The Institute for Art and Olfaction


Founded in 2012, The Institute for Art and Olfaction is a non-profit organization devoted to advancing public, artistic and experimental engagement with scent.

History

"The West Coast's first organization to explore perfume in a larger arts context", The Institute for Art and Olfaction was founded in October 2012 by Saskia Wilson-Brown. The IAO opened its experimental studio to the public in downtown Los Angeles in March 2013, moving to Koreatown in March 2014 and to its home on Chung King Road in Chinatown, Los Angeles in March, 2015. The IAO was created to counterbalance what Wilson-Brown perceived as a lack of access and transparency in the fragrance industry.
In January 2014, the IAO launched its first large-scale public arts project with ‘A Trip to Japan in Sixteen Minutes, Revisited’ at the Hammer Museum. It has since collaborated with Miles Regis, Zoe Crosher, Andrew Berardini, Austin Young, Marcos Lutyens, Victor Wilde, Bettina Hubby, dublab, Jo Burzynska, Cat Jones, Aleesa Cohene, Snowblink, Erik Benjamins, Maxwell Williams, The Institute for New Feeling, Hilda Kozarii, Mateo Tannat / Public Fiction, Seth Bogart, Regina Mamou and Lara Salmon at Research for the Bermuda Triangle, Esmeralda Kosmatopoulous, and many more artists, writers and musicians.
In April 2014, the IAO held the first annual Art and Olfaction Awards, a yearly awards mechanism designed to help celebrate excellence in independent and artisan perfumery. The first two editions of the awards were held at Goethe Institute Los Angeles. The third annual awards were held at Hammer Museum, the fourth in Berlin at Silent Green Kulturquartier, and the fifth in London at The Tabernacle.
In July 2018, The IAO expanded its programs to Amsterdam in a month-long partnership with :nl:Mediamatic|Mediamatic called 'Art Olfaction Amsterdam'. There they launched several programs, including a two-hour olfactory radio show, written and hosted by Maxwell Williams in partnership with dublab. Guests on the radio show included Mandy Aftel, Avery Gilbert, Marcel Van Brakel, Dr. Kara Cooney, Etienne de Swardt of Etat Libre d'Orange.

Notable Projects

Part of The Institute for Art and Olfaction's mission is to create access to perfume education and materials, in line with Wilson-Brown's belief that perfumery is "inaccurately seen as elite." The result is that the IAO is considered " one of the few places in the country where anyone can learn about the history and process of perfumery."
" I found access to be extremely limited. My approach is, 'Let's all learn together,' so I gathered the resources. And our weekly open-session workshops, part of our mission of creating access, welcome artists, designers, filmmakers, kids from East L.A., both men and women. I am not particularly fascinated with perfume as a consumption project. My interest relates to my arts background. The institute is based on the potential to subvert the industry in some way to change how we think about luxury and beauty."
The IAO has hosted talks and events by guest speakers including game designer Simon Niedenthal, scent culture scholar artist, Gayil Nalls and USC professor James McHugh, and has presented workshops, classes or otherwise collaborated with The Getty Center, The Getty Villa, The Wallace Collection, Otis College of Art and Design, Henry Art Gallery, The Natural History Museum Los Angeles, Fowler Museum at UCLA, Huntington Library and Gardens, Scent Culture Institute, amongst others.