the house is small, but..

Well I think my honeymoon with Los Angeles is offcially over, as 2 hr. bus rides(thats 4 hours a day) are only tolerable for so long. However, I will be moving very close to work this weekend, so its only a few days longer.

The big news for Venice Arts is the continuation of an Africa photography project entitled "The House is Small, but the Welcome is Big." It began in 2006 with Venice Arts folks travelling to Capetown and giving out digital cameras to women and children living with HIV. The resulting photographs are SO amazing and meaningful. You can see them here if you like: http://www.venice-arts.org/studentWork/socialart/ilivehere/ilivehere.html. On August 1st, my supervisor, Joanne, as well as both directors of V.A. and a few others will be travelling over there again and handing out cameras to teens. They will be gone for a month and I will be assisting with the website that is being created to document this project. Already last week, I assisted in getting photos ready, resizing, and getting copy ready. This is a really exciting project!

Also Pablo Toledo, our director of digital media, has been responsible for creating the Institute for Photographic Empowerment at USC. This place will be a resource for those interested in doing work similar to V.A. or for other institutions who would like to offer info. This is a great exciting endeavor as well.

As for me the past two weeks, I assisted in hanging an art show(my first time!) that will raise money for Venice Arts. It's called Gates of Venice and features 38 of the many gates in Venice. All of which are a colored eccentric variety. I taught 2 more Art Discovery classes for the lil tykes- intro to drawing and making musical instruments. I'm also the tech support person for the weekday classes. I get printers to print, scanners to scan, and monitors to well...monitor. I learned some about routers and access points as well as the need of wep passwords.

I had a meeting on the beach with my supervisor(like so l.a.- hahaha) and we discussed my involvement in the Beyond Myspace website. Besides acting as an online moderator and facilitator, I will be working on the actual design of the site. I will create a logo and redesign the site for usability as well as aesthetically. I'm also working on finding individuals to act as guides on creating a Policy Committee. My only problem so far, is that this information is rather vague and not detailed enough for me to actually be doing anything. I've been doing research and writing down ideas, but my supervisor is consumed with this upcoming trip. I suppose I wish I could be of more use. But the people at V.A. tell me I am doing good whether I know it or not.

Comment from Sarah Pierantoni on July 18, 2007 - 10:32pm

Hey Angela,

Your day to day tasks sound awesome. I went to the website the African Photography project, and I think it is just amazing. If Venice Arts has any openings for a videographer after this VISTA year, please let me know...

Traffic in L.A. is horrendous, good luck with the move and I love hearing about your organization!

~Sarah