City of Ventura Office of Cultural Affairs

March-April Museum of Ventura County Events   

March 1 at 5:30 pm: free lecture "How An Early [1917] Homestead Family Endured Against the Odds In Our Santa Monica Mountains"

March 6 at 3 pm: first of three Stuart monologues for the "Renaissance & Reformation Exhibit of George Stuart Historical Figures®" $Entry

March 11 at 2 pm: Archaeo-musicologist Luis Perez demonstrates his " Pre-Columbian Musical Instruments & Mesoamerican Inspired Pieces" $5  

March 25 at 2 pm: Guest Lorenzo Bautista on "The Weavers of Teotitlán del Valle" $5

April 1 at 1 pm: free Dyeing Demonstration by Porfirio Gutierrez

April 21 at 3 pm: Gizmo Guys master jugglers (Family Fun at the Museum series) $Entry

The Museum of Ventura County is located at 100 East Main Street in downtown Ventura. Hours are 11 am-5 pm, Tuesday through Sunday. Admission to the exhibitions is $4 adults, $3 seniors, $1 children 6-17, members and children under 6 are free. For more museum information go to www.venturamuseum.org or RSVP 805-653-0323 x7.

Ballet, Opera & Theater in HD Cinema Series
Continue March 1-July 11  

"Gerd Koch and Carole Milton: Together" reception March 3 

"Walking into the Chapparal" oil on canvas, 48" x 36", Gerd Koch

"Mystical Unfolding" oil on canvas, 48" x 36", Carole Milton

Over decades as life partners and art colleagues, Ventura artists Carole Milton and Gerd Koch have exhibited their works widely, but never at the same place and time until their joint show at the Buenaventura Gallery through March 24. An opening reception is planned 4-7 p.m. on Saturday, March 3. Koch and Milton each paint brilliantly colorful abstract visions, primarily in oil on canvas and often large, though their subjects and processes diverge widely. Launching and guiding young artists has been Koch's life work in a varied teaching career. Locally, his creative imprint is on such local arts groups as Studio Channel Islands Art Center. Milton calls herself an expressionist and a colorist.

Buenaventura Gallery, 700 E. Santa Clara St., 12-5 pm Tuesdays through Fridays and 11 am to 5 pm. Saturdays. Visit www.buenaventuragallery.org or call 805.648.1235.

Dianne Bennett's "Birds I View" temporary public art exhibit, now through April 15, in the outdoor windows of the Coastal Communities Cancer Center, at the corner of Joanne and Loma Vista in Ventura, features images of eight species of birds in Ventura County threatened by loss of open space and climate change. Since moving to Ojai from the LA area, the artist "began creating art that is motivated by my inner process and inspired by the world around me." For more information visit:www.beforeourveryeyes.com.  

The artist will have a solo exhibit featuring new retablos in the Logan Gallery of the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts May 12-June 29 with an opening reception on Saturday, May 12, 2-5 pm. More details at  www.diannebennett.net.

In the new exhibit "Putting Down Roots: Ventura County's Immigrant Farmers, 1800-1910," visitors can learn about the farmers and laborers who settled here after traveling from across the country and around the world. Historic photographs put faces to the laborers and farmers who came here long ago. An exhibition of 1930s photographs by Horace Bristol opens March 3 with a free reception for both exhibits on Sunday, March 4, 2-4 pm, which will include screenings of the 1936 Dust Bowl documentary "The Plow That Broke the Plains."  

The Museum of Ventura County Agriculture Museum is located at 926 Railroad Avenue, Santa Paula, near the Depot railroad tracks. Hours are 10 am-4 pm Wednesday through Sunday. Admission is $4 adults, $3 seniors, $1 children 6-17, free for Museum of Ventura County members & children ages 5 and younger. First Sundays of each month are free admission for all ages. For more information, go to www.venturamuseum.org or call (805) 525-3100.

Cultural Funding Grant Applications
go online March 5 and are due July 6

Artists Union Gallery Tuesday Poetry Series March  6-May 29 

Mark your calendars and visit www.venturaartistsunion.org/ for coming gallery events and readings. Email ptagga@aol.com to be added to Phil Taggart's monthly literary events distribution list for readings in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties.

Ventura Film Society
New Season Continues March 6 with "La Mission"

The Ventura Film Society have moved its screenings to the Urban Encore Center at 420 E. Santa Clara @ Oak, in Downtown Ventura. For more information call 805/628-2299, or e-mail at venturafilmsociety@gmail.com. Screen information and advance tickets plus membership is available at www.venturafilmsociety.com.  

