GRAND VISION FOUNDATION

The mission of Grand Vision Foundation is to inspire and engage the diverse Los Angeles Harbor/South Bay community through culturally inclusive arts and educational experiences centered on the historic Warner Grand Theatre and the Grand Annex performance space in downtown San Pedro. Underlying Grand Vision's efforts is our belief that local arts have the power to bridge cultural boundaries and unite our community.

Our Services
Through the leadership of Liz Johnson, LA County Arts Commissioner and Grand Vision's Executive Director, Grand Vision Foundation has become the hub of a vibrant arts district, providing both quality programming and vital spaces to gather, while nurturing important partnerships in its community.

Grand Vision Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) community arts organization which was founded in 1996 to save the historic Warner Grand Theatre (WGT), a 1,500 seat art deco movie palace, and restore it to a viable standard for productions. Today, the City of L.A. owns and operates the Theatre, hosting 100+ events annually. In addition to our other activities, Grand Vision serves as the Friends' Group to the WGT, helping the City with ongoing events and promotion.

We also see our vision come to life at the Grand Annex, our 150-seat cabaret style storefront theatre, where we present professional and innovative world, Latin, jazz, and American roots music artists, spoken word events, and film screenings, providing high quality and accessible cultural experiences for the underserved San Pedro/Wilmington communities.

Grand Vision engages the next generation through Meet the Music (MTM), a comprehensive youth education program for underserved schools in the L.A. Harbor area and beyond. Founded in 2009, MTM has grown into a robust in-school education program, serving over 3,500 elementary school students annually with innovative musical skill-building and engagement curricula. Our teaching approach is informed by the latest research in child development and arts integration. MTM's primary projects are:

Roots of Music Program (RoMP), a semester long standards-based curriculum provided to all fourth graders at selected schools each year, which introduces foundational music concepts and world music traditions through three units: rhythm, pitch, and dynamics. Lessons take place both in school and at the Grand Annex. Each unit has both a cultural and a musical focus, anchored by a professional performing group. In addition to teaching the foundations of music, RoMP opens the door to new cultural literacy, as students learn about the world through the lens of music.

Recorders in Schools serves all fifth graders at selected schools each year who would otherwise lack access to instrumental music education. In partnership with classroom teachers, Grand Vision's master teaching artists lead students in 24 sequential weekly classes in recorder playing technique, reading music notation, and ensemble performance, culminating in a school recital for peers and parents.

MTM’s Special Partnerships encompass ongoing projects developed to meet music education needs of schools in the L.A. Harbor area and beyond, including Keys of Inspiration, Percussion Program, and Strings in Schools. We create new programs based on requests from principals and teachers, and implement them with a commitment to excellence in instruction and program design.

Though we take satisfaction in having prevented the physical demise of the Warner Grand, we consider our greatest innovation to be fostering an artistic revitalization through attention to a beloved theater; turning an art deco landmark into a focus for community pride, education and economic activity. We daily give life to the WGT, by undertaking modest repairs, celebrating its history, and promoting its calendar of community-based events reflecting our diverse population. GVF serves as an intermediary between the community and the municipality of Los Angeles in the operation of the WGT to insure that community interests, availability and affordability are incorporated into its daily use. Our other programs create a nexus around the theater which provides it with an artistic and educational backbone.

The Grand Annex fulfills the need for an affordable arts venue to showcase top regional and national talent. It is unique in the Harbor Area/South Bay for presenting culturally diverse genres and performances. The Annex is not a bar or restaurant, but a dedicated artistic listening room, known for musical integrity and well-curated seasons. Average attendance is 110. With a venue capacity of 150, we need more competitive marketing and updated facilities to maximize our audiences.

No other organization provides multi-year, in-school supplemental music curriculum in our area. Our Meet the Music program connects music theory, music making and world cultures. Our Roots of Music Program (RoMP) is a standards-based curriculum that weaves together music theory, live concerts and cultural diversity. We re-connect with these students in 5th grade, where they learn to read music and perform together through 24 consecutive in-school recorder lessons. This year, students' knowledge of musical notation increased to 72%, and 99% performed on the recorder in an ensemble before their peers and parents.

Grand Vision's adult engagement program, “Team Taiko" fosters adult English language learning through Japanese drum lessons and performances at the Annex. This program builds community through engaging non-traditional audiences and participants in music making and embracing new experiences.

Our work helped to initiate downtown San Pedro's designation as an Arts District in 2008 and as a California Cultural District in 2017. These designations and increased activity have also attracted several small theaters and creative businesses to the area.

The need for our presence is demonstrated by the growth in Warner Grand Theatre events (from 80 in 2005 to 150+ today) and increase in the number of performances at the Grand Annex, as well as increased audience size and sell out rates.

Meet the Music has grown exponentially over the past several years. In 2017, we achieved the goal of serving the entire fifth grade at eight partner schools with Recorders in Schools. This expansion was made possible in part by our partnership with LA Unified School District (LAUSD) and increased funding from the California Arts Council. Since 2021, with additional support from our funders and the school district, we increased the number of our partner schools from nine to twenty, and grew our capacity to serve even more in 2023-24. We continue training new teaching artists and working on strategies to fully engage our classroom teachers as program partners.

Grand Vision Foundation will continue to restore and promote the Warner Grand Theatre, through our "Love for the Lobby" campaign, dedicated to restoring the art deco designs in the ceiling of the theatre's lobby, and ongoing advocacy efforts focused on the upcoming City-led structural renovation of the Theatre. We also seek to grow our Grand Annex programming, undertaking a physical expansion to accommodate our growing audience, and sustain our growing Meet the Music programming, now serving over 3,500 students annually.

During the COVID-19 shutdown in 2020-21, Grand Vision Foundation was able to successfully transition Meet the Music, Team Taiko and the Grand Annex concert series to virtual programming. We navigated the pandemic, and reopened to a combination of in-person and hybrid programming in the fall of 2021. In 2022-23, we are back to producing our full slate of live concert and educational programs, helping our audiences and students regain and reclaim their community and creativity.