Creative Capital

Cindy Bernard

The creator of the experimental music series “sound.” as well as the founder of The Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound (SASSAS), Cindy Bernard takes an active interest in instigating social exchange. A past board member of Foundation for Art Resources (FAR) and of the Coalition for Freedom of Expression, Bernard founded SASSAS out of the need for a small sustainable organization dedicated to experimental music in Los Angeles.

She has received numerous grants for her photographs and projections including a Guggenheim Fellowship. Since 1986, her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and is in the permanent collections of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), and The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

Bernard’s interest in the public commons has spurred two projects in addition to soundCommons: a series of photographs documenting municipal band shells, and The Inquisitive Musician, a series of works based on a 17th century German satire, Musicus Curiosus, or Battalus, the Inquisitive Musician; the Struggle for Precedence between the Kunst Pfeifer and the Common Players.