Creative Equity Scholarship Fund

CONTRIBUTE TO THE CREATIVE EQUITY SCHOLARSHIP FUND

To give in memory of an individual noted above, please click here. To discuss a significant gift or bequest, or creating a named fund, please contact Jaime Zavala

In 2012, Venice Arts launched the Creative Equity Scholarship Fund to support low-income young people involved at Venice Arts and on a path to college or a creative career. Contribute to this fund, here.

Ted Warshafsky with two of his five grandchildren

The inaugural gift, The Ted M. Warshafsky Scholarship, was created in memory of Founding Executive Director Lynn Warshafsky's dad. It keeps alive the legacy of Ted's Anne Frank | Emmett Till Scholarship Fund, which provided scholarships to young people in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to honor two innocent young people who, in Ted's words, "were slaughtered in their teens at the altar of bigotry: Anne Frank by the Nazis because she was Jewish; Emmett Till by the KKK because he was African American."

Consistent with Ted's approach, scholarships are based on financial need and dedication to learning, not grades. Ted believed that all motivated young people should have the opportunity to go to college, as he knew from his own experience growing up in poverty on Chicago’s South Side, that such an experience can be transformative.

Artist John Baldessari

In 2016, the Fund was doubled through a generous gift from the John Baldessari Family Foundation, and allowed us to expand support for a wide-range of creative development opportunities.

Photographer Gregg Michael Zwirn

GREGG MICHAEL ZWIRN MEMORIAL FUND

In 2018, the family of photographer Gregg Michael Zwirn honored his memory through the creation of a memorial fund to support the next generation of young photographers enrolled in our programs. His family and loved ones have supported the fund every year since. His story, and a gallery of his photographs, can be found here.

JAKE COLMAN SCHOLARSHIP FUND

In 2023, in celebration of Venice Arts’ 30th anniversary and in affirmation of its future, Ed and Terry Colman announced the Jake Colman Scholarship Fund in memory of their son, who passed away “suddenly, unexpectedly, and tragically on December 28, 2013” at the age of 24.

They launched the fund with a significant gift and a commitment to fund every year so that they may know the young people who benefit from scholarships given in their son’s name. At their passing, Ed and Terry are leaving a bequest to Venice Arts that will significantly expand our creative scholarship program.

Read a letter from Ed and Terry, and learn about what moved them to make this generous contribution as an “enduring legacy of our beautiful boy.”