RLN hears from Laurie Steelink, Ron Linden, Andrew Silber, Andrea Serna
Random Lengths News had the privilege of speaking with four esteemed cultural purveyors in San Pedro on the special occasion of the newspaper’s 45th anniversary. They are artist and curators Ron Linden and Laurie Steelink, restaurateur and chef Andrew Silber and editor and former RLn arts writer Andrea Serna. We’ve shared their words below.
Laurie Steelink
Steelink is the owner of Cornelius Projects, an artist-run project space founded in 2012 in San Pedro. She noted that there aren’t too many publications that have listings and promote the very local art and music scenes in San Pedro, and that highlight what’s happening in town in such a way that is “very honest and real.”
“[Random Lengths] is something that quite a few people that live in the Harbor Area can get their hands on in this area to learn about what’s happening here,” said Steelink. “It’s an important source of information. I’m very appreciative of any of the coverage that has supported any of the arts organizations here in San Pedro including Cornelius Projects. It’s a great source for listings and the arts.”
As an artist, Steelink describes the San Pedro arts district as very unique.
“San Pedro is unique because it’s not only focused on artists’ studios, it brings people down here who may be interested in experiencing the town and the culture of the town,” Steelink said. “I lived in Venice for a while and they did have [an] event around culture, but I really have nothing to compare [San Pedro] to honestly.”
Steelink, who lived in Los Angeles and worked at Track 16 at Bergamot Station when Tom Padjet and Wayne Blank were the general managers of Bergamot, described it as a really vibrant art scene. The artist noted it was because it was a location where there were mainly art galleries.
“You could drive to one location, park for free and go to 10 or 15 openings in one night … It’s very unique. San Pedro is isolated and there are pros and cons with that. The one complaint I have is that I couldn’t convince the arts district to bring the trolley down to Cornelius Projects. I wish the art walk would extend further, beyond 6th and 7th streets. Maybe they could include House1002 or The Sardine, if there were a means of transportation to shuttle people.”
Steelink asserted that the arts district here is almost relying on LAHA (Los Angeles Harbor Arts or the former Lofts) Gallery and Gallery 478 for changing exhibitions in downtown San Pedro.
“That’s coming from me as an artist,” she said. “For work that’s engaging at a particular level for offerings, it would be great to have more exhibition spaces with changing exhibits. It would be a benefit to the public in terms of education and culture.”
Ron Linden
Linden was director of Los Angeles Harbor College fine arts gallery and the Warschaw Gallery in San Pedro. In 2009, he founded TransVagrant Gallery. He has lived and worked in San Pedro since the 1990s and was an instrumental part of forming the San Pedro arts district.
“My thoughts [are], ‘own up to where we are,’” said Linden. “San Pedro is an outlier.
“Large parts of the LA art community have some phobia about travelling south of the 405.
But Random Lengths has been instrumental in not just exposure but its support of the artists.”
Linden said there are [at least] 21 or 22 serious practicing artists in San Pedro.
“And without Random Lengths and your coverage, I think we’d be in dire straits here,” Linden said. “My hat’s off to the paper. The publisher is an artist himself and Suzanne Matsumiya is artful in her design and construction of the paper. It’s done an amazing job in the current journalistic environment which doesn’t [care] about visual art whatsoever or performance art. I feel personally indebted to the paper. God knows it has given me some really good coverage of my endeavors as both an artist and a curator. There are abundant examples of what the newspaper has meant to the community here. When it gets right down to it, RLN does a better job of having a literary conversation about what goes on in our arts community here than LA Times does.
“Kudos to Melina, to James [Preston] Allen and Suzanne and even Terelle Jerricks who’s done pieces on arts and culture. It helps artists and it helps the community too. I’m sure that others would share my point of view on this.”
“We have a business improvement district that doesn’t [care] about the arts. A waterfront arts district … no matter what [RLN] tries to do to support these things, they go their own way.
