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League of Allied Arts records
LSC.1856
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Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: League of Allied Arts records
Creator:
League of Allied Arts
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.1856
Physical Description:
8 Linear Feet
(16 document boxes, 2 flat boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1940-2011
Abstract: This collection documents the history
and administration of the League of Allied Arts, one of the oldest existing Black women's
non-profit arts organizations in Los Angeles. Founded in 1939 by Dorothy Vena Johnson and
Juanita Miller, the League was established to promote and support the arts in Los Angeles by
providing cultural enrichment programs for the community, honoring the creative
accomplishments of Black artists, and awarding scholarships to talented students from Los
Angeles pursuing scholarly studies in the arts. The collection consists of administrative
documents such as meeting minutes and agendas, financial reports, ephemera from various arts
programs and events, correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, and media.
Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access
special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on
this page.
Language of Material: Materials are in
English.
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in
advance using the request button located on this page.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
CONTAINS AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: This collection contains both processed and unprocessed
audiovisual materials. For information about the access status of the material that you are
looking for, refer to the Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements note at the
series and file levels. All requests to access processed audiovisual materials must be made
in advance using the request button located on this page.
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use
Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All
other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the
responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the
copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not
hold the copyright.
[Identification of item], League of Allied Arts records (Collection Number 1856). UCLA
Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California,
Los Angeles.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Gift of the League of Allied Arts, 2012.
The following League of Allied Arts members retained documents, photographs, ephemera, and
other materials on behalf of the organization:
Haroldine Brewington, Kathryn Carr, Jean Davis Clements, Mary Ann Greene, Carol Hall
Holliday, Bertha Hurd, Beverly Ryder, Patricia Ryder, Shirley Starke-Wallace, Dorothy
Thornhill.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels, depending on the work necessary to make
them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and
resources, competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of
preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts
more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to
national and local standards and best practices.
Processed by Tiffany Dawn Jones in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT),
under the supervision of Jillian Cuellar, 2012. The processing of this collection was
supported by
Arcadia
funds.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
6947095
The League of Allied Arts is one of the oldest existing Black women's non-profit arts
organizations in Los Angeles. Founded in 1939 by Dorothy Vena Johnson, a poet and creative
writing teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District, and Juanita Miller, a social
worker for the County of Los Angeles and wife of distinguished civil rights attorney Loren
Miller, the League of Allied Arts was established to support and promote the arts in Los
Angeles. Langston Hughes was one of the League's first beneficiaries. When the young Harlem
Renaissance poet and playwright came to Los Angeles to visit friends, he wanted to present a
play. However, due to racism, no theater would allow Hughes to present his work. The
industrious and civic-minded Juanita Miller and Dorothy Vena Johnson thereby pooled their
resources together to help support Langston Hughes successfully present his play,
Don't You Want to Be Free? at his recently established New Negro Theater.
From this experience, Johnson and Miller went on to officially establish the League of
Allied Arts whose mission is to promote and support the arts in Los Angeles. The League
provides cultural enrichment programs for the community, honors the creative accomplishments
of Black artists, and awards scholarships to talented students from Los Angeles pursuing
scholarly studies in the arts. The League estimates that since its inception it has given
away over $500,000 in scholarships and charitable donations to students and various
organizations in Los Angeles and nationwide.
The League of Allied Arts is a volunteer organization with a long history of distinguished
membership and leadership. In addition to Juanita Miller and co-founder Dorothy Vena
Johnson, who served as the League's president for over 25 years, another notable and early
member of the League of Allied Arts was Miriam Matthews, the first credentialed Black
librarian in the state of California and a librarian for the Los Angeles Public Library.
The League of Allied Arts has provided numerous cultural enrichment programs for the Los
Angeles community since its founding.
The League of Allied Arts awarded its first scholarships in the early 1940s. In the same
decade, the League was part of a consortium of community organizations that promoted Jacob
Lawrence's
The Migration Series, a sequence of paintings
depicting the mass movement of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North
between World War I and World War II. The paintings were lent by the Museum of Modern Art
and presented at the Music Town Gallery in Los Angeles. The League also sponsored
The Art of Aaron Douglas exhibit at the Chabot Art Gallery on
Robertson Boulevard.
In the 1950s, the League presented a poetry reading by Langston Hughes with accompaniment
by the Buddy Collette Quintet. In addition, the League donated funds to the Lester Horton
Dance School, Our Author's Study Club, and the Legal Defense Fund of the NAACP.
During the 1960s, the League honored William Grant Still on his seventieth birthday at the
Los Angeles Music Center, donated funds to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and
Museum, and purchased a seat in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
The League joined the Ahmanson Foundation, Charles Drew Medical Society Auxiliary, and the
Los Angeles chapter of the Links in providing funds for the presentation of a Richard Hunt
sculpture at LACMA in the 1970s.
In the 1980s, the League sponsored the musical
Ain't
Misbehavin'
at the Aquarius Theater in Hollywood and honored artists Richmond
Barthe, Melonee Blocker, Elizabeth Catlett, Alonzo Davis, Maren Hassinger, Varnette
Honeywood, William Pajaud, Betye Saar, Ruth Waddy, and Yvonne Meo, who was also a member of
the League.
In 2000, the membership of the League of Allied Arts traveled to Paris, and in 2009 it
celebrated its 70th anniversary by hosting a reception in honor of actor Laurence Fishburne
for his performance in the play
Thurgood which was presented at
the Geffen Playhouse. The League made tickets available for 100 students to see the play and
discuss their experience.
The League of Allied Arts remains a pillar in the Los Angeles community by continuing to
support and promote the arts.
The League of Allied Arts records consist of administrative documents such as meeting
minutes and agendas, financial reports, ephemera from various arts programs and events,
correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, and media.
Highlights of the collection include meeting minutes, which record the major activities of
the League; correspondence from First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy; and scrapbooks which detail
the League's early activities.
The collection covers the years 1940 to 2011, with the bulk of administrative records
ranging from 1981 to 2011.
This collection has been arranged in the following series:
- Series 1: Administrative Records, 1981-2011, 1934-2018
- Series 2: Financial, 1969-2011
- Series 3: Public Relations, 1940-2010
- Series 4: Correspondence, 1980-2010
- Series 5: Historical Information, 1943-2007
- Series 6: Photographs and Media, 1967-2008
Series are arranged chronologically by year.
Miriam Matthews papers (Collection
1804).
Available at UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library, UCLA.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
African Americans -- California -- Los Angeles
Arts -- California -- Los Angeles -- Societies, etc. --
Archives.
League of Allied Arts