Arts Executives Seek Dismissal of Commission

Directors of some of the county’s most prominent arts institutions want to wrest control of cultural funding from the Ventura County Arts Commission because they say the board’s inept leadership has alienated artists and jeopardizes future grants from the state.

The action would climax a long-simmering resentment against what many arts administrators feel is an agency incapable of appreciating art, understanding artists or bringing art to the people of the county.

Jeanette O’Connor, one of the disgruntled administrators and executive director of the internationally known Ojai Music Festival since 1978, says her group will approach the Board of Supervisors next month to request that a new agency be appointed to serve as liaison between local arts groups, private business and government.

Meanwhile, County Arts Commission Chairwoman Pamela K. Burke denied the allegations of mismanagement, praised the commission and urged her critics to join the board instead of slamming it.

“I would put the background and credentials of that commission against almost anyone,” Burke said. “It’s awfully easy to say there’s no leadership, but I don’t see people stepping forward to volunteer.”

But the board’s critics, who include respected administrators of local symphonies, museums and music festivals, say designating a new official arts agency is the only way to provide the leadership, fund-raising and community outreach that Ventura County needs and is not currently getting.

Only $500 in 6 Years

They are especially outraged that the commission:

Has managed to raise only $500 in six years of existence, and that from commission members.

Lacks a trained arts administrator on its staff and shows no indication of hiring one, despite state threats to cut off funding if this is not done.

Has been lambasted by state officials for its unresponsiveness to the community.

The commission’s opponents are also troubled by a highly critical report issued this summer by the California Arts Council, a nonprofit state agency that doles out funds for county arts programs.

“There are so many inherent problems that seem insurmountable that we simply have to find a new local partner and start afresh,” O’Connor says.

The commission’s annual $71,000 budget is wasted, she charges, because members are “just taking the money and throwing it down a rathole.” The willingness of O’Connor and others to publicly criticize a county arts commission that awards them discretionary funds reveals the depth of their frustration. While some say the commission merely reflects the growing pains of a county whose arts appetite is growing faster than its sophistication, others see it as a moribund group that displays little insight into the state of the arts in Ventura County.

Last week, a new controversy erupted when the commission attempted to oust Justin Du Pont, a commissioner appointed by the city of Port Hueneme who is among the board’s most vocal critics. Although many in the arts community do not agree with Du Pont’s abrasive style, they also feel that he should remain on the commission. And they cite the internal squabble as yet more evidence that the commission is unable to take criticism from its own members, much less move forward with large-scale arts plans.

“Just because someone disagrees . . . it seems a little extreme that removal would be the only answer. . . . Controversy is good for the arts, and I think he ought to stay on there,” says Andrew Voth, the executive director of Oxnard’s Carnegie Art Museum and a technical adviser to the commission.

A number of commissioners disagree vigorously. Last week, they voted 6 to 5 to send a letter to Port Hueneme recommending Du Pont’s ouster. While the city retains the authority to dismiss Du Pont, retain him or simply ignore the letter, Mayor Dorill B. Wright said he hasn’t received any specific information and is taking a “wait-and-see attitude.”

Burke, a commission member since 1983, said she spends about 20 hours a week on commission business. “We are going forward, getting things done,” she says. An active commission, she adds, “is not something you form within two weeks.”

Earlier Attempt Failed

Critics, however, point out that it has been six years since county supervisors first appointed an arts commission to work hand in hand with the California Arts Council to develop a cultural program for Ventura County. The commission is required to develop a master cultural plan for Ventura County, promote and develop local arts, raise funds and recommend to the Board of Supervisors which groups should receive a share of state art funding.

An earlier attempt to put together a county arts plan with state help died in 1980 because the supervisors voted down the idea.

In 1985, the commission formed a nonprofit arm called the Arts Partners of Ventura County to raise money. Burke says that because of a variety of problems, the group did not meet regularly until last spring, and so far has raised only $500--$100 from each of five board members. Ten seats on the 15-member board are still vacant, and officials say they can’t drum up any interest from local arts or private industry leaders.

