SMMCA, The Canyon Alliance to Host Annual Meeting, Party

The Evening Will Also Serve as a Gallery Opening for Kelly Sena’s “For the Wild”

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

Santa Monica Canyon Civic Association and The Canyon Alliance will host its annual meeting, along with a party, at Canyon Square on Saturday, May 31, from 4 to 7 p.m.

The evening will feature a “Canyon Square party,” with food, a DJ and SMCCA’s annual meeting.

“By having the brief meeting as a portion of a party, residents can meet their representatives while also enjoying a festive get-together with their broader community,” read information from the organization. “Election of the new board will be held online the week before the May 31 event. Another item on the ballot will be a proposed name change to The Canyon Alliance from Santa Monica Canyon Civic Association.”

The Canyon Alliance is a “2025 post-fire/food initiative of SMCCA,” which is a “neighborhood association” founded in 1947 that represents “the general Santa Monica Canyon area.”

“The change is aimed at resolving long-standing confusion about the Canyon’s geographic identity,” read information from The Canyon Alliance. “Despite the name, the Canyon is located within the city of Los Angeles, not Santa Monica—a misunderstanding that became especially problematic during recent emergencies. The proposed new name also reflects the organization’s role as a unified voice for both Rustic and Santa Monica Canyons, and it underscores the importance of collaboration among the area’s five distinct neighborhoods.”

The May 31 evening will also feature a gallery opening from 5 to 8 p.m. of Kelly Sena’s “For the Wild,” which is described as a “collaborative photographic project with seven imprisoned environmental activists.”

In 2006, Sena wrote to the “incarcerated activists,” asking “where are the places you travel to inside your mind’s eye?” and offered to take photos of the places, beginning a “long collaborative project” that spanned from the Pacific Northwest to the Arizona desert, South Dakota Badlands and Atlantic Ocean.

“As a photographer, I sometimes secretly yearn to feel liberated from everything I know about the history of art and photography,” Sena wrote in a statement. “I want to be reckless and make beautiful photographs that celebrate nature. Instead, I work toward resuscitating a clichéd genre—nature photography—while acknowledging that nature and politics will always be inextricably bound together.”

“For the Wild” will be on display at Gallery 169, located at 169 W. Channel Road, through the end of summer.