Past

Winter Benefit 2023

A Celebration of Food, Culture, and Community on our Fifth Anniversary

Active Cultures Winter Benefit, honoring Glenn Kaino. November 11, 2023. Photo by Jessica Howes.

Deon Jones performs at Active Cultures Winter Benefit, honoring Glenn Kaino. November 11, 2023. Photo by Jessica Howes.

Priscilla Anh performs at Active Cultures Winter Benefit, honoring Glenn Kaino. November 11, 2023. Photo by Jessica Howes.

On the organization’s fifth birthday, Active Cultures was thrilled to honor artist and space-maker Glenn Kaino at our Winter Benefit. We are grateful for all who joined us for a delicious celebration of Glenn’s paradigm-shifting practice and his profound impact on independent art spaces in Los Angeles.

With an evening curated from seed to stem by celebrated chefs Mina Park (baroo) and Minh Phan (PHENAKITE), AC’s second annual benefit combined the spirit of the dinner party with a community gathering to toast food and art in LA. The evening featured a special cocktail hour; a seated dinner; and surprise artist interventions and performances, all to benefit our artist projects and year-round, free public programs throughout LA County.

Thank you for coming!

Honorary Committee
Lyndon Barrois Sr.
Corey Lynn Calter
Ron Finley
Michele Fleischli
César García-Alvarez
Christine Y. Kim
Joel McHale
Niki Nakayama & Carole Iida-Nakayama
Minh Phan
Dr. V. Joy Simmons
Stacy Switzer

Host Committee
William Grant & Sons and hosts who wish to remain anonymous

Patron Committee
Sarah and Joel McHale*
Deon Jones and Cameron J. Ross
Wasserman Foundation
Sonya Yu*

Supporter Committee
Kim and Keith Allen-Niesen, Vera R Campbell Foundation, Nicole and Sanjay Kumar*, UAP | Urban Art Projects, Mary Wagstaff*, Ric Whitney and Tina Perry Whitney, and supporters who wish to remain anonymous

Friends Committee
Christopher Yin and John Yoon, Laila and Mehran Taslimi, Abigail Sider and David Shayne, Matthew Bliwise and Nicole Deller, Victoria Burns, Catherine Geanuracos, François Ghebaly Gallery, Deborah Irmas, Berry Stein, Joanna Kerns, Claire and Rob LaZebnik, Sherry and Joel McKuin, Eamon Ore-Giron* and Rachel Nawi, Morgan and Matt Walsh, East West Bank, Second Home, Eva and Jon Crawford, Elliot and Chelsea Nassib*, Minh Phan, Pace Gallery, UTA, Niki Nakayama and Carole Iida-Nakayama, Dr. V. Joy Simmons, Liana and Michael Krupp, Lauri Firstenberg, Jessica Fleischmann, Raina Kumra*, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Sargent’s Daughters, Matthew Thompson, Trina Turk, Kevin Iwashina, MASS MoCA, Liz Dean, Nadia Al-Amir, César García-Alvarez, Anne Ellegood, Lisson Gallery, Analia Saban, Lyndon Barrois Sr. and Janine Sherman Barrois, Robert Crouch, Ron Finley, Meredith Rogers, Sarah Russin, and friends who wish to remain anonymous.

Asterisk indicates current and former members of Active Cultures’ Board of Directors.

About the Artists

Priscilla Ahn

Priscilla Ahn is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.

Mina Park

Mina Park is a cook and writer who owns and operates restaurants baroo and Shiku with her husband Kwang Uh. Baroo, which recently reopened with a relaxed, modern Korean tasting menu, was described by the late Jonathan Gold as the “taste of the future.” Mina began her culinary career while...

Minh Phan

Minh Phan approaches cooking and feeding people as a way of honoring the never-ending flux of natural environments and holistic ecosystems. Minh’s commitment to changing how we view and interact with food, dining, sustainability, and our environment drives the intention and passion she possesses to pursue her culinary practice as...

Glenn Kaino

Glenn Kaino is known internationally for his expansive vision and activist-minded practice, which encompasses painting, sculpture, installation, performance, monumental public art, theatrical production, and feature film. Examining a wide range of political, social, and environmental issues in his work, Kaino takes a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach to art-making. His work...

Deon Jones

Deon Jones is a singer, performance artist, and activist, known for his powerful voice and activism, who gained national recognition for being shot in the face with a rubber bullet during the 2020 protests and for his work on “The Voice”.

About the Honoree

Glenn Kaino is known internationally for his expansive vision and activist-minded practice, which encompasses painting, sculpture, installation, performance, monumental public art, theatrical production, and feature film. Examining a wide range of political, social, and environmental issues in his work, Kaino takes a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach to art-making. His work brings together systems of knowledge, forms of production, and people that do not normally have a chance to connect, and often involves long-term partnerships with a diverse array of visionary collaborators.

Glenn is a conceptual artist, but also an experienced entrepreneur and Emmy Award winning creator who has led major digital brands such as the Oprah Winfrey Network, Napster, and Universal Music Group/Farmclub. He has had exhibitions at museums around the world, including the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, MASS MoCA, San Jose Museum of Art, and the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, alongside being selected by the U.S. Department of State to represent the United States in the 13th Cairo Biennale. He recently co-directed With Drawn Arms, a film about his collaboration with activist/athlete Tommie Smith on Starz, and co-produced both the off-broadway and film version of In & Of Itself that is now a special on Hulu.

A stalwart supporter of the arts community, Glenn co-founded the seminal artist-run space Deep River in 1997 and played a crucial role in establishing and developing arts nonprofits like LAXART, The Mistake Room, and, of course, Active Cultures—the first cultural organization dedicated to the intersections of art and food. On our five year anniversary, Active Cultures continues to be inspired by our co-founder’s vision and impact in Los Angeles, and no less by his rhizomatic practice, where in any media and within any system, his work is distinguished by his obsessive investment in technical virtuosity, functionality, and purpose. He helps us to imagine, to make visible, and to enact new futures for art and culture.