Meet Mandy Zelinka | Entrepreneur: Creative Placemaking

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mandy Zelinka and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mandy, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Doing scary stuff just might just land you on a plane to Melbourne Spring Fashion Week.

I wrote a seven-page proposal to get my job at Kevin Murphy Global as their social media maven over ten years ago when the idea of a digital marketing manager was still pretty new. What I learned from this experience was that you just need one person to say yes, and this time, it was the company’s CEO.

It’s not the no’s that will haunt you, it’s the times you didn’t shoot your shot.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We rarely associate infrastructure with design and beauty, which is understandable because infrastructure is valued for its functionality. However, safety, efficiency, and beauty are not mutually exclusive. In fact, compelling case studies prove thoughtful art and design have the ability to make infrastructure itself, or some of its unintended impacts, safer. Color, light, and sound are just some of the tools public space artists use to augment bridges, tunnels, bus stops, parking garages, and other essentials that support our way of life. Their creations are more welcoming, more aesthetically pleasing, and equally functional.

-CODAworx

PEOPLE ARE 50% MORE LIKELY TO SPEND TIME IN SPACES WITH CREATIVE PLACEMAKING

Public Art is a gateway to the soul of a community, especially for visitors experiencing a destination for the first time.

Incorporating art into public spaces leads to greater foot traffic and economic activity, which benefits businesses that own or operate commercial properties near these spaces.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I live in Venice Beach so all of our activities take place along the Marvin Braude Bike Trail from Santa Monica to Venice. ( https://www.instagram.com/santamonicatovenice/ )

I typically ride to the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market on Wednesdays, and that’s where my week starts. On the way home, I would most certainly stop by Gjusta for breakfast—they have awesome bike parking and pastries. Then I would probably make sure to grab a photo in front of “Clownarina,” the ballerina you’ll see in the intro to Californication.

Then, I’d reconnect with the bike trail and take another photo in front of the iconic Venice Sign before hitting up Green Goddess on my way home.

If I don’t want to cook, we’d get take-out from Gjelina or Abbot’s pizza and eat it on my back porch. If it’s coffee I’m craving it’s a short walk to Minotti’s for an outdoor patio. And we definitely wouldn’t miss the Venice Electric Light Parade on Sunday night.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Shout out to my domestic partner-in-crime and Santa Monica’s Placemaking Director, Jeremy Ferguson, for being my number one and for continuing to inspire me to look at the world through the lens of how my community moves through it.

Website: https://santamonica.substack.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/santamonicatovenice/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mandyzelinka/

Youtube: https://santamonicaclocktower.com/

Image Credits
All photos by Mandy Zelinka