The Venice Heritage Museum (VHM)’s mission is to preserve, showcase, and nurture Venice’s diverse historical legacy. The museum gives visitors to Venice the opportunity to experience stories, collections, and archives from one of the country’s most culturally rich and innovative communities: Venice, California. Venice’s accepting and progressive past is on display, highlighting both well-known and more obscure stories and showcasing their relevance to the Venice of today.
Event One: Fourth Fridays at VHM
The museum becomes a happy hour hub every fourth Friday of the month. Mingle among other locals and learn more about Venice’s past with a guided tour through the museum collection.
Beer and wine available.
- Friday, May 23, 2025
- 5:00–7:00 pm
- Free Event
- VHM, 228 Main Street, Venice 90291
EVENT TWO: Opening Reception for Buried Years
- Saturday, May 31, 2025
- 4:00–6:00 pm
- VHM, 228 Main Street, Venice 90291
- Free Event
Join us for the opening of Buried Years, presented at the Venice Heritage Museum by the Advanced Photography students at Venice Arts.
In 2024–25, these students embarked on a special project, examining archival materials, visiting historical sites, conducting interviews, and creating artwork in response to the forced removal and internment of Japanese Americans in Los Angeles during WWII.
Blocks from the Venice Arts campus is the Venice Japanese American Memorial Monument, marking the historic departure point to the Manzanar internment camp in the Eastern Sierras. Our students followed the same route, traveled to Manzanar, stayed overnight, and photographed throughout the National Historic Site.
The results of this twenty-four-week project are this exhibition in VHM’s back gallery and a zine—a creative effort to connect this history to contemporary civil liberty threats and the personal lives of the participating students.
