SPACES Archives

Congratulations to former SPACES Director and Curator Jo Farb Hernández on the publication of Architectural Fantasies: Artist-Built Environments.

Drawing on decades of research and fieldwork, Hernández documents more than 60 artist-built sites across the United States, highlighting the work of self-taught creators whose environments expand our understanding of architecture, place, and creative expression.

Hernández led SPACES from 2006–2019 and was named Director/Curator Emerita in 2019. We're grateful for her prior stewardship of SPACES and pleased to see her latest contribution to the field bring greater attention to these remarkable sites and the individuals who built them.

Published by Tra Publishing, Architectural Fantasies: Artist-Built Environments is available now.

Architectural Fantasies: Artist-Built Environments From Miami’s Coral Castle to LA’s Watts Towers, Architectural Fantasies explores over 60 dwellings across more than 30 states. These artist-built spaces allow one to step directly into the artwork, and range from scratch-built creations and modified structures to monuments, sites of devotion, an...

📢 New blog alert!

What happens when an art environment disappears—but its story refuses to fade? "The Ghosts of Melrose Ave" by Jennifer Jameson Merchant explores the legacy of Milt Hopkins’ once-enchanted Castle of Enchantment through a new short film by Weston Lyon and Karolina Lavergne. Blurring fact and fiction, the filmmakers trace memory, myth, and the afterlife of creative work on a now-empty Los Angeles lot.

Dive into the interview and discover how this lost castle still inspires new worlds:
https://ow.ly/Ajjw50YWevy.

Photo: Seymour Rosen, 1969. ©SPACES—Saving and Preserving Arts and Cultural Environments.