Venice Family Clinic's Alison Dockray
Photo: Courtesy of Venice Family Clinic
In its 29th year, the Venice Family Clinic's Venice Art Walk & Auction will hit the beachside city this weekend. Overseeing the festival is Alison Dockray, associate development director for the clinic. Although Dockray works on other fund-raisers throughout the year, including a major donor dinner called "Silver Circle," the Venice Art Walk & Auction is the clinic's largest event. Open art studios, architecture tours through private homes, and receptions will happen Saturday and Sunday with the help of 600 volunteers.
There's no live auction this year. Why?
It competed with our silent auction and it was hard to sell art that way, especially since there are so many other nonprofits doing the same thing. So we felt like we should go back to what we know best and what is reflective of the Venice community.
We’ve always had a kickoff party with an exhibit a couple of weeks before the event, but this year we did something fun and new and called it an "art happening." We had dancers, a painter doing a live performance, and a filmmaker doing a special film project. We were offering more for people to see instead of just coming to meet the artists and have a cocktail. This time we worked with an advertising agency called Team One, which donated its services. The group came up with a new theme for us: "For two days, Venice becomes an art museum."How do you find homes to showcase for the art and architecture tours?
It’s really hard, so that’s where our volunteers come in. Many of our volunteers on that steering committee are well connected or they have an interest in architecture. It might be a friend's house, or they may go to an architectural firm or go to the architects themselves, and then [the architects] go to the homeowner and ask if they would open up their homes. As you can imagine, it’s not easy to open up your home, especially if it has a lot of valuables, but a lot of these people do it because they are longtime supporters of the Venice Family Clinic—they believe in what we do.
How do you choose the artists?
Again, it's word of mouth. We have a core group of artists who have been on the art walk for many years, but we’re always looking for new artists or waiting to hear about new artists that moved into town.
How do you find and run the volunteer group?
We’ve been around for a long time; it’s a well-known event, so a lot of people have been in our database for years. We get volunteers through word of mouth, we put flyers out to the art colleges, and the Web site has also helped. When you need 600 people, you need to entice volunteers and offer them something. It’s usually people who want a $50 ticket in exchange.
I have a steering committee that I work with, but we all have subcommittees. I have a person on staff, a volunteer and special projects coordinator, whose job it is [to oversee volunteers]. Each committee has its own set of volunteers.
How do you work with city agencies?
We work with the City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation for street closures and no-parking signs. We also have to get alcohol permits. We work with the city council office to put up street banners. There’s a lot of red tape, but they’re all very cooperative, so it usually runs pretty smoothly.
How has the Venice Art Walk grown, and what challenges do you surmount?
When I started here 18 years ago, our staff was much smaller, and the event was volunteer-run—I was pretty much the only one on our staff that worked on the event. We still have many volunteers who work on this event, but we have a much larger staff at the clinic.
We want to try to keep it fresh every year; an obstacle is letting people know that there is something new to see. We spend more and more money on marketing and publicizing [the event].
One other major challenge that’s getting worse every year is finding places for people to park. One thing I hear is, "I couldn’t find parking, so I’m not coming to your event." The more congested the city gets, the less people like to get in their cars and drive across town. The obstacle really is convincing people that it’s easy to get to.
Our overall goals are that we have an event that runs very smoothly that people want to come back to, that we raise money for the Venice Family Clinic, and that we make a lot of new connections with future donors. One of the biggest benefits [of the Venice Art Walk] is that it helps us to build relationships in the community.
There's no live auction this year. Why?
It competed with our silent auction and it was hard to sell art that way, especially since there are so many other nonprofits doing the same thing. So we felt like we should go back to what we know best and what is reflective of the Venice community.
We’ve always had a kickoff party with an exhibit a couple of weeks before the event, but this year we did something fun and new and called it an "art happening." We had dancers, a painter doing a live performance, and a filmmaker doing a special film project. We were offering more for people to see instead of just coming to meet the artists and have a cocktail. This time we worked with an advertising agency called Team One, which donated its services. The group came up with a new theme for us: "For two days, Venice becomes an art museum."How do you find homes to showcase for the art and architecture tours?
It’s really hard, so that’s where our volunteers come in. Many of our volunteers on that steering committee are well connected or they have an interest in architecture. It might be a friend's house, or they may go to an architectural firm or go to the architects themselves, and then [the architects] go to the homeowner and ask if they would open up their homes. As you can imagine, it’s not easy to open up your home, especially if it has a lot of valuables, but a lot of these people do it because they are longtime supporters of the Venice Family Clinic—they believe in what we do.
How do you choose the artists?
Again, it's word of mouth. We have a core group of artists who have been on the art walk for many years, but we’re always looking for new artists or waiting to hear about new artists that moved into town.
How do you find and run the volunteer group?
We’ve been around for a long time; it’s a well-known event, so a lot of people have been in our database for years. We get volunteers through word of mouth, we put flyers out to the art colleges, and the Web site has also helped. When you need 600 people, you need to entice volunteers and offer them something. It’s usually people who want a $50 ticket in exchange.
I have a steering committee that I work with, but we all have subcommittees. I have a person on staff, a volunteer and special projects coordinator, whose job it is [to oversee volunteers]. Each committee has its own set of volunteers.
How do you work with city agencies?
We work with the City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation for street closures and no-parking signs. We also have to get alcohol permits. We work with the city council office to put up street banners. There’s a lot of red tape, but they’re all very cooperative, so it usually runs pretty smoothly.
How has the Venice Art Walk grown, and what challenges do you surmount?
When I started here 18 years ago, our staff was much smaller, and the event was volunteer-run—I was pretty much the only one on our staff that worked on the event. We still have many volunteers who work on this event, but we have a much larger staff at the clinic.
We want to try to keep it fresh every year; an obstacle is letting people know that there is something new to see. We spend more and more money on marketing and publicizing [the event].
One other major challenge that’s getting worse every year is finding places for people to park. One thing I hear is, "I couldn’t find parking, so I’m not coming to your event." The more congested the city gets, the less people like to get in their cars and drive across town. The obstacle really is convincing people that it’s easy to get to.
Our overall goals are that we have an event that runs very smoothly that people want to come back to, that we raise money for the Venice Family Clinic, and that we make a lot of new connections with future donors. One of the biggest benefits [of the Venice Art Walk] is that it helps us to build relationships in the community.
