With the addition of the Glorya Kaufman Community Center (GKCC), the Wende Museum expands its ability to host performances, conversations, and creative experiences, further cementing its role as an essential gathering place in Culver City.
When Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot came to speak at the Wende Museum in Culver City last year, Executive Director Justin Jampol told her that the institution could only accommodate a few hundred attendees, so she shouldn’t heavily promote the event on social media. She immediately sent out the invite again to her multitude of followers, who quickly RSVP-ed the event into overcapacity. “I realized that if she wasn’t going to bow down to Vladimir Putin, there was no way she was going to bow down to me,” Jampol recalled, chuckling.
This dynamic—the celebration of free spirits amid a backdrop of crushing oppression—could be the unofficial motto of the Wende, which has officially expanded its campus to include the Glorya Kaufman Community Center (GKCC), a 10,500 square foot dedicated performance and learning space with a 300-seat theatre designed by AUX Architecture and developed by the titular philanthropist.
Originally housed in an office park near Fox Hills, in 2012, the Wende Museum began leasing a former National Guard Armory from Culver City for a dollar a year, with the understanding that the museum would also occasionally become a gathering place for the local community. The result is a surprisingly hip and scenic place to not only explore Cold War art and artifacts, but to enjoy live music, talks, and the city’s exceptional climate. Example: in 2023, the museum exhibited rare photographs and footage of David Bowie crossing the Soviet Union by train in the 1970s, while only feet away in the landscaped courtyard designed by Michael Boyd, kids and adults played chess under luscious succulents.
All of this growth has transpired under the ebuillient direction of Jampol, who combines the gregariousness of a natural showman with the discernment of an art historian. “I never assumed this was like a real gig, you know what I mean?” he said, referring to the effort of founding, fundraising for, and generally keeping the Wende running for the past 23 years. On the morning I toured the GKCC, Jampol was recovering from throwing a birthday bash for Ms. Kaufman that had lasted into the wee hours the previous evening, while looking forward to hosting a cadre of political dissidents that afternoon.
“Yeah, it is kind of Choose Your Own Adventure,” Jampol agreed when I asked him if that term could be reasonably applied to the layout of the museum and the GKCC, which allows visitors the spatial leeway to shape their own experience. Instead of being rigidly guided along a pre-set pathway, visitors can take multiple overlapping routes to discover what the Wende has to offer. With a series of classrooms, outdoor decks, and a cozy A-frame theatre with retractable bleachers and innovative, adjustable acoustic paneling, the GKCC feels like a living thing, constantly changing and adapting to new circumstances.
Brian Wickersham, the founding partner and design director of AUX Architecture, accompanied Jampol on our tour and explained how his firm created the “series of vignettes that express motion, music, and movement” that comprise the GKCC. In a nod to its communal history as a former temple (one Culver City resident remembered having his bar mitzvah there in 1953), Wickersham’s team wanted to preserve as much of the original structure as possible.
AUX kept the structural diaphragm and foundation while adding elements that playfully reference the secrecy of the Cold War. The A-frame theatre, for example, is surrounded by a thicket of vertical steel strips that were originally manufacturered by a Boeing subcontractor who was not told what specific purpose the components would eventually serve. The steel strips, which had been discarded en masse in a cargo container, now shroud the exterior of the theater from view, their original purpose still mysterious.
The central stairwell of the GKCC also has a faux-Brutalist appearance with its blatant concrete, which contrasts elegantly with the abundant trees and semi-tropical vegetation that surround it. This unusual juxtaposition seems to embody the mission of the Wende, which encourages a holistic cultural examination of both the past and the present. The GKCC has not only opened in order to host performances and workshops, but also to amplify the energy of the engaged and joyful community that surrounds it.
With its thoughtful design, flexible spaces, and ever-evolving programming, the Glorya Kaufman Community Center embodies the Wende Museum’s mission: to engage, challenge, and inspire. Whether through a provocative talk, an experimental performance, or a quiet moment in the courtyard, visitors are invited to shape their own experience—one that, much like history itself, is never static.
