A marquee art park on Crenshaw Boulevard could finally open this fall, thanks to a new injection of funding.
Sankofa Park broke ground in 2020, according to the nonprofit Destination Crenshaw, and has been under construction behind covered fences at the intersection of Crenshaw and Leimert boulevards.
Destination Crenshaw planned to open the park in 2023, but President and CEO Jason Foster said work stalled when some federal dollars were taken away and fundraising hit a wall.
Foster told The LA Local on Monday that work on the park will restart in April, thanks to a $3.3 million grant from the Baldwin Hills Conservancy and a $1 million county grant announced earlier this month.
“We did not want to start again until we had all the money in hand,” Foster said. “We’re hoping to bring it home.”
Sankofa Park is the flagship in a fleet of parklets that Destination Crenshaw hopes to eventually build along Crenshaw, extending the energy and cultural cachet of Leimert Park down the boulevard.
Destination Crenshaw aims to preserve and elevate the legacy of Black LA along the planned 1.3-mile public art corridor.
Foster said the park’s projected opening this fall should come at roughly the same time as the automated people mover at Los Angeles International Airport, which ferries visitors to the Metro K Line. When the park opens, it will be one of the first Los Angeles landmarks visitors see if they ride public transit into the city from the airport.
Sankofa Park’s monumental sculptures — currently covered with tarps — and elevated walkways are one of the last views of the city before the Metro K Line tracks plunge underground.
Sankofa Park’s county grant is one of four the county said it will dole out to parks in South LA using funds from the Los Angeles County Safe, Clean Neighborhood Parks and Beaches Measure, an annual property tax approved by voters in 2016.
The county said the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust won two $500,000 grants each for its Estrella Park and Jefferson Park projects and Los Angeles County Public Works got $500,000 to spend on a stormwater capture project at Bethune Park.
