ARCHITECTURE
LANDSCAPE
INTERIORS
AWARD SPEECH
Friday, March 5, 2010
Ron Culver’s Acceptance Speech for the Neighborhood Youth Association’s Architect of Change Award:
Thank you so much for presenting me with this wonderful award and for asking me to speak.
This award is for Architects who have used their work in support of NYA. I have to acknowledge that it feels a little weird for me to be the one speaking, since I’m the new kid on the block relative to the others receiving this award with me. So I want to start by acknowledging my great colleagues – I am honored to be receiving the Architect of Change Award with you.
Having worked with the Venice Garden & Home tour for about six years, upon hearing that I was receiving this award I quickly thought about the women on the Tour Committee. They’re one of the greatest groups of smart, capable and hard-working people I’ve ever met. And the staff at NYA are a premier group, really a pleasure to work with.
Striving to do great work that combines art with making a positive impact on our community is fundamental to being an architect. But then to be able to use that work to do philanthropic good as we “Architects of Change” have done by supporting the Neighborhood Youth Association’s educational endeavors is really a treat -- there is something so valuable about transforming the destiny of a child.
I wanted to find the right words to acknowledge NYA’s mission, so I’m going to share some words from a mentor of mine, a Japanese poet and educator by the name of Daisaku Ikeda.
Ikeda writes: “Education must deliver children from powerlessness, from the burden of mistrust directed against themselves. And those children who have learned to trust in themselves are then naturally able to believe in the latent capacities of others.”
To Ikeda, the essence of education is this process whereby one person's character inspires another. I am profoundly grateful for NYA’s work to support young people. And I am profoundly grateful to NYA for inspiring me. Thank you so much!
Ron Culver, Architect
