A letter addressed to Robert Davis of Department of Parks and Recreation from Juri Koll, founder and director of Venice Institute of Contemporary Art (VICA), and carbon copied to Venice Update, indicates that Department of Parks and Recreation plans to use Westminster Senior Center as a Park Ranger Station. None of this has been confirmed.

Letter further implies that the Venice Institute of Contemporary Art will possibly be allowed to use the lobby along with Venice Historical Society using part of the building or lobby.

Excerpts of the letter to Robert Davis of Parks and Recreation are as follows:

I enjoyed our conversation the other day about your plans for a Park Ranger station at the former Westminster Senior Center, after having had a very productive meeting with Charles Singer and his staff about maintenance needs at the Center late last year. We were referred to Charles after an equally productive set of meetings with Mike Bonin’s office over a period of 2 years, including with Tricia Keane.

Your call was very encouraging about the Venice Institute of Contemporary Art (ViCA) utilizing the lobby space (once all the scheduled maintenance you mentioned is completed) for ongoing exhibitions to educate the community about the history of Venice as it relates to art and creatives, not to mention it’s storied history. We believe, as was suggested to us by Mike Bonin’s office when we started working with them over 2 years ago, that working with the Venice Historical Society would be a good fit to coordinate with as well. We believe it’s a great use for the space and also believe that there needs to be a way to continue to protect and maintain the boardwalk and other Parks & Rec designated areas so that Venice can continue to be the most important and popular tourist destination in Los Angeles.

As you know, we at ViCA were recognized by the Venice Neighborhood Council unanimously in 2014 and were presented with a Certificate of Recognition by Mayor Eric Garcetti and the City of Los Angeles in September 2015 by Daniel Tamm for our work celebrating the diversity of creativity in Los Angeles.

In short, we would like some clarity on how this property will be used and what we can do to assist in your decision-making process.