For 70 years, Glendale's Brand Library & Art Center has been a cornerstone of culture, knowledge, music, performance, and the visual arts, as well as an architectural marvel of "Jewel City."
And in 2026, it's even more exceptional.
In January, Brand Library & Art Center launched Hyper SoCal, an initiative driven to shine a light on Southern California's working artists by highlighting the nonprofit and municipal art venues that support them.
Hyper SoCal will be spotlighting over 40 community art spaces across five counties in Southern California; the kinds of institutions that revel in work that doesn't always make it into commercial galleries or museums.
This groundbreaking effort will introduce visitors to the artists and neighborhood venues that make Southern California one of the most creative, artistic regions on the planet, while offering exposure and a greater audience to the artists who call the region home.
Hyper SoCal sprung from the creative mind of Stephanie Sherwood, Brand Library & Art Center's exhibition coordinator.
"As an artist myself, I believe in working collectively to uplift one another," Sherwood says. "Hyper SoCal is designed to amplify the voices of spaces that play a crucial but sometimes overlooked role in the Southern California arts ecosystem. Working together with our partners to increase awareness of the artwork that is being displayed in small and non-traditional spaces helps to bridge a gap in the large cultural landscape of Southern California.”
How small, you may wonder?
One of the first exhibitions will be held at Glendale's endlessly charming Adams Square Mini Park Gas Station, a 12x12x12 1936 Streamline Moderne Gas Station in the Adams Hill neighborhood. Additional exhibits and programs will take place at venues including Cerritos College Art Gallery, VAMA Gallery at L.A. City College, Brea Gallery in Orange County, and Craft in America Center in Beverly Grove.
On the Hyper SoCal website, you'll find a map pointing you to all of the partner spaces, as well as a rundown of all spring exhibitions and programs.
These include artist A. Laura Brody’s Phoenix Rising, a robe made from unclaimed donations following L.A.'s wildfires, that takes up a whole room at Adams Square Mini Park Gas Station, as well as an exhibit on handmade skateboards and a retrospective on Chicano/a mural art in the Pacoima Valley featuring work by Man One at the 85-year-old Chaffey Community Museum of Art in Ontario. And many more that deserve to be enjoyed by wide audiences.
Brand Library & Art Center, which is free for all, and the galleries and spaces it’s bringing attention to can help connect Angelenos with these critically important art spaces and to a greater love of Southern California and its vital art scene.
So what are you waiting for? Go enjoy Brand Library & Art Center and all of the wonderful venues it's working with for Hyper SoCal.
