History
Venice Arts was founded with a dream to create a vibrant, community-based arts center for low-income young people. When we opened our doors in 1993, 40% of area households were low-income or living in poverty, and suffering from extreme. Despite rich cultural resources in the local area, few opportunities existed for youth to engage in truly innovative education and mentoring programs. Now in its 26th year, Venice Arts serves over 450 low-income young people each year through our Art Mentoring & Education Program. Our beautiful, creative space is available for rentals of all kinds. With a 2,000 square-foot indoor space and a large outdoor area, our venue is perfect for a daytime or nighttime indoor/outdoor event. And you'll have the pleasure of knowing that your rental helps to support our free art mentoring programs for low-income youth.
Specialties
Our mission is to ignite, expand, and transform the lives of Los Angeles' low-income youth through photography and film education, and use our participatory storytelling practices to amplify the voices of underrepresented communities around the world. Our Art Mentoring & Education program is designed to develop the next generation of Los Angeles' storytellers and visual media artists. With a focus on photography, filmmaking, animation, and comics.Youth also have the opportunity to participate in Creative Pathways, Advanced Studies, and Youth Art Internships. All programs are free to low-income families and are offered after-school and on weekends, during the academic year, and through an intensive Summer Media Arts Camp. Kids ages 7-9 participate in a multidisciplinary Art Discovery curriculum, while youth ages 10-18 enroll in photography, filmmaking, animation, comics, and multimedia.