Diverse Artists Social, Saturday, February 18th, 2-4pm
at Writers Boot Camp’s New HQ at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica
2525 Michigan Ave, Unit B, Santa Monica 90404
(One block east of Cloverfield Blvd, just north of the 10 Freeway)

Please RSVP to jg@writersbootcamp.com. You may invite a guest and we request that if they RSVP separately that they let us know that you forwarded the invitation.

Join us for a gathering of artists of diverse heritage in the afternoon prior to Bergamot Station’s Fine Art Gallery openings on Saturday evening, February 18th. If you check out bergamotstation.com, you can see the slate of openings that Bergamot galleries will be hosting from 5-8pm following our event concurrent with Frieze Los Angeles, the renowned art fair nearby at the Santa Monica Airport starting Thursday, February 16th.

Our gathering in the afternoon will emphasize support of actors, writers, filmmakers, artisans, producers, and creative executives of diverse heritage, as Writers Boot Camp has a remarkable track record of success by a wide range of women and artists of diverse ethnicity and backgrounds. To that point, a higher percentage of the hundreds of major credits by alumni in movies and TV, as well as publishing, have been accomplished by women. For nine years through 2014, we supported Fox Diversity’s writers annually–and 50% of the writers landed staff jobs, including highly-touted show runners today.

Speaking of Fox Diversity, the social will also honor our great friend, Ron Taylor, who recently passed suddenly. Ron was a writer himself, and early on in our Fox support he became the creative executive responsible for the program. Recently, Ron was teaching development in the Peter Stark Program at USC, coincidentally where founder Writers Boot Camp JG received his MFA in Producing and where in his last semester he first created Writers Boot Camp. We encourage Writers Boot Camp/Fox Diversity alumni to attend, as well as current and past “Starkies” (Peter Stark students).

In honor of Ron and his wonderful contributions to writers and opportunities for diverse artists, Writers Boot Camp will be providing a $2500 Basic Training scholarship to one artist attending the event who is self-identified as being of diverse heritage. Applications will be provided at the event and the winner will be selected that afternoon. For perspective, our work with Fox included African American/Black, Asian, Native American, Hispanic, and Middle Eastern writers, as well as writers of other heritage.

Light snacks and a sampling of agave-based spirits will be served. Thank you to our additional sponsors: LA Tequila Club and African Jaunt, who have provided additional awards to be announced at the event.