Councilmember

SEATS AVAILABLE: 3

Councilmember

SEATS AVAILABLE: 1

Councilmember

SEATS AVAILABLE: 1

Councilmember

SEATS AVAILABLE: 1

Councilmember

SEATS AVAILABLE: 1

Josephine Villasenor

City: Long Beach City
Position Seeking: Councilmember

Question 1: Please share the most meaningful arts and cultural experience you had growing up.

When I would go to my family’s Pow Wow’s. I am Tongva, Mescalero Apache and Cherokee Mexican- Indian, Spaniard, Polynesian, Irish, Argentinean, Filipino, and Japanese. Having the Arts and Cultural is the best thing we can do for ourselves but also for our children. I am more open to anything and everything that life has to offer. I appreciate being exposed to the Arts and Cultures of my family. When I went to the different celebrations I was so amazed in how rich, how talented the people are.

Question 2: What do you think should be the role of City Council in the development and support of the region’s arts and cultural infrastructure?

I think that the City should be in the fore front of making sure that the Arts and Cultural are protected and supported throughout the City. We need more Museums and more school trips to the ones that are already established here in Long Beach. We send our children out of the City to other places, which is great but also hurts us too in the process. We need to make sure there is funding available to the Arts and Cultural. Maybe have Festivals, Parades and Celebrations that highlight Arts and Cultural in the City.

Question 3: What’s your vision for the city? What role, if any, does art and culture play in achieving that vision?

I want to make Long Beach the go to City for everyone from around the World to even our own backyard. Art and Culture goes hand in hand with any event that is thrown here in Long Beach. From an Veterans day event that display Arts, that shows what our soldiers go through to Beach Street Fest that show cases the Arts and Cultural aspects of our City. My vision is to have an Arts and Cultural event in every neighborhood in Long Beach from Bixby Knolls to MacArthur Park to the West side of Wrigley.

Questions 4: A recent report by the Otis College of Design found that 1 in every 7 jobs in LA County is supports the creative sector and economy in Los Angeles County. What strategies, if any, would you pursue to enhance the region’s creative economy (i.e. cultural tourism, indirect and direct jobs, nonprofit and for profit organizations)?

I would look for funding, have neighborhood art walks to showcase local talents, also partner with the long beach public access channel to shine a light on local artists through out long beach as well as our cultural side.

Daniel Lee

City: Culver City
Position Seeking: Councilmember

Question 1: Please share the most meaningful arts and cultural experience you had growing up.

As a child I fell in love with music and participated both in band (alto saxophone), played guitar, and sang in my church choir. Song was the way in which I dealt with and began to understand the world and how to cope with unpleasant things. As a child this mostly meant long car rides. My family frequently traveled from Florida to Alabama to visit my grandmother and other relatives and the whole family singing together to radio tunes is what made the frequent trips survivable.

Question 2: What do you think should be the role of City Council in the development and support of the region’s arts and cultural infrastructure?

Culver City has a rich history in the entertainment industry. The City Council should maintain and build on this legacy and endeavor to involve all of the residents of Culver City in that effort whether they are involved with the industry or not As a volunteer and mentor for the Young Storytellers Foundation since 2005 I have worked to involved elementary school students in acts of personal exploration around art The City Council should work with the school board to insure students and residents are exposed to the ruih tapestry of art available in Los Angeles County/

Question 3: What’s your vision for the city? What role, if any, does art and culture play in achieving that vision?

My vision for the city involves making it as walkable and bike-able as possible so that the rich artistic history that is already here can be consumed both by residents and people across Los Angeles County. Art plays a major role in all of this. Public art should be a consideration of all developments in the city. Furthermore the very popular art scene that takes place on Washington blvd and La Cienega should be more integrated with the City itself. The current council has approved Arts District Business Improvement District and this a great step in the right direction.

Questions 4: A recent report by the Otis College of Design found that 1 in every 7 jobs in LA County is supports the creative sector and economy in Los Angeles County. What strategies, if any, would you pursue to enhance the region’s creative economy (i.e. cultural tourism, indirect and direct jobs, nonprofit and for profit organizations)?

The city currently has a a number of incentives in law that encourage film production in Culver City and which encourage it to stay. We have also approved a new fiber optic network that should appeal to new creative businesses. But, can do more to support creative industry. The LA film festival has chosen to make Culver City the hub of its operations and Affair of the Arts will also be returning to Culver City this year. Based on our track record for these events we can seek partnerships with nonprofits to try to bring other art disciplines to Culver.

Dave Atkinson

City: El Segundo City
Position Seeking: Councilmember

Question 1: Please share the most meaningful arts and cultural experience you had growing up.

Type Herefrom the very beginning of Art being taught and participating in art itself opened up a whole world for me. The beauty of art is the great number of the different ways and types there are to view and participate in

Question 2: What do you think should be the role of City Council in the development and support of the region’s arts and cultural infrastructure?

Type Here The involvement of the City Council in art is a must. The more exposure of the arts that we can promote and endorse will result in greater awareness. This improves our very culture

Question 3: What’s your vision for the city? What role, if any, does art and culture play in achieving that vision?

