ARTIST LAUREATE PAGE
Culver City recognizes the importance of the arts and the many creative artists who are committed to developing their art forms, enriching the community with their exhibits, performances, presentations, and service. The Artist Laureate program is a collaboration between the City of Culver City — the City Council and Cultural Affairs Commission — and Culver City Arts Foundation. Funding is made possible by the City’s percent for art program and a grant from the Culver City Arts Foundation.
Victoria Marks, Culver City Artist Laureate 2025 – 2027
Victoria Marks was appointed Artist Laureate by the City Council from July 2025 – June 2027.
The City of Culver City is proud to announce Victoria Marks’ appointment as the new Culver City Artist Laureate. She will begin her two-year term on July 1, 2025. Marks, a multidisciplinary artist and choreographer/director, was selected following a comprehensive and rigorous two-phase application and review process.
Marks’ artistic practice centers on people and their relationships, which she considers her true medium. She creates movement-centered performances with and for groups of people, describing her work as a form of group portraiture. Defining choreography broadly as any set of conscious, intentional actions or movements, Marks’ work aims to make visible life’s vitality through movement, whether in public spaces like streets and parks, or on film or stage. She sees herself as a bridge builder, focusing on facilitating connection and creating safe and joyful spaces for people to come together.
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In January of 2023, City Council appointed Katy Krantz as Culver City’s Artist Laureate for a two-year term through December 2024.
Culver City appoints an individual artist from one of three arts discipline categories—fine and visual arts, performing arts, and literary arts—to serve for two years as cultural ambassador and advocate for the arts within Culver City. The award recognizes artistic excellence, supports the continuing development of the artist’s work, and spotlights the important role individual artists play in contributing to a vibrant, equitable and healthy community, enriching the city’s creative economy, and positively impacting the quality of life for people of all ages. Since its inception, Culver Arts has been a partner with Culver City and the Cultural Affairs Commission in sponsoring the Artist Laureate Program.
ARTIST LAUREATE Katy Krantz
Katy Krantz is a Los Angeles based artist whose multidisciplinary practice includes painting, ceramics and community based public art. Her work centers around process and play, with the unpredictable nature of the studio taking a vital role in the work. Krantz earned her MFA from CUNY, Hunter College and her BA from University of California, Santa Cruz. She has exhibited across the United States and abroad, showing her work at such venues as the Oakland Museum and the Richmond Art Center, as well as the City Museum of Cuernavaca, in Mexico. She has had solo shows at IKO IKO space in Los Angeles, Totokaelo in Seattle and Sunday Takeout in Brooklyn. Krantz’s public projects can be seen throughout Los Angeles County. Her work was featured in Kate Singleton’s 2016 book, “Ceramics: Contemporary Artists Working in Clay.” She is a 2020- 2021 Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Artist-In-Residence grantee and is currently serving as Culver City’s 2023-2025 Artist Laureate.
Past Artist Laureates
Alexey Steele
Alexey Steele is a visual artist with a background of the Russian representational school. Born in Kiev, Ukraine in 1967, he began art training at an early age in the studio of his father Leonid Steele, a renowned artist of the Socialist Realism School of the Soviet Union. Alexey attended the prestigious Surikov Art Institute of the Soviet Academy of Arts in Moscow, and studied under internationally acclaimed artist Illia Glazunov. Alexey gained recognition for his multi-figure large scale compositions, portraits, nudes, and plein-air landscapes. He conceptualized and spearheaded “Love My Neighbor”, an art intervention and social action project, and for many years produced “Classical Underground”, a visual art and classical music performance series. He moved to Los Angeles in 1990 and has been a resident of Culver City since 2013, where he lives with his wife Olga and two sons who currently attend El Marino Language School.
Dr. Janet Cameron Hoult
Poet Dr. Janet Cameron Hoult has lived, studied, and worked all over the world but called Culver City home since she first settled there in 1970. Dr. Hoult received degrees from USC (EdD), UCLA (MA), Universite de Grenoble in Grenoble, France (CES), and the University of Washington (BA) and was a Fulbright Fellow. She taught around the world and locally for LAUSD, USC, and CSULA. Janet has published numerous volumes of her poetry, proceeds donated to various charities. She continues to write poetry and regularly presents at meetings and events throughout the city. Dr. Hoult was instrumental in getting the Artist Laureate Program established in Culver City.
Learn More – Dr. Janet Cameron Hoult
