Lynn Warshafsky
Founder and Executive Director
In her role as Founding Executive Director of Venice Arts, Lynn led the creation of Venice Arts' award-winning media arts education, mentoring, and college pathways programs for low-income Los Angeles-area youth, ages 10-18, as well as the recent launch of its Center for Creative Workforce Equity, providing creative education and training to low-income young people, ages 18-24, to prepare them for work in the creative sector. Since 1998, she has also led Venice Arts’ work with local and international NGOs, academic institutions, and philanthropic organizations to support the creation of participant-produced film and photo storytelling projects with multiple national partners in South and West Africa, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and the United Kingdom, among others.
In 2007, together with Jim Hubbard, Dr. Neal Baer, and the University of Southern California's (USC) then Dean, Geoffrey Cowan, Lynn co-founded the Institute for Photographic Empowerment at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, launching the first-ever Minor in the field. A Fellow and Visiting Scholar at the Annenberg School (2008-09), from 2000–04 she also held a Faculty appointment at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) where, from 1990 to 2004, she was a consultant and trainer for the UCLA School of Medicine's Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.
In 2023, Lynn was honored for her leadership by Senator Ben Allen, who named Venice Arts a California Nonprofit of the Year. In 2019, photo l.a. honored Lynn for the quality and impact of Venice Arts Advanced Studies Photography programs for teens. Lynn received the Inspiring Leader Award from the Center for Nonprofit Management and, in 2014, was given the Milestone Certificate, awarded to only seven arts leaders nationwide by the National Guild for Community Arts Education. In 2003, she received a Fellowship from Stanford University for the Graduate School of Business's program Nonprofit Leaders: Arts and, in 2002, was selected as one of 10 county arts leaders selected to participate in the LA County Arts Commission’s Arts Leadership Initiative. She has been an invited lecturer on visual communication, participatory media, and social change at, among other institutions, Stanford University, UCLA, USC, Colorado College, and the Aspen Institute’s Paris Convening on Culture and the Arts.
In addition to her work at Venice Arts, Lynn has been an organization development consultant for more than 30 years, consulting with arts and human service organizations, foundations, philanthropists, academic institutions, and governmental agencies. She studied photography as an undergraduate student and at the Los Angeles Women’s Building, where she also taught. She received her Master's degree in Psychology in 1982 and has held a license in the State of California since 1985.