Group to Raise Funds for Cultural Affairs

Soon there could be more reasons to come downtown than just to see a movie.

The city’s Cultural Affairs Commission agreed last week to create a nonprofit group to raise funds for the newly established Downtown Cultural District, to help pay for theater and arts development as well as promotional campaigns.

The nonprofit organization would allow the cultural district to raise funds from more sources than the city could, said Ed Summers, who was appointed chairman of the commission at its Thursday night meeting.

Among those sources are the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and private philanthropic groups.

“I think it gives us a way to go after a myriad of grants,” Summers said.

The City Council approved plans for the Downtown Cultural District in December. The district eventually will include a revamped Ventura Theatre, the proposed Mission San Buenaventura auditorium and an expanded Ventura County Museum gallery.

Those venues could be used by the Buenaventura Theatre Group, the Chamber Music Festival, the Ventura Poetry Festival, local artists and similar groups from around the county.

The plan calls for a combination of public and private financing to pay for the renovations and improvements. Estimates of total costs, not including the mission’s auditorium or the Ventura County Museum improvements, run between $4 million and $5 million, mainly for renovating the Ventura Theatre.

Commissioner Stephen Svete also emphasized that the district should be marketed as a destination for visitors, both from Ventura County and farther away.

“We could take a lead there,” Svete said, possibly by working to get Caltrans signs added to the Ventura Freeway directing people to the district and establishing a logo for the area that could be used to endorse certain culturally oriented businesses or events.

“We should market it as a place,” he stressed.

By marketing the area as a visitor destination, the cultural district could also be tied in with other areas and projects in town, including the current Seize the Future campaign, said Commissioner Leslie Leavens-Crowe.

The commission also agreed to create a subcommittee of local attorneys and business people to provide local artists with pro bono legal and administrative services.

Commissioners Ed Elrod and Jim Luttjohann were absent from the meeting.