Family Clinic’s Need for Funding Lends Urgency to Art Walk Benefit

There will be an air of urgency to the annual Venice Art Walk next Sunday.

The art walk is the principal annual fund-raising event for the Venice Family Clinic, the large clinic on Rose Avenue that provides free health care to the poor and the homeless. Because of the recession, the clinic’s needs this year are particularly acute. It is serving 25% more patients than it did a year ago, but is turning away 100 people a day, according to clinic spokeswoman Ellen Robinson.

To keep pace with the clinic’s current caseload, the 12th annual event must bring in $600,000. For the clinic to make health care available to those who are now being turned away, an additional $100,000 would have to be raised.

As is its tradition, Art Walk ’91 will offer docent tours, walking tours of 50 Venice artists’ studios and a silent art auction. Chefs from 12 Westside restaurants will sell their favorite dishes for $5 to $7. They include Campanile, Trattoria Angeli, Remi, 72 Market Street and Michael’s.

The event runs from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday with tickets selling for $45 a person. Docent tours on Saturday and Sunday cost $90 and include a catered lunch and admission to the Art Walk.

Some docent tours will feature architecture. They include the Doumani House, designed by Robert Graham, and the Schnabel House, designed by Frank Gehry.

In addition, “Shopping Place” will feature Cartoon Corner, with drawings by Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau, Los Angeles Times editorial cartoonist Paul Conrad, Peanuts creator Charles Schulz and others. The “Deals and Steals” department will have unusual items, such as a practice session with the Laker Girls and a private piano lesson from Dudley Moore.

The Food Faire and Art Walk begin at Westminister Elementary School, 1010 Abbot Kinney Blvd. (formerly West Washington Boulevard). Parking is available at assorted sites in Venice. For more information or to purchase tickets, call (213) 392-WALK.