The Venice Heritage Museum is an opportunity to share and preserve over a century’s worth of stories, collections, and archives from one of America’s most legendary cities.

Our museum campus will serve as a common ground for all of Venice’s residents and visitors, located in Venice of America Centennial Park immediately west of Abbot Kinney Blvd and adjacent to the Venice-Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library along the gateway to Venice.

At 3.4 square miles, Venice, California is a small town with an impossibly large footprint on the world.

For more than 100 years, Venice has been a multi-cultural mecca for creativity, diversity, and personal expression. However, in this time of rapid change, the people, stories, and events that have made Venice, California a global destination are at risk of being forgotten.

First up: Restoring the Red Car!

The centerpiece of the Venice Heritage Museum will be a renovated Pacific Electric Red Car trolley generously donated to us by the Orange Empire Railway Museum. The Red Car will serve as the main location for the museum’s seasonal exhibits celebrating the many facets of Venice’s diverse history, showcased through our vast collections and virtual displays. 

Phase II of the campus will introduce a Venice bungalow donated to us by our architect, David Hertz and his Studio for Environmental Architecture. The bungalow will be renovated to replicate the original ‘Tokio Station’ ticketing booth on Venice Blvd (pictured above) that once served passengers right in front of the original Venice City Hall.  The building will provide exhibition and archival space for our Venice collection, as well as meeting space for the community.

In order to secure the lease to Venice-of-America Centennial Park and install our original 1905 Pacific Electric Red Car trolley at the park, we need to raise enough funds to cover Phase 1 of our business plan: $115,000. 

• Phase 1 funding will cover the expenses for:

  • Moving the Red Car out of its current location at the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, CA to a restoration site closer to Venice

  • Paying for rent, maintenance, and insurance at the temporary site

  • Professionally detoxing and restoring the Red Car to its original glory

  • Prepping the park site and moving the Red Car into Centennial Park once the exterior renovation is complete, where we will finish the interior restoration onsite (included in Phase 2)

  • Paying a professional grant writer to pursue additional funding opportunities for the project and hosting fundraising events

  • Partially funding Phase 2 of the project to demonstrate to the City of Los Angeles Department Recreation & Parks that we have adequate funds to maintain the operations of the project onsite as we continue our fundraising efforts

  • = $115,000 TOTAL

Projected Phase I Opening: SUMMER 2023

The Museum Campus

In addition to the Red Car and Tokio Station exhibit spaces, the Venice Heritage Museum campus will also feature a Community Corner stage in the southwest corner of the park. The Community Corner is intended to be a town square where everyone is welcome to gather.

We intend to provide a space for Venice residents and visitors to come together for events, live music, film nights, classes and more (as it becomes safe to do so again). 

Pictured above: Tongva elder, Angie Behrns, leading a closing ceremony at our exhibition, “A History of Venice”, with the Venice Institute of Contemporary Art at Beyond Baroque, September 2019.

Whether you are an Artist, Business Owner, Community Organizer, Craftsman, Dancer, Entrepreneur, Fashion Designer, Filmmaker, Musician, Philanthropist, Restaurateur, Storyteller (or too many more to list), this is a place for you.

The Community Corner will also serve as an affordable rental space for guest events, providing an additional source of revenue to support the museum’s operations. Lastly, we will have strict noise regulations in place in consideration of nearby neighbors and will ensure the utmost safety of our guests while events are underway.

Pictured above: VHF Board President and retired 35+ year Venice High School shop teacher, Grant Francis (“Mr. Francis”), sharing our project with the community.

Rounding out the Venice Heritage Museum campus, our Information Booth will serve as the first stop for visitors to explore Venice businesses, learn about our history, and obtain a wide array of recommendations only locals can provide in collaboration with the Venice Chamber of Commerce and Venice Neighborhood Council.

If you are a business down an alley, around a corner, or working out of your home, we want to help the community find you! Each month, we will feature a different local small business or maker, working on the ground in the community to ensure that all who might be interested are aware of the opportunity.

About Us: The Venice Heritage Foundation

We founded the Venice Heritage Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization, specifically for the purpose of building the first-ever history museum for Venice!

We are a broad-based group of volunteers, big in heart and community spirit, and dedicated to serving the needs of the greater Venice community. 

