Heart

Why do we need a Cultural Arts Center in our beautiful Ventura? The answer includes more than one reason. But it all starts with understanding the Heart of Ventura. As everyone who has heard the music from “Damn Yankees” knows… “You’ve gotta have heart. Miles and miles and miles of heart.”

As you can see, “art” forms a vital part of the Heart of Ventura. And what could be more true?

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An extraordinary number of talented artists of all kinds live, work, perform, exhibit in our community. We are also home to arts organizations that produce world-class music, theatre, dance, and visual art.

HEART BEATS

Listen closely…Ventura’s heart also beats with compassion and concern for our youth. Our community has arts education classes, workshops, and performing opportunities for our youth, taught by top-drawer professionals and sponsored by both the City and various nonprofit arts groups. These programs can strengthen the heart of our youth. They help fill the art void in our budget-challenged schools. We know that exposure to the arts helps produce a bloodline of future “thoroughbred” citizens contributing to the quality of life in their community.

HEART MUSCLE

Ventura’s heart is gaining new muscle. You can feel its growing strength in the heart of our city. Our civic leaders’ comprehensive plan for Downtown will have a major impact on our quality of life and economic well being for ALL of our citizens, wherever they live.
New housing, pedestrian walk ways, landscaping, stores, parking, and entertainment attractions will be added to our already-enhanced Heart of Ventura. Several of the city’s finest restaurants and cafes, hotels and inns, parks, shops, and a wide range of entertainment offerings are located here.

And more are coming.

HEART AND BODY

Our Downtown serves the entire body of our residents. It also attracts visitors who come to enjoy our amenities, unmatched climate, and natural beauty. Visitors help stimulate the heart and our economy. Some leave their hearts here (instead of in San Francisco). They return to recapture them. The heart keeps pumping and circulating the benefits to every part of our community body.
And if that weren’t enough…Downtown’s Main Street is only three blocks from the beach. The promenade and our famous Pier are strolled by locals and visitors alike. Sun bathers, surfers, children building sand castles, volley ball players, or just people gaining peace by visually taking in the ocean, the islands, the sunset…all are fed by the Heart of Ventura. What other city has all this?

HEART AND SOUL

With all of these blessings, what is missing? The arts, which form such a vital part of the Heart of Ventura, have no suitable venue. No first-class cultural environment for our performances and exhibits. No acceptable facilities for our arts education programs. We lack an irresistible gathering place, with a performing arts theater surrounded by a group of smaller buildings. A place to engage the diverse interests and tastes of our citizens and visitors, by showcasing the extraordinary talent of our broad range of performing and visual artists. A place in a park-like setting with walkways and landscaping that provides an ambience that envelops the visitors and appeals to their senses. A place where our youth can participate in arts education and performance opportunities, where their parents know they will be safe. A place where all of this can be brought together in one ideal location. Where it can join with our expanded Museum of History & Art and the Mission San Buenaventura to form a critical cultural mass.
We need a Cultural Arts “Village” located in the Heart of Ventura. This will complete our cultural soul.

CULTURAL ARTS VILLAGE

The Cultural Arts Village will be a vital part of the Heart of Ventura – a source of pride and fulfillment, a reflection of our character. Located on the Mission Paseo site, it will front on the Figueroa corridor to the beach, with its pedestrian walkway and fountain, across from Mission Park. The Heart of Ventura will launch our already enviable position to new heights as one of the most desirable communities in America.