KCET kicks off 7th season of ‘Artbound’ with hourlong special on contemporary black artists

An hourlong program that traces luxury goods to the Mexican artisans who craft them. Another that explores the legacy of journalist and historian Charles Lummis on Southern California. And yet another that looks at the ways in which the city of L.A. will design and build for the future. The Emmy Award-winning cultural program “Artbound” kicks of its seventh season Tuesday with a raft of a dozen new shows devoted to examining the art and culture of the Southland.

The first episode, which premieres Tuesday on independent public television station KCET, looks at four Southern California artists who are examining questions of the contemporary black experience and representation in their work. The show was done in collaboration with L.A. artist and filmmaker Martine Syms, who served as the episode’s guest director, as well as the locally based creative studio Ways and Means.

This represents a slightly new way of doing things for the arts program, which first launched in 2012. (Full disclosure: I wrote for the Artbound website on a few occasions as a freelancer before I joined The Times last year.)

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Traditionally, “Artbound” has featured segments drawn from its Web stories, which are chosen by readers. And it has produced specials that explore larger topics in depth. But the show is now looking to involve guest directors and other special contributors on more hourlong programs that provide a more in-depth view of contemporary cultural topics.

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“I was doing an interview with Martine a little while ago,” says Juan Devis, who, as senior vice president at KCETLink, helped conceive and shepherd the show into existence. “We were talking about the state of black aesthetics today. And we were talking about this new generation of artists and media makers within the black community. That conversation really intrigued me, so when we were setting up the season for this year, I wanted a chance to take a deeper look.

“The idea,” he adds, “is to engage different makers in the production of these programs, engage people who are embedded in those worlds.”

Syms, an artist and thinker who explores topics such as Afrofuturism and black identity in her work, was the perfect partner for the first show, Devis says. In addition to showing her work at New York’s New Museum of Contemporary Art and the Studio Museum in Harlem, she has lectured at Yale University and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, among other places.

The latest season will still feature half a dozen episodes made in the traditional “Artbound” mold: segments that have been voted on by readers of the website. But viewers also can expect longer, deeper pieces involving a wide range of Southern California artists, designers and architects.

“We’ve got some interesting things that we’re brewing here,” Devis says. “The key is to recognize the areas that we are not an expert in and invite people who are in that world to help us shape the coverage. It’s very exciting”

The seventh season of “Artbound” kicks off at 8 p.m. Tuesday on KCET with “Mundane Afrofuturist Manifesto,” directed by Martine Syms. That same show airs nationally on Link TV on Nov. 23. Check local listings for details.

Find me on Twitter @cmonstah.