Pictured above (L-R): 3rd generation Venetian and artist, Takara Tomeoni Adair, talking about our project with a guest at the “A History of Venice” opening reception; Retired Venice High School teacher and Venice High School Alumni Association leader, Grant Francis, at a presentation of our project for the Playa Venice Sunrise Rotary; Venice native, advocate, and project manager, Kristina von Hoffmann, representing the Museum at the USC Archives Bazaar.

Our multigenerational Board of Directors is composed of born and raised Venetians, historians, educators, event planners, and other creative types who all share a passion for the preservation of Venice history, past and present.

Our overarching mission is to create an inclusive museum that preserves, showcases, and nurtures Venice’s historical legacy. 

We aim to establish a public campus that enriches the lives of current and future generations of Venetians and visitors through exhibitions, events, and activities hosted onsite, improving the present with the past.

Our organization and members have contributed to the celebration and preservation of Venice culture for years.

• We’ve helped produce events such as the revival Venice Mardi Gras and Neptune Festival parades.
• We’ve put on exhibitions like the month-long “A History of Venice” exhibition—a retrospective of Venice history in eleven parts curated by and for the community, in partnership with the Venice Institute of Contemporary Art and Venice literary arts landmark, Beyond Baroque. We’ve also assisted long-time local businesses such as Hoagies and Hama Sushi to share a slice of Venice history with their patrons by lending out historic posters, images, and memorabilia.
• We’re up for the task. However, this project is an all-hands-on-deck effort. Venice’s incredible history hangs in the balance unless we unite to make the museum a reality.

Join us at this pivotal moment to ensure that Venice’s full legacy lives on for generations to come!

Your support for Venice Heritage Museum

Our perks offer you a slice of Venice’s incredible history to wear, display, and share with pride.

From t-shirts and stickers, to legendary local artists’ prints, to naming opportunities on the museum campus—each benefit is designed to show your love for Venice through elements of our world-renowned culture of community, art, and design.

No matter how much money we raise, 100% of the funds will be put towards our ongoing efforts to launch the Venice Heritage Museum’s five-year business plan. The Venice Heritage Museum project is entirely volunteer-led, and every dollar of your contribution gets us one step closer to building the first-ever history museum for Venice!

Take a closer look at our perks and make your purchase in support of the Venice Heritage Museum today.

Venice’s Legacy

Abbot Kinney’s Venice-of-America. Slum By The Sea. Dogtown. Silicon Beach. 

Over the past 115+ years, Venice has earned a wide array of nicknames that parallel its unique and wide-ranging history.

Originally an amusement park for wealthy Angelenos, it developed into a haven for diverse, working-class people—including Black pioneers leaving the Jim Crow south, first and second-generation Central-American and Indigenous families, farmers and entrepreneurs of Japanese ancestry, and European Jewish refugees amongst others, all in search of economic opportunities and a better quality of life.

With a depressed economy and cheap rent following years of disinvestment post-WWII, Venice became an enclave for countercultural Beat poets and renegade political activists, spawning such movements as the Peace & Freedom Party and the region’s only printing press in support of the Vietnam Resistance. Trailblazing artists such as Larry Bell, Fred Eversley, and Lita Albuquerque were drawn to Venice’s beautiful light and large, affordable studio spaces by the beach.

The city was home to world-renowned design duo, Charles & Ray Eames, for nearly fifty years and it’s where influential, cutting-edge architects like Frank Gehry got their start. Once deemed the “Roller Skating Capital of the World”, Venice put roller dancing and street performance on the map, drawing thousands of tourists to the Boardwalk each year. The legacy of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gold’s Gym, and Muscle Beach have continued to attract the global bodybuilding community to this day.

…not to mention creative icons like Charlie Chaplin, The Doors, and Teena Marie who all got their start in Venice! And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Needless to say, the possibility for creative self-expression is the spirit of Venice. We think it’s about time Venice had its own museum to commemorate our city’s incredible history, ensuring that these stories continue to inspire for generations to come.

Other Ways You Can Help

We know some people just can’t contribute financially at this time but still want to support. Either way, these are ways you can help this campaign grow into a huge success—and by the way, we REALLY appreciate you! 

1. Follow us on the following social media platforms:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter

2. Like, comment, share, and retweet as many of our posts as you can. That will boost the visibility of the posts in the social media algorithms.  Post in your favorite groups, message your friends, and tweet about the campaign. Be sure to tag us at @veniceheritage and use the hashtags #VHM and #VeniceHeritage. If you do these things, you will be helping a TON!

And that’s all there is to it. Now let’s bring this museum to life!