VENTURA : Program Promotes Arts for Children

Masked coyotes and Chumash Indians clashed wits last week as educators, artists and program supporters were treated to a retelling of “Stone Soup” by Illusions Theatre, a children’s drama company from Ojai, at Ventura City Hall.

The presentation of the traditional children’s story was designed to promote the Ventura Unified School District’s Artist-in-the-Classroom program and to introduce this year’s participants, said Sonia Tower, cultural arts coordinator of the City Parks and Recreation Department.

The program began four years ago when the Ventura Arts Council, a group dedicated to promoting the arts in the community, saw a lack of consistent arts education in the schools and resolved to do something about it.

“A student could conceivably go through 12 years in the Ventura schools without a significant artistic experience,” said Maureen Davidson, who heads the council.

The group joined forces with the city’s Recreation Department and got funding from the Institute for Human Development, the Faria Family Foundation and the Times Mirror Foundation, among others, for the first two years.

Last year, an arrangement was made with the district in which the $300 cost of sponsoring an artist for eight weekly classes was split by the school and the program organizers. The schools’ portions are paid by parents groups, special state funds and the Ventura Education Foundation, a private local fund-raising organization, Davidson said.

The program was originally designed for third-grade students, and virtually all 45 third-grade classes in the district have taken advantage of it. This year it is being expanded to include first, second and fourth through eighth grades.