experimental theater. She envisioned the site as a 36‑acre arts campus for performance, education, and community.
Her ambition: art should be public, accessible, and part of everyday life.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s First L.A. Commission
Barnsdall hired Frank Lloyd Wright to design the complex. Between 1919–1921, he created Hollyhock House, named for Barnsdall’s favorite flower and adorned with stylized hollyhock motifs throughout the architecture.
The house blends:
- Prairie Style
- Mayan Revival influences
- Early California Modernism
It became a harbinger of modern architecture in Los Angeles.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site
In 2019, Hollyhock House became Los Angeles’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site, recognized as part of The 20th‑Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, the first modern architecture designation in the U.S. This places Olive Hill in the company of Fallingwater, Taliesin, and the Guggenheim.
From Private Vision to Public Park
In 1927, Barnsdall donated the house and surrounding land to the City of Los Angeles, ensuring it would remain a public cultural resource. Today, Barnsdall Art Park includes:
- Hollyhock House
- Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG) — one of the city’s largest publicly funded contemporary art spaces
- Barnsdall Junior Arts Center Gallery — a community‑focused exhibition space
- Community arts programs and classes
- Open lawns with panoramic views of the city
Together, these spaces continue Barnsdall’s original vision of Olive Hill as a public arts campus, where creativity, architecture, and community life converge.
Hollyhock House embodies the idea that art belongs in public life, a principle at the heart of City of Dance.
Presented by L.A. Dance Project and Paris Dance Project.
