VENTURA : City Cultural Affairs Office Proposed

Ventura city officials are proposing establishment of an Office of Cultural Affairs so the city will be eligible for federal grants.

“We’re not creating a new office at all,” City Manager John Baker said. “We’re just calling it that in order to satisfy some folks who read an application some 3,000 miles away on the East Coast.”

City officials are applying for up to $300,000 in grants over a three-year period from the National Endowment for the Arts. To qualify, the city must designate an organization as the local arts agency that would distribute the money, said Sonia Tower, city cultural arts coordinator. Tower would head the office.

City officials decided to create the Office of Cultural Affairs because the city has the financial resources to match any NEA grants, Tower said.

To get money from the NEA, the local agency must be able to match any grants, she said. The Ventura City Council is expected to vote on the issue today.

Tower said the city will not receive news of the grants until March. The money would go toward public art, art programs and implementing the city’s Cultural Plan, she said.

“It’s going to be competitive,” said Tower, who noted that this is the first time Ventura has applied for NEA grants. “We’re going to be going up against some major agencies who have been doing it for years.”