Ventura Couple’s Passion for Arts Taking Root

Jordan and Sandra Laby bought their first weekend home in Ventura 28 years ago, when a night out at the theater usually meant an hourlong drive.

“When we moved to Ventura, one of the things we didn’t have was theater or music,” said Jordan Laby, an inventor of products ranging from swimming-pool cleaners to anesthesia equipment. “If you wanted to have cultural entertainment, you had to drive somewhere else.”

Now permanent residents of Ventura, the couple have carried their passion for theater and music into the community. They have been in on the ground floor of numerous arts groups that have taken root in Ventura, and sit on the boards of several cultural organizations.

Three years ago, they decided the city desperately needed another arts venue. As cultural groups continued to grow, there was an increasing lack of space for rehearsals and performances. The Laurel Theatre was the main venue in town, but the converted church was cramped and already booked for events through 2002.

“People would develop their art and they would ship it out because there was no place to perform, no place to practice,” Laby said. “We need to bring the arts together so they will be a strong community and provide them with a place to practice, rehearse and showcase the arts.”

To that end, the couple founded the San Buenaventura Foundation for the Arts.

Their vision--an arts village in the center of town--has sparked interest from city and cultural leaders alike.

Plans call for a 600-seat theater at the core and a series of buildings around it to accommodate rehearsals, studios, exhibit spaces and facilities for outreach workshops.

With the complex of structures, the artists could collaborate and still retain independent space for their work, said Laby, 73.

“It’s for lots of different kinds of art,” he said. “It’s very hard to have dance next to music in the same building. It’s hard to have someone play the trumpet next to someone painting.”

Negotiations are underway for a land purchase for the arts village near the San Buenaventura Mission downtown. Laby said it’s too early to identify the project’s exact location, since talks are still in progress.

The property under consideration, though, has an existing building that could serve as an interim facility, he said, which might allow the project to open by year’s end. That facility would provide about 11,000 square feet for studios and rehearsal space, and may be incorporated into the final project or torn down.

The City Council awarded $150,000 earlier this year to help the Labys’ budding foundation buy a downtown property and pay for remodeling. The grant came from a $1-million fund that the city plans to use to transform Ventura’s downtown into a showcase for cultural events.

Last month, the San Buenaventura Foundation for the Arts launched a Web site--https://www.venturaarts.org--that features a calendar of events, ticket sales and news from seven local professional arts organizations that support the multimillion-dollar arts village. Those groups are the Camerata Pacifica chamber music ensemble, the Channel Islands Ballet, Focus on the Masters, the New West Symphony, the Rubicon Theatre Company, the Ventura Chamber Music Festival, and the Ventura County Museum of History and Art.

“It’s a real concentrated effort to make the public aware of all the cultural opportunities that are available to them,” said Terence Ragan, vice chairman of the foundation. “Up until now, they have operated independently, and now we are getting them to work together.”

Within the next month, the foundation plans to add to its Web site information on exhibits at local galleries. Registration for art classes and workshops also will be available.

Supporters of the arts village hope the consortium will offer stability for artists by providing studio and performance space as well as communal resources, such as information on grant and fellowship opportunities.

“The No. 1 need is funding in the community and ways to offset expenses,” said Donna Granata, founder of Focus on the Masters, a nonprofit project benefiting local visual artists through exhibitions and outreach programs.

Lack of performance space has kept many theater companies and orchestras from Ventura, said Doug Halter, co-owner of the Laurel Theatre, which seats only 250.

“What has always existed here was an educated, talented and world-class group of people who went elsewhere to display their art,” Halter said. “Many of us have driven to Los Angeles or Santa Barbara to find those things we couldn’t find here.”

It’s something city officials also have recognized, said Beth Coen, project manager for the city’s downtown cultural district. “This has been a need for a number of years. It’s something that is really important so that we can have the kind of performers we want to attract.”

During the next five years, the foundation hopes to raise the millions of dollars needed to create the arts village, Jordan Laby said.

“From nothing a very few years ago, we now have dance, we have theater, we have a symphony orchestra, we have opera,” he said. “We’re starving for a venue. We need it badly.”