And civic leaders say they have also had some problems finding individuals who are willing to serve on the commission itself--which is composed of two members appointed by each supervisor and one appointee for each of the 10 cities in the county.

State Council Disappointed

In Port Hueneme, for instance, where the issue of whether to replace Du Pont may soon come up, “we’ve had difficulty getting active members because of the perception that the commission doesn’t do anything,” said City Manager John R. Velthoen.

Those staff and funding problems disappoint the California Arts Council. Six years ago, the council provided seed money to start up the Ventura County’s Art Commission with the hope that the commission would eventually find local funding sources for its programs. Arts council personnel say other counties routinely find such funding--but not Ventura.

Since 1981, the arts commission has co-sponsored several art exhibits, held several seminars and workshops, supervised the re-granting program (n which state funds are parceled out to worthy local art groups), hosted a youth arts day, printed an arts directory and made plans that never reached fruition.

Most recently, plans for a sculpture garden in Ojai were dropped because the commission decided it would be too difficult to raise the necessary funds.

Foster Bowl Renovation

County officials say the commission is still studying the possibility of renovating Foster Bowl, a big concrete amphitheater on the road to Lake Casitas as a possible site for cultural events. The land is owned by the county and might be made available. But renovation would also require money that hasn’t yet been raised, officials point out.

California Arts Council officials say that, in contrast, the more successful commissions raise thousands of dollars, sponsor arts performances and take an active role in their local arts community.

Robert H. Reid, executive director of the California Arts Council, chastised the Ventura County Arts Commission this summer for its inability to raise local private or public funds, expand its programs beyond a minimal level or “demonstrate the vision to go beyond that minimal level.”

The commission ranked in the lower half of about 60 local agencies this year in support of the arts, receiving the equivalent of a C+ from the state agency. The Arts Council acknowledged that the commission made some progress but criticized the county’s performance in several areas and warned that “it is necessary to see measurable progress this year or future funding will be jeopardized.”

Reid also said Ventura County’s commitment to the arts contrasted poorly with that of some much smaller, poorer counties.

Ventura, which ranks seventh out of 58 counties in median family income and has about 611,000 people, expects to spend about $70,000 for the arts next year. By comparison, little Del Norte, an impoverished county of 18,000 in Northern California that ranks 55th in median family income, will spend $58,000. Fresno County, which is often described as most similar in style and size to Ventura, will spend $198,536 and employs four staffers, council personnel say.

Ventura County has one arts staffer. That employee, Sandra Sanders, has no background or experience in the arts, but county officials maintain she is a skilled administrator.

The California Arts Council, however, is not convinced.

“I am very concerned that without the very specialized skills of arts administration . . . the Ventura County Arts Program will once again flounder,” Reid wrote in a letter to the county this summer. Many involved in arts management share his concerns and say it’s almost impossible for an untrained person to jump right into the arts world.

‘Sensitivity . . . Familiarity’

“Things are happening at such a fast clip that unless you’re involved with the arts you’re really not keeping abreast of what’s going on,” said Bob Lynch, executive director of the National Assembly of Local Arts Agencies, a nationwide nonprofit group of arts councils and commissions.

In addition, an administrator should have “sensitivity to the arts and familiarity with art forms,” Lynch says.

According to her detractors, Sanders has neither.

Sanders admits she has no background in the arts but says she is an able administrator. She believes, she says, that art lovers compose “a very specialized group.” Nonetheless, she counts herself as among those interested in cultural events.

“Isn’t everybody?” she asks. “I’ve been to two performances in the past month.”

‘Make Things Happen’

A supporter, Commissioner Leo Quintanar says Sanders is “very well organized and knows how to put things together and make things happen.”

But many feel things are happening too slowly. For instance, Ventura County was awarded an $11,000 grant this year from the California Arts Council--the minimum grant offered by the state. But an additional $6,000 matching grant went unused because the commission only raised $500. And the county could not even apply for some additional grants that required extensive homework and fund raising by the commission.

