With support from the California Arts Council, the Ventura County Arts Council (VCAC) will establish mini art galleries inside three county libraries. The galleries will be curated by VCAC, offering opportunities for local artists to display their work. All three branches are situated in the lower quartile of the California Healthy Places Index: the Albert H. Soliz Library in El Rio, the Fillmore Library in Fillmore, and the Ray D. Preuter Library in Port Hueneme. The branches were chosen because no local art galleries or public art spaces currently exist for the communities residing there.
VCAC runs several programs. We re-grant funds to arts organizations and artists when they are available and recently with NEA grant money matched by our county government. Artists in the Classroom is a multi-disciplinary arts education program serving K-8 schools countywide which we took over administering from the county’s Office of Education. Our Arts & Youth Justice program teaches arts to youth in the system, at several locations in the county and at the court school in the Juvenile Justice Center. We administer Poetry Out Loud locally and established a county Poet Laureate and Youth Poet Laureate program. The Atrium Gallery is a public art program and for that we curate three floors in the Government Center in collaboration with the County’s DEI council focusing on exhibitions that highlight artwork by people outside of the mainstream. VCAC prioritizes partnering with arts organizations and artists serving marginalized and underrepresented people and working in the communities where they reside.

