Venice Oceanarium: Teaching Ocean Life Through Art
I attended the Abbot Kinney Festival this year, briefly. I have had a troll and this troll does not want me in Venice and wants to drive me out of Los Angeles. Frankly I suspect it is a mean girl who is abusing me for religious and actually sexually discriminatory reasons. We teach women that other women who are older or less “cool” are fair game for abuse. This is somewhat off the topic of art, but we teach women to compete I think more then men. I decided this year to get to the festival early and do a quick walk through to see if there was anything I could find interesting. Check out my Instagram for a few videos and photos I took. There were some rather excellent dancers parading through the streets.
One of the participants this year who typically is there every year is the Venice Oceanarium. They have a display of information and skeletal remains of local ocean wild life. I discovered that they are working on creating a gallery at the end of the Venice Fishing Pier. This gallery will be called the “Venice Oceanarium.” It will be a pavilion with gallery space for art and also consist of a Marine Museum and aquarium, displaying animals local to Venice Beach. It will also be free to the public.
The mission of the organization is “to impart a better understanding of the ocean and the life within it through the arts and science and to celebrate the unique natural beauty of Venice Beach.”
It was pointed out to me that what makes this Aquarium unique is that Art is part of its mission. It intends to show art of the area. If I understand their intent, the art will be of the ocean life in Venice Beach. I think they should have a section for visiting artists or local artists and that the wall changes periodically. Say a show of someone’s work for a month or two. They also could partner with other groups in Los Angeles or organizations like National Geographic, but only show photos and images for sea life from the region. I do not think the intent is to make it a selling gallery space but a learning space.
The Oceanarium for example could do a Shark Week exhibit. One of the first times I visited California, my Ex boyfriend’s cousins took us to a pier, and I think it was down further South. While on the pier I saw a man pull a small shark up that he had caught on his fishing line. These are just ideas I have and I have no say in what they decide to do, just sharing.
The Venice Oceanarium sponsors some interesting events. They already set up an exhibit at the end of the Venice Pier at the end of Washington Blvd most Sundays from 11:00 to 3:00 pm. Grunion Parties. In the spring and summer. Grunions, tiny fish unique to Southern California, come to shore to lay eggs and they are given a party.
Every year since 1995 the Oceanarium hosts a reading of Moby Dick at the beach. They serve clam chowder and anyone who wants can offer to read some pages. I have participated. I actually went and cold read a chapter of the book. If you are an actor it is great practice. Warning wear layers, it is cold at the beach at night. I think someone should offer to make them Vegan Clam Chowder as an addition. Moby Dick is a powerfully written book that I always kind of saw as a tribute to the power of Nature.
The organization also offers school activities and after school programs and field trips.
For more information or to get involved see their website.
