The noted Culver City architect Clive Wilkinson will host “Designing the Future: Culver City,” a fundraiser for Thomas Small, who is running for a seat on the City Council. The event will be Wednesday, Feb. 24, at 7 o’clock, at Clive Wilkinson Architects, 6116 Washington Blvd.
John B. Williams, the renowned jazz bass player, will perform music and spoken word. Other guest artists will join him.
Champagne and refreshments by the celebrity chef Spencer Gray will be served.
A silent auction of original art and sketches by leading architects will be held.
Architectural models of Culver City sites will be exhibited. Among these will be the Robert Frost Auditorium, renovated by Culver City-based architect Craig Hodgetts.
“Quite a few of our guests will be architects,” Mr. Small said. “I envision Culver City residents mingling with architects and discussing with them the many ways great design can help our city thrive.”
Guests also will have the opportunity to hear Mr. Small speak about his ideas for a sustainable Culver City that will work for everyone.
He will focus in particular on conscientious development, growing the city’s creative businesses, and ways to engage more residents in the city’s civic life.
“I am running as an advocate for the creative economy and as an advocate for excellence in design,” Mr. Small said.
“Brilliant planning and design stimulate a vibrant economy. Together they create a higher quality of life. If I am elected, I will help Culver City become an even brighter beacon — for its creative and high-tech economy, and for the superior urban planning, architecture and urban design that will improve our quality of life and attract creative, innovative businesses.”
Mr. Small serves on the Cultural Affairs Commission. As a commissioner, She initiated Culver City’s new Artist and Poet Laureate program, helped bring an international film festival to Culver City, and moderated the Cultural Affairs Foundation’s Architecture Talks, created to engage Culver City residents and city leaders in a conversation about the potential of excellent design to improve a community.
As a commissioner, he is working to update the city’s approach to historic preservation. He also serves on the commission’s Art in Public Places subcommittee, working closely with all new major development projects in Culver City.
Mr. Small is an architectural writer and an expert in the fields of architecture and historic preservation, urban design and conscientious development. He collaborates with architects, designers, engineers, developers and communities to create and enhance architectural projects, neighborhoods, and developments.
He and his wife, Joanna Brody, have two young children who attend Linwood Howe Elementary, where she is PTA president. He is a parent-volunteer in the before-school Spanish enrichment program, which his wife co-founded. Mr. Small has also coached AYSO youth soccer.
Board chair of Jacaranda Music, the internationally renowned classical music series, he is a board member of the Architectural Foundation of Los Angeles. A graduate of Yale University, he held a French national fellowship at the University of Paris, and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship at Columbia University’s School of Journalism. He is fluent in Spanish, French and Italian.
Tickets for the fundraiser may be purchased online or by mail. The cost is $100 per person or $150 per couple.
For more information and to RSVP, email coco@thomas4culvercity.org.
http://www.thomas4culvercity.org