Submitted by the Culver City Unified School District
Young visual artists from Culver City High School’s Academy of Visual & Performing Arts (AVPA) program, who are dual enrolled in West LA College’s Visual Arts classes, will present the first-of-its-kind art exhibition featuring their original work.
Curated by working artist, curator, writer and art critic Doug Harvey, the exhibition opens Wednesday evening, May 18, with an open house from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. in the Fine Arts Building on the campus of West LA College (WLAC). This exhibition also marks re-opening of West LA College’s legendary Fine Art Gallery with L.A.’s next generation of Art Stars!
“This has been a remarkable partnership between West LA and Culver High. Working with these students is so Inspiring,” said Harvey. This current group of students is all ninth-graders. “As younger students, they are at a turning point of unfiltered energy, and gaining confidence and knowledge of art history,” he added. “This is a great group. I just stand back and steer. Even at that, they actually don’t need much steering. They are very open and curious, and are so positive about life. That makes it really fun.”
The benefits these students receive from working with WLAC are numerous, including the great privilege of working with professional artists.
“The art world is mysterious and complex,” said Harvey. “The students get to interact with professors who are working in the art world.”
Harvey, a working artist, who during his tenure as lead art critic for LA Weekly, was considered “one of the most important voices on art in the city” by editor (at the time) Tom Christie.
“An art critic who is read all over the country, is smart, snappy, original, has an independent open eye, a quick wit, is not boring and never academic” wrote New York Magazine critic Jerry Saltz, and “a master of the unexpected chain-reaction of thought” said Pulitzer Prize-winning L.A. Times critic Christopher Knight.
The open house will include CCHS/AVPA’s fabulous jazz band, ceramics demonstrations and refreshments. It is free and open to the public. Come see the students’ work and what West LA College’s Visual Arts has to offer. (Please note: Masks are mandatory inside all West LA College buildings.)
