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RESOURCES FOR CREATIVE CHANGEArchive for Los Angeles
Venice Arts
Venice Arts is an organization that provides photography, film and art skill and mentoring programs to build young people in the neighborhoods of Venice, CA.
Their mission is to bring “talented artists together with low-income young people to nurture their creativity, imagination, and talent. Our programs focus on those whose access to the arts, as artists or audience, has been limited.
Venice Arts’ mentor-artists guide young people through experiences with the arts, exposing them to the tools, ideas, and environments that help them express their creativity, build positive interethnic relationships, and improve their academic performance and job readiness.”
Visit their site to learn more. Venice Arts is also affiliated with the Institute for Photographic Empowerment (IPE).
A Window Between Worlds
A Window Between Worlds (AWBW) is an organization based in Venice, CA that uses art as a healing tool for victims of domestic violence.
AWBW has a unique vision as “the only organization offering comprehensive training and ongoing support to domestic violence programs wishing to use art as a healing tool for battered women and children. By training shelter staff to lead workshops, AWBW builds the capacity of shelters. We provide our years of experience in arts program development, ongoing consultation, and the support of a network of 220 leaders in order to empower staff, who often lack experience with art prior to our training, to offer art as a meaningful resource to domestic violence survivors. Implementing the art program becomes part of the regular duties of each leader, making it a permanent addition to each shelter’s services. “
AWBW is also committed to evaluating program effectness to continually improve the quality of their service:
“…impact of the art workshops (are evaluated) through targeted and quantifiable questions on workshop logs completed after each session by art program leaders. The logs provide leaders with a way to debrief after each art session, to continually reexamine their approach, and to learn from their experiences. On a monthly basis, the leaders review their logs and submit them to AWBW, along with a monthly evaluation report that addresses specific questions regarding the effectiveness of the program, including its impact on their clients’ growth, healing, and empowerment over time. At the conclusion of each year, leaders submit an annual evaluation summarizing program accomplishments and its usefulness in their clients’ overall healing process.”
Please visit their site for further information on AWBW’s programs and how to get involved.