Type Here We are very fortunate in El Segundo. The El Segundo Museum of Art opened a few years ago. This resulted in 3 Art Walks, bringing many people to town, that may never had visited our great city

Questions 4: A recent report by the Otis College of Design found that 1 in every 7 jobs in LA County is supports the creative sector and economy in Los Angeles County. What strategies, if any, would you pursue to enhance the region’s creative economy (i.e. cultural tourism, indirect and direct jobs, nonprofit and for profit organizations)?

Type Here I believe the more exposure of the arts will only help us all to develop our very own creativeness. There is art ability in all of us, it just needs to be unlocked. Push for more art expo’s.

Scott Wyant

City: Culver City
Position Seeking: Councilmember

Question 1: Please share the most meaningful arts and cultural experience you had growing up.

I earned my undergraduate degree at UC Irvine in the early 70s. The School of Fine Arts was a hotbed of scholarly work, great teachers and great artists. I was from a small California town and knew nothing when I arrived. The faculty included such luminaries as Tony DeLap, John Paul Jones, Phil Leider, Moira Roth, Barbara Rose, Edward Moses and Frank Roth. Chris Burden was a student and bought my roommates motorcycle (not the one he used in The Big Wheel) By most meaningful single experience was the Art History Class taught by Phil Leider. Best teacher ever.

Question 2: What do you think should be the role of City Council in the development and support of the region’s arts and cultural infrastructure?

As a city, Culver City has been encouraging the growth of our Arts District along East Washington Blvd. and La Cienaga, and we can continue to do so with support of the annual Art Walk. The city also supports such events as the IndieCade Festival, various film festivals, and can encourage the use of the newly renovated Veterans’ Auditorium as a venue for music and dance performance. Our two theaters (Actors’ Gang and Kirk Douglas) enjoy enthusiastic support from the populace and the city administration alike.

Question 3: What’s your vision for the city? What role, if any, does art and culture play in achieving that vision?

As I walk the city seeking votes I am struck by how the vast majority of Culver City residents are delighted with the current state of the city and the direction they see it heading Our new downtown Parcel B development will include a dedicated outdoor performance space and our Arts Commission will certainly be ready to attract events to that venue The city already has an art-in-public places ordinance which encourages the ongoing arts dialog in the city The new downtown east that’s springing up around our Metro station offers even more room for performance and arts venues.

Questions 4: A recent report by the Otis College of Design found that 1 in every 7 jobs in LA County is supports the creative sector and economy in Los Angeles County. What strategies, if any, would you pursue to enhance the region’s creative economy (i.e. cultural tourism, indirect and direct jobs, nonprofit and for profit organizations)?

Our economy in Culver City is already primarily based on the creative sector (Culver Studios, Sony Pictures Studios, the new internet and creative companies occupying the Hayden and Blackwelder Tracts, along with hundreds of home-based recording studios, architects, designers and internet entrepreneurs). One of my primary campaign platforms is to make sure that those creative businesses and non-profits have what they need to thrive — including the high speed fiber optic network we are building to tie all the disparate parts of our economy together — including our schools. Our future is very bright.

Dan Reid

City: Lawndale City
Position Seeking: Councilmember

Question 1: Please share the most meaningful arts and cultural experience you had growing up.

In my younger days, I not only participated in a few plays, I was also in our high school marching band. We had friends in the local Performing Arts Theater and enjoyed their performances. It has been a few years since our family has gone to a Live performance at a Theater, I would like to see More of an emphasis available in our schools.

Question 2: What do you think should be the role of City Council in the development and support of the region’s arts and cultural infrastructure?

City Council is a key element in encouraging and promoting the various cultural and art activities which we have within our community each year We encourage our residence to not only come to see performances of our various groups but to also participate in programs throughout the community which are sponsored by the diverse groups and entities which are active This includes our activities at Harold Hofmann Community Center, our Library and the Fairs which we put on annually. We have also incorporated Musical Themes and citizen Artwork in our recent park designs.

Question 3: What’s your vision for the city? What role, if any, does art and culture play in achieving that vision?

Art & Cultural are such a large part of our diverse culture, that it is not only a great cornerstone to build community functions on, but is key to embracing our ability to thrive side by side here in the Heart of the South Bay! I encourage anyone reviewing this to come to the Lawndale Spring Fair.

Questions 4: A recent report by the Otis College of Design found that 1 in every 7 jobs in LA County is supports the creative sector and economy in Los Angeles County. What strategies, if any, would you pursue to enhance the region’s creative economy (i.e. cultural tourism, indirect and direct jobs, nonprofit and for profit organizations)?

I am happy to assist in promoting businesses and non profits who are serving our youth in expressing themselves through Art & Cultural programs in our community. I have sponsored trips for youth and volunteered with several local youth programs so I am aware of the direct result they have in the growth and exposure to the Arts within our young generation. One of the most memorable was National Competition of Teens & Talent where our local youth group excelled in the awards, trophies & scholarships they secured by the talent we nurtured.