The Crash Pad Gallery
Exhibition space dedicated to the intersection of arts and engineering
Northrop Grumman Corporation, 2016
Paintings by Raul Pizarro. Photo by Alex Evers.
Copyright © 2016 Northrop Grumman Corporation.  All Rights Reserved. 
Image furnished courtesy of Northrop Grumman Corporation.
Redondo Beach, California — The Crash Pad is a public-facing Northrop Grumman initiative aimed at recognizing the beauty, ingenuity, and industrial feats of the tech, aerospace, and maker industries. This initiative currently manifests itself as a naturally intriguing 5,000+ square foot gallery surreptitiously nestled in a warehouse among discarded composite airplane molds and forgotten space hardware. While sharing a building with the FabLab next door, the two spaces enable a critical mass of creativity designed as environments for inspiration, invention, STEAM and problem solving. 
I brought this concept forward after completing Aerospace in Motion and pitched it to leadership in 2016 who immediately saw the value and encouraged its development.  The space has since accommodated music video and photo shoots, art and maker exhibitions, film screenings, and has become a common stop on the Space Park campus tour.
​​​​​​​In the same spirit that walking into a Home Depot sparks an uncontrollable desire to build and fix everything in one’s life, my goal with the Crash Pad is to draw employees and guests out of their daily routine and reengage that overwhelming desire to create.
June 5, 2016 - Northrop Grumman resident artist, Johannes Girardoni, and members of the Crash Pad and Fablab discuss the intersection of engineering and art at the 2016 South Bay Film Festival.
Northrop Grumman's Crash Pad gets a shout out at Fast Company's 2016 Creativity Conference.