Oley Olsen

City: Avalon City
Position Seeking: Councilmember

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

Classical Music My parents loved classical music and played it all the time. My first lp album was The Nutcracker.

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?

The city should remove and roadblocks that organizers of events bring to their attention.

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

The City needs to encourage organizers of events to enlarge their offerings and diversity of opportunities in Avalon. We now have 3 art festivals, 2 music events, and a film festival. The city needs to help increase the number of events.

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)?

As Avalon’s economy is entirely based on visitor spending any thing we can do to add additonial oppurtinuties for are visitors will help the citizens of Avalon.

Robert Arthur Canales

City: Whittier City
Position Seeking: Councilmember

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

The most meaningful experience I had was actually toward the end of high school. My family was impoverished and had no money for pretty much anything. It was only on very rare occasions we went to museums.

In high school I joined the choir because I needed a performing arts class and I kind of sucked in the band class a couple of years previously. I must say I preferred the choir because it was more engaging, allowing me to use my voice. We also did actual concerts in the community.

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?

The City Council should fund the arts and promote greater multiculturalism. In Whittier we have a fund that we have a street banner program that gives money to people who win a banner contest. We also have photography and painting contests. We have extensive programs for this area in Whittier and they have been very successful.

I am very supportive of these programs because they make give our city a higher quality of life. I look forward to continuing the funding of them and other programs that may come up in the future.

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

I am looking for the revitalization of our city. One area we are working on is the Uptown Business district. Our city has hired consultants for the purpose of renovating and beautifying the area to make it more attractive to shoppers. The current plans will incorporate both art and culture. We will be redoing our streets, our sidewalks, benches and new art will be installed along Greenleaf.

In addition to this we have many Asian and Mexican restaurants, some with live entertainment, in the area with more scheduled to open.

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)?

What I am promoting for my city is cultural tourism We have a history and a set of values as a community that dates back to our founding There have been conversations about marketing our city as a cultural tourism destination I am also promoting a cultural exchange between our city and a city in northern Spain as part of a trade mission to that country that will put Whittier on the map of international trade I am in fact organizing a trip to Spain for this October which include visiting the historic cathedrals of the area.

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.

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.

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors 5th District

Posted by Charles Flowers · May 08, 2016 9:49 PM

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors 4th District

Posted by Charles Flowers · May 08, 2016 7:19 PM

Arcadia City

Posted by · March 14, 2016 1:34 PM

Victoria Martinez

City: El Monte City
Position Seeking: Councilmember

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

Always loved singing, so I joined the choir in middle school and continued to sing in high school. As a senior, we had the opportunity to travel to Hawaii and participate in an international choral competition, meeting students from Australia, New Zealand, including a Maori choir. 

We experienced the arts and culture of Hawaii as well as shared music with our peers.It was memorable and I continued, via pen pals, to experience and learn from international friends.

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?

First of all, recognizing that there is a lack of access and creating a strategic plan to address that lack of access. Regionally, we should be finding like minded partners/partnerships to explore a better presence of the arts. Also, the City Council should find and support those in the community who are doing the work, providing the arts and continue to promote the opportunities to be introduced to something new.

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

To be a recognized as a great place to live, work and raise a family in the San Gabriel Valley. Part of raising a family in El Monte, is exposure to the arts. To continue to place art in and around the city, or to host performances is part of the future for El Monte. Thanks to recent development within the city, there is an increase in our "Arts in public places" funding that needs to be strategically implemented.

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)?

Creating more opportunity to buy local, support local artists by providing venues for artists to share their goods would not only bring a great opportunity for arts exposure, but for the creative sector economy. Also, creating an arts culture, where arts non-profits feel welcome and supported would be a win-win for the El Monte community, and region.

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