With the arrival of Live Bash, a fresh stage has come to Westwood.

Live Bash, a new live entertainment venue, opened at 1087 Broxton Avenue last month. Seeking to nurture aspiring artists, the performance space hopes to provide a place for creative expression through music and comedy, said Live Bash chief executive officer Kristin Patterson. She said the first Live Bash venue, located in Chicago, has facilitated both artistry and human connection. The Los Angeles location will strive to foster these same attributes with the help of the Westwood community, Patterson said.

“LA is a known hub for performance, art and creativity – and in a way that no other city in the U.S. is,” Patterson said. “I’m expecting that the community will dictate what comes to the stage and will blow our minds in the best way possible.”

After looking at more than 15 possible event spaces in LA, Patterson said Live Bash settled on the Broxton Avenue location with aspirations of appealing to the UCLA community. She said Live Bash hopes to facilitate engagement with local artists and student talent by allowing performers to book the venue themselves. Bree Pear, Live Bash’s head of marketing, said the organization’s platform seeks to be amenable, accessible and accommodative to emerging creatives.

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Patterson said booking flows – Live Bash’s term for the venue reservation process – for comedic, musical and other artistic pursuits are available on the Live Bash website, where potential performers are able to indicate their interest, obtain pricing estimates for reserving the venue and communicate directly with Live Bash staff regarding their unique needs. This intimate and individualized experience emphasizes the principle of ownership and the importance of returning creative control to artists, Patterson said. Through both streaming and live performance, Patterson said Live Bash provides digital and physical infrastructure to artists while also ensuring that creators are the keepers of their art. Pear added that Live Bash returns 80% of all profits to performers to further the company’s commitment to transparency and integrity in artist relationships.

“We really exist to enable artists, creators and brands to nurture and monetize their fandom,” Patterson said. “We’re enabling ownership, so that’s ownership over the context and setting for where you perform your art, how you reach your fans and the data that we give you.”

By championing creative control, Patterson said Live Bash also facilitates greater personalization of the artist-follower connection. She said digital records of performances and fan-related data, such as ticketing figures and contact details, are given to performers, which is not guaranteed when marketing through larger ticketing platforms such as Ticketmaster or Live Nation. The artist can then use this information to advance their passion and understand the root of the revenue they earn, Patterson said. Since artists can communicate to followers how their investments directly enrich their careers, fans feel as though they are actively and consciously contributing to the crafts they admire, she said.

This collaboration resonates with fans as well, Pear said, as followers are not only able to see the impact they have made on the careers of their favorite artists, but they can also enjoy more unique interactions with performers and fellow fans who share similar interests. Pear said performers can directly contact attendees and provide exclusive content to those fans, digitally adding to the intimacy the physical stage space created.

“You’re not just in a large venue where you’re just another ticket holder,” Pear said. “This is an experience that not only brings you closer to the artist but can bring you closer to the spaces that exist in the cities that you live.”

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Jonny Levin, the head of creative operations for Live Bash, said this reinvigoration of artistic control and fan connection is accompanied by a celebration of play and enjoyment. Alongside fostering an intimate environment between fans and artists, he said Live Bash seeks to alleviate the stress of organizing shows without sacrificing performance quality. Levin said this support of creative courage and expression allows a performer to experiment and focus on their art.

“Let’s just make your life easy, and you can come and show up,” Levin said. “It’s not cost-prohibitive, it’s not emotionally prohibitive, just trying to be as accessible of a possible place to perform at a high quality.”

Live Bash strives to create a warm and inviting atmosphere, Levin said, where performers do not find themselves confined in terms of time or space and are instead empowered to create according to their own specifications and vision. Levin said Live Bash aims to become a place of connection and engagement in Westwood. The stage will hopefully bring entertainment and excitement to students while also serving as a comfortable and nourishing environment that inspires human closeness, he added.

“I want it, hopefully, to be a place that most people you know are having an interaction with,” Levin said. “Hopefully it can have a small footprint in the way that it’s not messing with any of the alchemy of Westwood Village, but hopefully only being a positive addition and a community space.”