When Culver City School District Arts Coordinator Heather Moses opened the doors to her guests on Friday, April 18, 2025, she had a long list of things to show. But this wasn’t just a victory lap. The event was created by the LA Department of Arts and Culture, and the LA County Arts Ed Collective; a multi-campus tour to showcase the many ways that CCUSD teaches the arts.
The Academy of Visual and Performing Arts, an after-school program, is widely known for Theater, Film, Dance, Visual Arts and Music education. Many of the top notch arts classes taught during school hours have flown under the radar, and not received their share of applause. Classes at Farragut Elementary, Culver City Middle School and Culver City High School all caught a bit of spotlight.
“We were invited to showcase our arts program to the collectives funders who support the Advancement Grant that we have received for the last 11 years, since 2014,” Moses offered.
The Video Game Design, 2-D Animation, Film, Orchestra, Architecture, and Ceramics classes all allowed the tour to walk through and get a glimpse of what creative education was currently cooking.
Culver City’s Cultural Affairs Manager, Sally Unsworth, was impressed with the Video Game classes and the e-sports team. “They have some really good things in focus.”
The 2-D Animation class was working on perspective, and monitors all over the room showed the varied and individual projects that assignment was helping to create. The class had just completed a unit on character design, with the finished results up on display.
The Ceramics room – formerly the classroom that housed auto-shop classes – had students focused in on teacher Craig Wisner doing wheel work, so they could use that as a base for a hand-built ceramic piece. Wisner offered “While we are focused on the clay, a lot of what happens in this class is the conversations we have while we are creating.” The class is so popular, it’s only available to 12th graders, and admission is by lottery.
Holly Gable, who also teaches film at the AVPA, was experimenting with lighting design with her students. Cameras, light screens, cell phones, reflections – all of it was fair game for the nascent film makers, working both inside and out on the lawn, while the clouds shifted every few minutes into a different lighting challenge.
As the educator leading the charge, Heather Moses touched base with the teachers, fielded questions from the tour, and offered some of the success stories that each one of the classes had earned. When it was pointed out that not all school districts even had an Arts Coordinator, Moses gave a full run down on what her focus was.
“My role is to fulfill the district’s commitment to ensuring access to the valuable academic and social/emotional benefits that students receive by participating in arts programs. I work with the Culver City Education Foundation, business and foundation grantmakers, and government funding sources to coordinate resources to support these programs in our schools.”
At the end of the morning, some students were available to answer questions about their experiences, and both Amira Warren of the Visual Arts program and Erika Kusano of the Architecture class held that their creative education was central for them. Warren said “Academics is important, sure, but creativity teaches you how to find the big answers.”
Judith Martin-Straw
Photo – Character designs from the Animation class.