Through the stories of fascinating and sometimes surprising social clubs and unique organizations, the Something in Common exhibition highlighted the importance of finding common ground and points of connection.
Learn more about the exhibit's featured groups and discover the common ground that have brought people together.
The Los Angeles Black Underwater Explorers
A SCUBA diving club dedicated to expanding access, knowledge, and enjoyment among African Americans in a sport where some had previously been made to feel they didn’t belong.
The Feminist Center for Creative Work
A membership-based organization that supports and promotes intersectional feminist artists and creatives, building community and a network of engagement and opportunity to share work and ideas.
The Baseball Reliquary
A non-profit organization “dedicated to fostering an appreciation of American art and culture through the context of baseball history and to exploring the national pastime’s unparalleled creative possibilities.”
The Cloud Appreciation Society
A group that brings together people who love the sky, with members in 120 countries around the world, all united in the belief that clouds are the most dynamic, evocative and poetic aspect of nature.
The Los Angeles Breakfast Club
A storied club that has met on the edge of Griffith Park every Wednesday morning for the better part of a century, devoted to friendship and hospitality, and featuring rituals, lectures, performances, and sing-alongs to go with their ham and eggs.
South El Monte Arts Posse
A collective of artists, writers, urban planners, educators, scholars, ecologists, swap meet vendors, and youth dedicated to engaging with the El Monte and South El Monte community through public history and arts-based projects.
L.A. Community Cookbook Archive
A project by artist Suzanne Joskow, inviting interaction with a collection of hundreds of community cookbooks representing social organizations across Los Angeles County over the last 100 years.
Roller Pigeon Clubs
Organized groups, mostly men of color, dedicated to the uniquely acrobatic Birmingham Roller Pigeon, known for doing backflips while flying. Members of the roller clubs breed and raise these birds for competition, with many crediting the hobby for keeping them off the streets.
29 Palms Historical Society’s Annual Weed Show
In an area often disparaged by outsiders as barren or empty, this community event brings together people from a wide variety of backgrounds and age groups for a friendly competition based on displays of the local high desert flora, AKA “weeds.”
Microscopical Society of Southern California
Dedicated to the science, art, and history of microscopy, MSSC provides the opportunity for both the professional and the amateur to share in their enthusiasm for the microscope and the worlds it can reveal.