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Ojai Artists Win Grants from ArtsLIVE in Ventura
By linda Harmon
The Ojai Post, June 14, 2010

What do an area hospital, at-risk-youth, and threatened wildlife have in common? They will all benefit from grants given by the Ventura County Arts Council last Thursday evening to three of our very own Ojai artists. The artists each designed an art program and partnered with a non- arts organization to receive the grants. The grants were all designed to address different community issues. The “Arts LIVE” grants totaling $12,769 went to Richard Amend, Dianne Bennett, and Teal Rowe.

According to Amend, who had already been working with Ojai Valley Community Hospital’s “Operation Picasso” program, it seemed like a good fit. The program purchases local art to be hung in the hospital corridors and Amend will use his grant for the many hours required to curate and preserve the collection.

“Every time I go into the hospital people gather and ask me questions about the art,” said Amend, who received a $5,000 grant. A successful artist in his own right, Amend added, “It’s rewarding to get a stipend and be recognized for the project. It means a lot.”

Bennett, who is partnered with the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy and the Ormond Beach Wetlands Preserve, received a $4,000 grant to complete paintings of threatened wildlife, which will later be published as prints and sold to benefit the organizations.

“I am doing the paintings on the back of an old oil sign I found,” said Bennett, noting the irony referring to the ongoing Gulf oil spill. She hopes her work will spotlight the importance of the rehabilitation and preservation of wildlife and our open spaces.

Rowe, who primarily works in glass, will partner with Oxnard community activist Armando Lopez to provide art classes for at-risk-youth at Oxnard’s Downtown Center for the Arts.

“It will mainly be process painting,” said Rowe, who received a $3,769 grant and hopes to help students get at some of their problems and get their frustrations out. “I’ve been teaching at Juvenile Hall for over six months now and have seen some of the kids come through more than once. I felt there was a need to address these kids creativity on the outside. They can do some tremendous work, which comes straight from the heart.”

According to Hugh Ralston, the President and CEO of the Ventura County Community Foundation, The Arts Live program gave out over $30,000 to individual artist’s collaborative projects and over $90,000 to nonprofits, recognizing outstanding performing, folk and traditional arts projects.

Ojai’s Brian Bemel and his “Performances to Grow On” program also won a $3,500 grant, for his “Together We Can Make a Difference In Story” project with Oxnard schoolchildren.

The Arts LIVE grant program was made possible in part by the James Irvine Foundation’s Communities Advancing the Arts and VCCF’s Community response Fund.  The Ventura County Arts Council is a nonprofit committed to supporting and strengthening the arts throughout Ventura County. To find out more go to venturacountyartscouncil.org. To find out more about the artists go to ojaistudioartists.org and to find out more about Bemel’s organization go to Ptgo.org.

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