At just 3.4 square miles Venice is a tiny town with a vast, multifaceted and unceasingly eccentric history, which, for the first time ever, will be captured in a community museum.
Over the last 116 years Venice has been home to a diverse range of denizens — from Black Americans fleeing the Jim Crow south, to Central-American and indigenous families, Japanese immigrants and European Jewish refugees.
It has been a center for the beat generation, Dogtown skateboarders, and bodybuilding boom and helped launch the careers of numerous creative icons including Charlie Chaplin, the Doors and Teena Marie.
Recognizing both the city’s unique heritage and rapidly changing demographics, generations of Venetians are working together to ensure the area’s multi-cultural history is not lost. Collectively they have created a grassroots fundraiser and are seeking to raise $115,000 to launch the Venice Heritage Museum.
The museum will be located in Centennial Park, just west of Abbot Kinney Boulevard, and serve as a gathering space for all residents and visitors. It will feature a 1905 Pacific Electric Red Car trolley, a historic bungalow renovated to replicate the original ‘Tokio Station’ ticketing booth on Venice Blvd, and a stage for community events.
The initiative is spearheaded by the Venice Heritage Foundation, an organization dedicated to preserving, showcasing and nurturing Venice’s historical legacy.
“I think the museum is truly going to expand people’s minds,” said third-generation Venetian and Board Member of the Venice Heritage Museum, Takara Tomeoni Adair. “I think Venice has always been known for expanding people’s minds. It is a beautiful, completely diverse community that showcases people from every possible spectrum of life.”
Adair recognizes that while diversity has always been part of the fabric of Venice, many residents of color have been pushed out of the gentrifying neighborhood in recent decades. She is currently working on an oral history of community elders that will be featured in the museum to ensure that their stories are not forgotten.
The Venice Heritage Museum will grapple with the complexities of Venice’s history, like gentrification, and acknowledge the controversial community politics that stretch back to the earliest days of Abbot Kinney’s development.
“Local politics are incredibly fraught and parts of Venice’s history are undoubtedly problematic,” said Board Secretary Kristina von Hoffmann. “I don’t think the museum is going to change that in one fell swoop, but for me the museum is a beacon of hope for the Venice community. It will create a space that’s representative of all the different facets of Venice’s history.”
While the project has been in the works for well over a decade, the initial opening of the museum is slated for summer 2023. In order to bring this vision to fruition, the Venice Heritage Foundation is asking all local residents to donate whatever they can.
The $115,000 they are seeking to collect for Phase I of development will allow the organization to secure the lease to the Centennial Park location and install the 1905 Pacific Electric Red Car trolley at the park.
There are a series of perks that come with all levels of donations. These range from the $25 ‘boardwalk special’, which includes incense, matches, stickers and a postcard, to the $200,000 privilege to name the red trolley car. In between there are opportunities to receive a variety of Venice memorabilia and have a message installed in various locations of the museum.
More information on the project and a link to donate can be found at: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/we-re-building-a-museum-for-venice#/
Clara@smdp.com
