“Vermonica” stands along Santa Monica Boulevard in front of a Bureau of Street Lighting yard in East Hollywood. (photo by Karen Villalpando)

Twenty-five shiny metal streetlights from different bygone eras in Los Angeles rise along a stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard in East Hollywood as an illuminating symbol of history and hope.

Named “Vermonica” after the intersection of Vermont Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard where it was originally located, the streetlight art piece is an “urban candelabra,” a “drive-by museum,” said its creator, artist Sheila Klein. Using streetlights to represent L.A.’s history, it also stands as a symbol of dreams for a better future, as the artwork was installed a year after the 1992 civil unrest in Los Angeles, Klein added. More than three decades since it was erected, the artist said it is a miracle “Vermonica” is still standing today.

“It was only supposed to be up for a year,” said Klein, who created the “temporary” piece as a young artist. “I had conceived of creating an urban candelabra, but I hadn’t done anything quite on that scale. I had no idea the complexity of what I wanted to do at that moment and what I was getting into.”

Klein moved from Seattle to Los Angeles in the early 1980s and recalled a fondness for driving around the city and viewing its unique architecture. She loved streetlights with their different colors, shapes and sizes, each a symbol of architecture in themselves. Klein brought her idea for a streetlight artwork to the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, which awarded her a $6,000 grant to create a public art piece. To get the idea off the ground, she met with administrators from the Bureau of Street Lighting, who liked the concept so much they gave her access to old streetlights that were out of service.

“‘Vermonica’ was inspired by all of the streetlights in Los Angeles, which I love so much,” Klein said. “They have a boneyard of all the old lights, and I saw what was available and I made a drawing. I presented it at a meeting and I told them I’m really interested in amplifying people’s awareness of street lighting and the beauty of it, what it means in terms of safety and civilization, and design and sculpture and all the things that it embodies. I said I was going to need a lot of help from the bureau and I asked if anyone wanted to help. Fifty-five people – more than half the people there – raised their hands. I think part of it was they really loved the idea that an artist cared about what they do and wanted to amplify that into a large-scale sculptural piece.”

Klein served on the board for Barnsdall Art Park at the time and started searching for a setting for her urban candelabra. Shortly after the 1992 civil unrest, while driving by a burned out shopping center at the northeast corner of Vermont Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard, a lightbulb went off in her head. She contacted the property owner, Vic LaCagnina, and pitched the idea of including her urban artwork in the rebuilt shopping center’s parking lot as a symbol of rebirth.

“He and I disagreed about pretty much everything that was going on at the time, except he really liked my project,” Klein said. “He said he would give me $3,000, he would pay for the electricity and he would allow me to do it on his property. That’s how that came about.”

Klein started painstakingly refinishing and repairing the streetlights she planned to use. With the help of off-duty employees of the Bureau of Street Lighting, “Vermonica” was installed a year later and a public celebration was held on May 5, 1993.

“It was an amazing party because there were all kinds of people there. All the guys from street lighting came and they surrounded the piece with all the trucks and there was a mariachi band because it was Cinco de Mayo. Huell Howser was there and did a story on ‘Vermonica.’ I have a very good friend, Mary Sue Milliken, who owned a restaurant, the Border Grill, and she catered the opening. It was really an amazing day.”

Klein said “Vermonica” was instantly embraced by residents and art lovers and was supported by the architecture and historic preservation community as a tribute to history using streetlights. It was completed 15 years before artist Chris Burden’s “Urban Light,” a much larger artwork comprised of streetlights mounted in front of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

“I don’t really know what his inspiration was,” Klein said. “The main thing that I think about all of that is that many people told LACMA curators and artists and other community members when it was going on …, ‘you know about Sheila Klein’s piece and all that sort of thing.’ And because I didn’t have the same profile as Chris Burden, am I allowed to say, because he’s a white dude and I’m a woman, I just didn’t have the same level of thrust as he had. I don’t know what to say about it. When you’re a woman artist, you get somewhat used to the possibility of this type of thing happening.”

“Vermonica” stood in the shopping center parking lot for 24 years until a change occurred in 2017 that Klein said almost spelled the end of the piece. Just before Thanksgiving that year, while at her home north of Seattle, she received an email from a community member who said “Vermonica” was missing.

“I was like, what? It’s not exactly something you put in your pocket and walk away with,” Klein said. “The next morning, I went on Facebook and I said, ‘Hey, L.A., what’s going on with this,’ and within a few hours, I found out quite a bit. I heard lots of different stories. I was absolutely in shock.”

Klein did some digging and learned that the current owner of the shopping center at Santa Monica and Vermont planned to redevelop the site, and he asked the Bureau of Street Lighting what he should do with “Vermonica.” Klein said the artwork was supposed to be temporary and the streetlights belonged to the bureau, so they disassembled it, without telling her, and reassembled it in a different configuration in front of their field operations office at 4550 Santa Monica Boulevard and Westmoreland Avenue. After community outcry, and Klein persistently raising the issue that “Vermonica” is her intellectual property, the bureau reinstalled the piece in 2017 in its original configuration along the sidewalk at Santa Monica and Westmoreland, giving greater access to the community. The artist was assisted by Kim Cooper and Richard Schave of historic Los Angeles tour company Esotouric in getting the piece restored. Klein said it was an amicable solution.

“I just wanted them to do the right thing,” she said.  “I wanted them to install it properly and preserve it. For me, it was more about doing the right thing and putting the pieces in a place where a good work could be protected and preserved. The one thing I want to emphasize is, I was never adversarial with [the Bureau of] Street Lighting. They just are not in the business of art so they didn’t really understand that it was my intellectual property.”

Klein said she believes the current site of “Vermonica,” in front of a street lighting maintenance yard, is an appropriate place for the beloved piece where everyone can see it. Plus, it is located along a stretch of roadway that is part of historic Route 66.

“I think it looks great there. I’m really happy it’s close to the yard because those guys take a lot of pride in what they do and they will continue to make sure it’s taken care of and maintain it. They just thought it was parts that I arranged into something. But after it had been there for many years …  it was clear that this was more than just a pile of parts put together.”

Klein, who resides part time in Washington state and Buenos Aires, Argentina, said 2023 marked “Vermonica’s” 30th anniversary. She has always wanted to hold another public celebration for the piece, and while unable to do it last year, hopes it is something the community, city and art lovers will get energized about in the future.

“There’s all those styles of streetlights responding back to different times, or different styles of architecture and different parts of the city. It’s really something I’m proud of,” Klein added. “And after all these years, it’s something people can still enjoy. It’s still a museum that you can drive by.”

Streetlights become art on Santa Monica Boulevard. (photo by Karen Villalpando)