Ventura to Pay Consultant $57,500 to Plan Future of Arts in the City : Cultural resources: The Bay Area firm will form a committee to address fund raising and strengthen public support.

The Ventura City Council agreed Monday to hire a Bay Area consultant to plot the city’s cultural future for the next five to 10 years.

The council voted 4 to 0 Monday to pay $57,500 to ArtSoft Management Services of Emeryville to draft a cultural blueprint for Ventura by Jan. 1.

The consultant will form a committee of Ventura artists, educators, community leaders and business people to help draft the blueprint for the support and growth of visual and performance arts citywide.

Once complete, the plan will outline arts groups and cultural centers already in place, City Manager John Baker said. It will also recommend methods of fund raising, creating artist networks, establishing public art galleries and performance centers and strengthening Ventura as an artistic community, Baker said.

The arts plan would give city officials “an idea of what we should be trying to do with our town from an art point of view,” Baker said. “It’s more than just a bricks-and-mortar town.”

Arts and business leaders applauded the hiring of ArtSoft Management Services, which has helped the cities of Oakland and Sacramento draft similar plans.

“They don’t come in as this group from San Francisco and tell us what our culture should be tomorrow, but they go through a rather substantial consensus-building process within the community,” said Maureen Davidson, president of the Ventura Arts Council.

“The art community can sure use a lot of help,” Davidson said. “The art community in Ventura County is . . . underfunded, in the sense that there are fewer corporate or other resources than there are in more urban counties.”

The committee formed by the consultant also would apply for grants from government agencies and private corporations to support the arts. City officials said the committee also may seek city money or funds from the Ventura Arts Council.

Public support of the arts has been “kind of weak in Ventura,” said Sandy Smith, president of the Downtown Ventura Assn., which represents downtown merchants and restaurateurs.

“There are some very strong cultural groups, but I think getting the city involved in being a catalyst in enhancing the culture environment in the city is a real plus,” Smith said. “When you’re talking about enhancing the culture, you’re talking about enhancing the city as a whole.”

Smith said the plan should help Ventura’s arts community to grow and feed the city’s business community.

“Any time you have art or music . . . in an area, it’s bringing people into that area,” said Smith, owner of the Rosarito Beach Cafe on Main Street. “If you’re a shop owner or restaurateur, you’re going to benefit from the individuals that come to participate in those events.”

“It’s an important thing for the city,” said city Recreation Superintendent Jim Walker, whose department was assigned to develop such a plan under the city’s August, 1989, Comprehensive Plan.

“There has not been, for any period of time, any comprehensive community planning process related to cultural arts in Ventura,” he said. “We have a good solid base of arts and culture in the community. It really needs coordination so we’re all working together toward a common vision or common goal.”