The American Hotel and Al's Bar Project was a grassroots creative complex on the corner of Hewitt Street and Traction Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. Conceptual artist Marc Kreisel designed the project as a work of functional sculpture to circulate money and creative support back into the community. The collection spans from 1976-2004 and consists of flyers, posters, photographs, correspondence, scripts, Rolodexes, calendars, theater programs, press releases, financial records, and bar memorabilia such as the cash can, the jukebox records, the beer taps, t-shirts, signs, and a microphone.

In 1979, conceptual artist Marc Kreisel and three partners closed escrow on a building on the corner of Hewitt Street and Traction Avenue in downtown L.A. Kreisel envisioned The American Hotel and Al's Bar as elements of a grassroots creative complex; a work of functional sculpture that was rooted in Joseph Beuys' Honey Pump. What Kreisel called the "Money Pump" was designed as a means to circulate money and creative support back into the community. "It was a capitalistic endeavor to support the arts by itself—an alternative to the feds and the state and getting grants." ("Marc: My Words" L.A. Weekly, July 5, 1985)

19.7 linear feet (14 document boxes, 5 shoe boxes, 5 flat oversize boxes, 3 half document boxes, 2 no compromise boxes, 1 slide box, 1 flat box, 1 oversize disparate box and 1 map folder)

Property rights to the 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.

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