With support from the California Arts Council, Ventura County Arts Council will facilitate traditional Mexican dance classes to Haycox elementary students with translation in Mixteco, a native language many of their students speak. This program will celebrate their indigenous heritage and culture and their language.
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.