“There is a general feeling that the commission is not connected enough to what the needs of the arts community are,” said Gloria Segal, manager of the State-Local Partnership Program for the California Arts Council.

County officials and some commissioners have responded to these comments bitterly, accusing the California Arts Council of everything from being elitist and misinformed to insensitive and unprofessional.

They point out that Ventura County is beset by a fiscal crisis in which the arts may be forced to play second fiddle to medical care for the indigent. Nevertheless, the county has provided $60,000 in arts funding this year, Burke said. Sanders receives $26,800; the balance goes for secretarial and administrative costs.

Although Commissioner Quintanar says he agrees with some of the criticisms leveled against his group, he adds that Ventura County is trying, and he bristles at what he perceives as an elitist attitude on the part of arts leaders both on the council and in professional organizations.

“We need to look at the art of young kids and senior citizens and encourage their art instead of ignoring them or saying they shouldn’t be displayed by the arts commission,” Quintanar says, echoing the beliefs of Burke and others.

Critics say the commission’s inability to distinguish fine art from the work of hobbyists goes to the heart of the matter.

Some, including Segal of the California Arts Council, scoffed at a show of senior citizen art that was exhibited recently in the atrium of the County Government Center. They said that the show was of marginal artistic merit and that state grant money should have been put to better use.

Avant-Garde Exhibit

Some critics contend that narrow-mindedness among commissioners only reflects the same quality in some of their constituents. They point to another art show at the government center last year that drew controversy because it was deemed too avant-garde. The show, by Ventura painter Richard Peterson, was even taken down for several days before the artist threatened to sue the county and won reinstatement.

Peterson said the county tried to censor his paintings because they were harsh depictions of social phenomena like euthanasia and drug abuse.

“I can understand people finding it shocking or thought-provoking. . . . I don’t know that that’s the place to hang a thought-provoking exhibit,” Burke said.

All in all, there has been a lot of finger-pointing on all sides. Artists and arts groups say commissioners rarely attend cultural events. “We’ve gotten no support or encouragement from the commission at all,” says one unhappy arts director who didn’t want his name published.

Commissioners, in response, say directors of local arts groups rarely attend their monthly meetings. But everyone agrees there is little communication.

‘Completely Ignored’

“We try to meet with the commission to make them aware of what’s going on. But our comments . . . are completely ignored,” said Karine Beesley, executive director of the Ventura Symphony.

A number of arts administrators complain that state grant applications are regularly sent to city parks and recreation departments instead of to their arts organizations. They say commission events are poorly publicized and ill-attended, thus frittering away an already tiny budget.

Burke denies this and says arts organizations are notified when grant applications become available. But she also expressed puzzlement over the low attendance at some recent events. A grant-writing workshop in March co-sponsored by the city of Ventura drew about 40 people. An Arts and Education Conference drew 75.

Some arts leaders also question the propriety of the county’s awarding two promotional contracts for arts commission events to a marketing firm called New Connections that is half-owned by Burke.

Burke said that she did not see the issue as a conflict of interest and that she had nothing to do with the selection process, which was handled by the county’s purchasing department.

Added Sanders, the commission’s staffer: “The bottom line is that New Connections was giving the commission a real break on the project as a contribution to the arts.”

Meanwhile, arts professionals agree that as Ventura County becomes more sophisticated, many contributions are being made. But they say that progress occurs in spite of the commission, not because of it.

Beesley, of the Ventura Symphony, says that the commission has met with a newly formed philanthropic organization called the Ventura County Community Foundation and that the group shows interest in taking on the commission’s role.

But whoever eventually controls county arts funding must realize that the arts “are a professional business, they need professional staff and they themselves need to be professional supporters of the arts,” Beesley says.

“They must have a high profile at cultural events,” she says. “They must be conspicuous in their consumption of the arts and their support of the arts.”