Venice Vanguard - May 2010

Venice Vanguard

May 2010

Venice Garden and Home Tour Celebrates Community

In 1994, Venice landscape architect Jay Griffith along with Venice residents Linda Lucks and Jan Brilliot founded the Secret Gardens of Venice Tour to give financial support for the Neighborhood Youth Association´s Las Doradas Children´s Center, a licensed care facility in Oakwood that provides full-time, education-based child care to low-income working families. In operation since 1991, the center offers "at-risk" children an opportunity for the care and additional guidance that prepares them to be effective learners, ready and eager to start kindergarten and to instill in them the values to become productive community members in the future.

By 2001, due to the gracious involvement of homeowners and participation of the community, Venice gardens were no longer a secret and the name was changed to Venice Garden Tour. Then in 2006, another dimension was added to highlight the new architecture that was transforming Venice streetscapes. This annual event became the Venice Garden and Home Tour.

This year´s tour on May 1st will be in two neighborhoods - Palms/Milwood and Oakwood. In a sense, some of what we will be seeing goes back to the original secret gardens. Co-chair Jan Brillot was determined to find gardens in Oakwood and she started knocking on doors, talking to people and discovering what was going on behind gates on the street and in the alley. "I know people come to Venice for the big fancy houses and the eye candy, but, I think people are also drawn here because they like what is a little off beat or something they would never find in their own neighborhood," she says.
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Venice Art Walk Artist Challenges the Norms of Perception

Since opening in 1970, the Venice Family Clinic has grown to become the largest free clinic in the country. Today, comprehensive primary health care and supportive services at seven locations in Los Angeles County are provided to over 24,400 low-income, uninsured and homeless individuals. More than ever, it is necessary to treat additional patients and the Clinic is always looking for ways to expand services, reach more people in need and stretch resources even further.

The Venice Art Walk & Auctions is the largest annual fundraiser, attracting more than 4,000 art lovers each year. The event is a celebration of art, architecture, music and fine cuisine. The net proceeds go towards providing medical visits for individuals with no other access to health care.

You can support the Clinic by participating on May 23rd in the tour of 50+ artists´ studios and bid on more than 400 original works of art, including paintings, sculpture, graphics, photography, cartoons and furniture provided by Los Angeles area and Venice Art Walk artists. Celebrations of art, architecture, music and fine cuisine are planned throughout the weekend. You will have a thoroughly enjoyable time while helping those in need.
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Hidden Venice Beach: A Walking Tour - words + photos by Don Mankin

Someone once wrote that if you tip the United States on edge, everything that´s loose will slide down to Los Angeles. I would add, if you tipped Los Angeles on edge, it will all slide down to Venice Beach.

The best place to see all those loose odds and ends is the "boardwalk," which has no boards but lots of asphalt. That is the Venice Beach known far and wide - the low rise mix of vintage buildings and radical modern architecture lining one side of the boardwalk and the vendors, entertainers, and champions of obscure causes with provocative signs -- "meat is murder" and "circumcision is worse" -- lining the other. And then there are the people walking along the boardwalk in outfits they would never wear at home.

Few visitors stray far from the boardwalk. Those who don´t miss the best show of all -- the other attractions that make Venice Beach the largest spontaneous outdoor theme park/playground and one of the most interesting communities in the world. To discover the hidden highlights of Venice Beach, just follow this easy, leisurely walking tour. It should take about three hours or more if you want to shop, linger, and eat, or less than three if you are in a hurry.
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Princess Bean´s Messy World - May through June

LAFD #63 Pancake Breakfast - May 1^st

Oakwood Labyrinth - May 1^st

AWBW´s Art in the Afternoon - May 2nd

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Traffic Circle Stop Signs

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Mikey 9/99 to 4/10

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