 Click here for flyer schedule (pdf):

Mar 6-La Mission; Mar 20-The Garden; Apr 3-The Fast Runner; Apr 17-The Woodmans

Ventura's thriving band scene will no longer be secret to the larger music world when four of our city's most popular acts, Jeff Hershey and the Heartbeats, 8stops7, New Liberty and Aaron Orbit join forces to take on the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas as part of the VenAustin Tour that starts in Ventura on March 9 at Bombay Bar & Grill, 1435 South California Street, Ventura. With over twenty people in two vans and a trailer carrying a full PA system, the four bands will spend a week touring out to the festival, perform together at the VenAustin showcase at SXSW and will also add individual shows throughout the week in Austin.

For tour locations/dates visit or contact Chris Jay at 805.258.9420 or chris@fitzhart.com

MB Fest at Zoey's on March 11
to Raise Funds for Artist's Medical Bills

I Madonnari chalk festival, a fundraiser for the visual arts, comes once again to the front sidewalks of Ventura High School at 2 North Catalina Street for its 26th year on March 15-16, 8:30 am to 3:30 pm. Inspired by the itinerant street artists who traveled Italy from town to town in the 16-17th centuries to create images of the Madonna on the pavement in public squares, over 100 VHS students will create images on natural craft paper commissioned by teachers, staff and the public ranging from copies of master artworks to pop culture images - suitable for later framing and display on home, library and classroom walls throughout the campus.

For more information - and to commission your own masterpiece contact Maryanne Irving at Maryanne.Irving@venturausd.org.

From Golden Globe and Emmy-Award winning, Tony nominated writer Cheri Steinkellner, award-winning composer Georgia Stitt, and a dream-team of great American songwriters comes "Hello! My Baby," a riotous new-fashioned musical comedy that reboots Berlin, Gershwin, Kern and a score of others; smartly weaving their updated hits into a timely romantic farce for all ages. Click here for more information and to buy tickets. 

The Olivas Adobe, at 4200 Olivas Park Drive, will showcase quilts made by quilting enthusiasts from around Ventura County on Saturday and Sunday, March 24 and 25, 11 am to 3 pm, in the Olivas Adobe Exhibit Hall. This free, annual event will showcase traditional, handmade quilts and more modern and art quilts. Some of these quilts have won awards and have been displayed in museums. Also shown will be examples of embroidery and tatted items. In addition to the free exhibit, historical tours of the Olivas Adobe are available, as well as a unique gift shop, where tickets for tours can be purchased. For more information and driving directions, visit www.olivasadobe.org. The event is presented by the Olivas Adobe Historical Interpreters.

Focus on the Masters' venerable artist interview series resumes at The Comedy Club at Ventura Harbor Village, 1559 Spinnaker Dr., Ste 225, Ventura, Tuesdays, 6-7:30 pm.

• March 27 - Luther Gerlach, a photographer whose work captures modern images using old-world techniques. www.LutherGerlach.com
• April 24 - Jenchi Wu, Ventura College faculty ceramist www.JenchiWu.com
• May 22 - Helle Scharling-Todd, a glass artist whose work is "a duet with architecture."

For tickets visit focusonthemasters.com. $10 general admission, $5 students and seniors (65 and older). FREE to FOTM members and students under 18.

Apply by April 30 for Kids Swap Meet
Saturday, May 12, 9 am-1 pm

The Ventura County Arts Council (VCAC) Visual Arts Committee invites artists to submit proposals by April 6 for one-off artworks to be installed indoors and out in late August within the Atrium Gallery and work areas of the Ventura County Hall of Administration (HOA) and outdoor areas surrounding the HOA. "There is no theme for this show and the unexpected is possible," says Gallery Coordinator Todd Collart. "While work could be installed on the normal exhibition walls, the Council is looking for work that could also occupy other niches." Past installation art has included sculptures of a full-sized bear in the HOA landscape, of swans in the entrance fountain, of jellyfish suspended mid-air by skyhooks and tapestries hung from balcony railings.

Contact Todd Collart at (805) 644-2923 or collart@west.netor mail proposals to Ventura County Arts Council, 646 County Square Drive, Suite 154, Ventura,CA93003.

April 21 reception for Exhibit "Connections"
at Hillcrest Center for the Arts

Eleven LA and Ventura County artists express their "Connections" to their art forms, lives and what inspires them during this multi-media group show of painting, photography, mixed media, fiber art, and sculpture at the Galleria at the Hillcrest Center for the Arts, 403 W Hillcrest Drive, Thousand Oaks, from March 1 to May 30, presented by The Arts Council of the Conejo Valley (ACCV). The public is invited to an Artists' Reception on Saturday, April 21, 4-6 pm.

For more information contact Connie Tunick, ACCV Public Relations & Co-Curator at ctunick@roadrunner.com and 805.402.7294 or Co-Curator Janet Amiri at janart4@mac.com and 805-390-7983.

Paint Ventura 2012 is currently seeking artists for its expanded 4-day weekend art experience April 26-29. Each day is FREE to the public, encouraging people of all ages to visually explore historic Downtown Ventura's art scene and Ventura County's creative individuals. After two days of "Paint Out" and workshops artists may participate in a Saturday umbrella art fair followed by a Sunday easel show at Red Brick Gallery. For entry details visit www.PaintVentura.com.

