Volunteer as an Artist-Mentor!

Are you:

• A photographer, filmmaker, animator, or multimedia artist?

• Committed to the creative development of young people?

• Enjoy working as a member of a teaching team, which includes a Lead Artist-educator and one-two additional artist-mentors?

• Able to commit to a weekly, 12-week class either Tues-Friday from 3:30-6:30 or Saturdays?

Join us as an artist-mentor for the spring semester (Feb 2-May 4) of our award-winning media arts education program for Los Angeles' low-income youth! Mentoring offers a fantastic opportunity to share your talents as an artist, give back to your community, and build your skills in arts education and creative youth development.

Previous experience working with young people, and an understanding of project-based learning, a plus, but not required. College credit available if eligible!

Check out the workshop schedule, here. Find a volunteer application, here.

Our 25th Anniversary Gala!

A huge THANK YOU to everyone—sponsors, photographers, guests, supporting businesses, photographers, young artists, and volunteers—who came out to celebrate our 25th Anniversary and make our Gala a success. A special thank you to our honorees—Star Supporter Tami Pardee and Outstanding Artist-Mentor Ed Colman—for all you do to support our organization. Thanks to our beverage sponsors— Lagunitas Brewing Company, Obvious Wines, Tito's Handmade Vodka, Revel, and Trader Joe's—for keeping the libations flowing, and to the incredible young musicians from the Santa Monica High School Jazz Combo for their musical prowess throughout the evening. 25 years! We could not have gotten here without our amazing community and we thank all of you for your support. Here’s to 25 more!

Mechanics Bank Does It Again!

Thank you to Iris, the amazing VP, Southern Region, for Mechanics Bank and her fantastic staff, who have been so supportive of Venice Arts in so many ways this year including, most recently, sponsoring our programs through our Gala. Looking forward to seeing you at the party!

Venice Arts Welcomes Theater Artist Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni, Performing One Drop of Love

As part of our 25TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS, Venice Arts welcomed theater artist Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni for a special performance for our students and their families of her one-woman show One Drop of Love. The show explores “the intersections of race, class and gender in pursuit of truth, justice and LOVE.” A huge THANK YOU to Fanshen for this amazing afternoon for over 120 of our young artists and their families, which is sure to provide much inspiration for the year’s film and photo projects exploring identities. #truth #justice #love

This program is the first of five programs in our IDENTITIES series, in which five extraordinary artists, with their own connection to Venice Arts, and all of whom who explore multiple facets of identity in their work, will join us for special performances, screenings, and events. Designed to inspire and engage the teen artists at Venice Arts, most events are also open to the public.

Thank you to the team at Mechanics Bank!

Iris Paulino and her wonderful team @mechanicsbank conducted a fun and educational workshop on financial literacy for Venice Arts' participants and their parents. They talked about everything from the importance of saving money, to budgeting and dealing with Internet and telephone scammers—to say nothing of the yummy lunch and great gift bags that they provided. We are always so grateful when our corporate supporters give financially, as well as of their time and expertise. Thank you!

Saturday with Firestone Walker

A shout-out to our neighbors, and Venice Arts' supporters, Firestone Walker Brewing Company, Venice (@firestonewalker), who held an afternoon tasting event with a portion of proceeds supporting Venice Arts! They have a great crew at Firestone, who created a beautiful wall of student work—check it out, above—and also hired alum Michael Verdin to paint the tap enclosures. Thanks to Firestone and friends!

The Gregg Michael Zwirn Memorial Scholarship Fund

Venice Arts is honored that the family of photographer Gregg Zwirn has chosen to pay tribute to Gregg's memory through the creation of the Gregg Michael Zwirn Memorial Fund, a sub-fund of our Creative Equity Scholarship Fund. This fund will support the next generation of young photographers enrolled at Venice Arts. Much love and many thanks to the Zwirn family! Learn more about Gregg and the fund, here. 

Googlers for Good! Volunteer Day at Venice Arts

A huge THANK YOU to our volunteers from Google L.A., who donated their time to help plant our garden and repaint our gallery this week. We're so grateful to Google for supporting their staff in this day of service and to the volunteers for spending their afternoon beautifying our space and getting us ready for Summer Camp. Thank you, as well, to the Marina del Rey Garden Center for donating soil for our planters, to Zach Forsyte & his Boy Scouts of America troop for making building planters, and to Marie Gamboa, of Garden Pacific, for donating the beautiful plants. Gratitude all around!

Viceland + Venice Arts!

Venice Arts' filmmaking students were thrilled to receive several visits from Viceland's Development team this academic year. Our young filmmakers had the opportunity to practice "pitching" their idea for the year: capturing video of people on the Venice Pier and then creating multiple stories using the same footage. They were thrilled when the Viceland team returned to view the final pieces and give them notes.

Special thanks to Fred Grinstein, with Pulse Media, and Lauren Dolgen, Casey Meurer, and Kyle Silverstein with Viceland!

Artist, Producer, Casting Director, Executive

Venice Arts' annual Creative Careers Day was held in April 2018 and featured a panel of creative professionals, who talked about their personal path to their careers, as well as how Venice Arts' students can prepare themselves for similar jobs. A workshop on résumé development, conducted by Beatriz Garcia, affirmed for our students that their talent and skills—creative, technical, collaborative—as well as their awards, film festival selections, volunteer involvement, and internships all translate into a strong résumé.

Special thanks to Beatriz Garcia and 826LA, photographer Diana Markosian, Casting Director Michael Dolotta, Producer Nan Bernstein, and Berenice Robinson, VP at Disney Animation. Special shout out to the California Film Commission for introducing us to Nan!