“Creativity is at the heart of democracy,” Culver City’s former Artist Laureate Alexey Steele enthused, “and we are the Heart of Screenland for a reason. The creative economy is why this place exists.”
At the Helms Design District on July 15, 2026, the Culver City Arts Foundation held a reception to close out the second phase of it’s unique installation, Projecting Possibilities, and begin raising funds for the next iteration. The party saw many of the artists (and members of the audience) gather to commemorate the occasion.
Former NPR host and author Lisa Napoli was the moderator interviewing the panel of some of the participating artists; Jeff Morrical, Paal Anand, Sya Warfield, Charlene Shih and Joel Gomez. The artists each spoke about what an intriguing challenge it was to put their art into the unique format.
“Taking something that’s was created with paint or textiles or paper and illuminating it through glass – that’s a whole other thing,” Napoli offered her appreciation.
Culver Arts Co-founder and former Vice-Chair Sehnita Joshua Mattison who led the curation for the second round of the exhibit, noted “It has been a wildly successful collaboration with the Helms Design District. While [they] led the curation and technical execution of the first round, which featured sixty artists every week, Culver Arts stepped up to curate the next group, with sixteen featured artists, one per month.”
The original idea, to give people an open-air art gallery during the pandemic, led to a long term exhibit of inspiration and beauty happening nightly after dark in the Arts District. Culver Arts provided grants to each artist, and increased the funding from the first round for the second. The organization is asking for donations to do a third round.
Artist Jeff Morrical is the final presentation on this second part of the ‘Possibilities,’ and his work will be shown every night from 8 pm to 2 am until July 31, 2026.
What will the next iteration of this unique exhibit be like? Imagine the possibilities…
Helms Design Center: 8745 Washington Blvd, Culver City
Judith Martin-Straw
To donate to CAF, go to //culverarts.org/give-now/
“Folded Watercolor” by Jeff Morrical
