Mayor Villaraigosa's office recognized Venice Arts in December. John Brady, the Mayor's westside deputy, presented both Venice Arts and long-time photography mentor Russell Baer with awards recognizing their positive contribution to Los Angeles youth. Venice Arts also presented John with a series of photos taken by the young photographers in Russell's class at the Mayor's Day of Service in Venice.

MOTHER-TO-MOTHER: Living with AIDS in South Africa On February 8th a Venice Arts team leaves for Cape Town to teach 15 moms living with HIV how to document their lives and tell their stories photographically. The first exhibit of what we anticipate will be extraordinary work will be at the Venice Art Walk on May 21, 2006. (more)

Business Art Circle (BAC) Profile  We talked with Dan Guzman, co-owner of Serafim Guzman Landscape, a 32 year old Venice-based business and BAC member since 2004. Dan's nephew, Michael, now 15, participated at Venice Arts from age 5 (see examples of his photos from South Africa or visit his Flash Animation on our web page), and Dan's sister, Elvira, is a parent representative on our Board. Dan believes that it is good to give something back...(more)

Special thanks to James Beach for hosting our first BAC Mixer in November and to the many businesses who renewed their membership or joined us for the first time in 2005! Click here for a complete list of members and to learn about the advantages of joining.