The City of Ventura Cultural Affairs Commission (CAC) - the seven-member, all-volunteer body that oversees cultural programs in the City of Ventura - invites submissions of broadcast quality "shorts" for its new series of five-minute (or less) videos called "Art Break" for CAPS channel 15 programming to help connect the arts community to cable viewers. Videos may be "evergreen" or have a "shelf life" and cover such topics as the artistic promotion of an arts organization, poetry reading, creation of a visual art piece, theatre performance, local band video, art exhibit or show, etc. Short videos created for review as part of the Cultural Funding process are also encouraged. Please observe broadcast standards for nudity, swearing and violence and include video and art credits and contact information. CAC Commissioner Phil Taggart will curate and manage the programming and edit segments to include the Art Break opening and closing brand. Send QuickTime movies, AVI or MP4 video files (no DVDs please) to Office of Cultural Affairs Supervisor Georgeanne Lees at glees@cityofventura.net.

The Office of Cultural Affairs cannot present the 25th annual Music Under the Stars summer concert series at the historic Olivas Adobe without the generous support of our business community. Promote your business by becoming a sponsor and receive valuable recognition for your business through distribution of your promo materials and banner plus display ads with your logo in newspapers and city publications. Click HERE for the 2012 music lineup and sponsor benefits package, then contact Georgeanne Lees at glees@cityofventura.net or 805/658-4729. Thank you!

There were no purple elephants in the room. Yet, first, second and third grade students at Saticoy Elementary School had no trouble imagining them during their first poetry-writing workshop with poet/teacher Shelley Savren. The workshop will run for five weeks and is part of a Cultural Funding Program grant that the Ventura chapter of California Poets in the Schools received from the City of Ventura Office of Cultural Affairs. Over the course of the workshops, Shelley will introduce students to several aspects of poetry, including the use of the imagination, five senses, imagery, emotions and rhythm. She will read poems to them by both professional poets and students and give them open-ended assignments that will enable students to draw upon their own life experiences and create poems that use their imaginations and express their feelings. Students will also have the opportunity to read their poems out loud and receive positive feedback from their peers. During the first workshop, first and second graders were asked to imagine that something that cannot talk could, in fact, talk. They had to imagine what their dog or cat would tell them, what the sidewalk or the stars would say, what their ice cream or Teddy bear would say. Third graders were asked to climb inside a small rock or seashell and imagine a world inside there. Each student was given her or his own special rock or shell and could create the craziest world they wanted inside of it. There could be Martians or a rock 'n' roll band if they wanted. So poetry has entered the lives of these young people. Her first visit left the students knowing how to reach into their imaginary pockets and pull out something special - something they could create with - something that could find its way into a poem.

Jeremy Brooks, a student at El Camino High School at Ventura College, took first place in the Ventura County "Poetry Out Loud" competition on February 9. Brooks advances to the California state finals in Sacramento on March 25 & 26. The judges selected Giuliana PeBenito, a student at Westlake High School in Thousand Oaks, as runner-up. Brooks and PeBenito were two of thousands of students across the state to participate in the national recitation contest, a program run by the California Arts Council in the state and started by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to engage high-school students in the presentation of poetry through memorization and performance. The Ventura County Arts Council facilitates the program in Ventura County. The countywide competition was hosted by the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center. A crowd of parents, teachers, friends and family cheered the competitors from eleven county high schools. Thanks to generous funding from SAGE Publications, an academic publisher in Newbury Park, the Ventura County Arts Council was able to send local professional poets into the schools to conduct poetry units and to coach the students on their performances. For more information contact the VCAC at (805) 658-2213 or info@venturacountyartscouncil.org.

VUSD student artists from Ventura and Foothill High Schools and their instructors recently took a day off to volunteer their talents to "reset" the drab look of a well-used picnic table outside the Barranca Vista Imagination Center for the arts by repainting it with colorful designs of their own creation. Wheelchair students, parents, picnickers, tutors and students doing homework frequent the table close by the park playground and the center's dance room.

Many thanks go to the Ventura High School students Emma Ashworth, Angela Carobini, Stepanie Kam, Corynn McAtee and Kaylee Mattechek, and their Department Chair/Arts Instructor Maryanne Irving as well as Foothill High School students Madeline Anguiano and Isabel Reeder and their Department Chair/Arts Instructor Justin Frazier. Fuller Paints discounted the cost of paint (thank you!) and Parks, Recreation & Community Partnership staff Kathryn Dippong-Lawson, Tobie Roach, Denise Sindelar, Georgeanne Lees, Giselle Partida, Nancy O'Connor, Ralph Deex and Steve Evans coordinated the project.  

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