“I think that RLN is like the linchpin of cultural endeavors here. That’s how I really feel about it.
“A good thing happening here is that the Palos Verdes Art Center is featuring San Pedro artists over the course of the next couple years and that is testimony to the fact that San Pedro artists make a contribution outside San Pedro. And also the arts district be damned, when I worked at Warschaw Gallery and at Gallery 478, even when I worked at the modest Harbor College gallery, we attracted more people from out of town than any other events that were going on. So, there’s a value to what artists do and I think it’s absolutely underrated, undervalued and underappreciated here.
“But we can’t do anything about that. The same people are sitting in the same chairs everywhere. I’ve been involved in it a long time. Eric Johnson’s place, The Ranch, is a good example and Peter Scherrer’s solo. Gallery. Artists are making the effort but they’re not recognized, or reimbursed or supported outside of RLN.”
Andrew Silber
Silber owned and operated San Pedro’s beloved Whale & Ale restaurant for more than 30 years. Now a gastropub, Whale & Ale has recently reopened under new ownership. He has also been involved in the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce and the San Pedro Waterfront Arts District.
Silber said, unlike the LA Times or Daily Breeze, our local independent newspaper Random Lengths is funded and operated by people who live in our community.
“It’s reported, edited and written by people who spend vast amounts of time and energy researching and investigating local issues with direct impact on my life and the lives of those who work, live or vacation here,” said Silber.
“This community newspaper keeps the town informed on the arts in San Pedro, gallery openings,
exhibitions, art sales, studio tours and awards. It also covers elected officials’ activities, good and bad, festivals, restaurants, ILWU activities, local acts of daring and much more — too much to list here.
“Inside each issue is a beautiful yet informative microcosm of the culture of San Pedro and nearby harbor cities,” he said.
Silber added his own bullet point list of RLN attributes.
Local newspapers are vital to local arts because they:
Educate the public on local issues, encouraging civic engagement.
Serve as a reliable source of information on crime, taxes, local government activities, schools, local politics, jobs, community/neighborhood events, social services and more.
Highlight local artists, musicians and writers, preserving and promoting local talent
Provide information about basic public services, local issues, shared rules of policies and community, history and culture.
“Other papers aren’t doing this,” Silber said. “If you want that kind of interaction you’re not going to get it from the Daily Breeze or the Los Angeles Times. [They’re] not going to cover local issues like RLN does. It’s a very unique newspaper. As far as I know, there is nothing really like RLN. It certainly provokes a lot of feelings from people, positive or negative. It’s good. That’s what newspapers should do and what the arts are supposed to do, is to wake people up.”
Andrea Serna
Serna, who wrote for RLN during the 2010s and has recently edited a soon-to-be-released book on San Pedro sculptor Eugene Daub, said local newspapers provide a platform for the community to express their concerns and their hopes for the future through opinion pieces, letters to the editor and feature stories.
“So, it opens up a way to advocate for discussion and local changes,” said Serna. “We are painfully aware that our local papers are going down the drain. I’m heartbroken about the LA Times. We’ve got only a few small papers that are not connected to these large corporate media networks. But as far as local news, you can’t get any more local than RLN. [It] keeps us informed of what is going on and all the changes, especially with buildings and roads and bridges that are significant here in San Pedro.”
As far as art, Serna said RLN reflects the identity of the community.
“[Another publication’s] focus is more on schools, sports, etc., which is great,” Serna said. “But San Pedro has different cultures here, labor, art and culture, people who have lived here for generations, it all comes into play in San Pedro. Through promoting the arts, there are many people in San Pedro who aren’t even aware there are so many artists, so much art activity and so much talent and how much they have achieved, such as Eugene Daub.”
Serna noted that RLN covers the arts in every issue and she knows the local artists really appreciate that. Hopefully, she said, it opens the door to invite the community in through art openings, art shows and the First Thursday ArtWalk.
“We are very fortunate in San Pedro to have a paper with more than four decades of serving the community. It’s very rare.”
