Dear past Art Tales participant,

Just a reminder that the deadline nears for the contest. When we talk and write about the experience of art — and how it frees our mind — we provide that art both oxygen and speech. Artworks live through our spoken and written conversations about them. Won’t you help the artworks selected for Ventura’s 150th anniversary “live” by entering your poem or short narrative in the contest? Entering is easy and by email. You may view the artworks at the library or online. And there are cash and other prizes in three categories. Hope you hear from you soon!

The City of Ventura is pleased to sponsor the eighth annual creative writing contest inspired by art, in partnership with E.P. Foster Library, 651 E Main St in Ventura. Selections from the Public and Municipal Art Collections at Ventura City Hall are rotated annually to a special second floor exhibit space near the library’s rear (children’s) entrance in an effort to make them more accessible to the community.

Visit E. P. Foster Library or the links below and choose the artwork that inspires you to create and enter your own poem or short story, 500 words or less by April 4, 2016.

● Free and open to all writers worldwide

● Prizes in 3 age categories

● To receive future contest notices  click the link to check the “Art Tales News” box under your profile

Artworks & Theme

“Our Local Story” is the Art Tales theme for 2016, celebrating Ventura’s 150th birthday in April, through four artists whose works in the Municipal and Public Art Collections tell our city’s unique story by depicting its classic neighborhoods, citrus orchards, proud history and hip downtown.”

– Tobie Roach, Art Tales Curator

When the Stranger says: “What is the meaning of this city?

Do you huddle close together because you love each other?”

What will you answer? … “This is a community”?

–from Choruses from The Rock – T.S. Eliot

Click the links below to view and download featured art, contest info and the required release form:

1) Ortega Adobe, by Marguerite Hardeman, c. 1960s, oil on canvas, 31″ x 37″

2) Catalina Street V, by Katherine McGuire, 2002, watercolor on paper, 22″ x 28″

3) Oranges Against Shadows, by Meredith Brooks Abbott, 1999, oil on canvas, 21″ x 25″

4) Thrift, by Paula Odor, 1999, watercolor, 34″ x 28″

5) 4 in 1 all contest artworks in one PDF document, each printable on 8.5″ x 11″ sheets

6) Teacher and writer lesson plan with entry rules, featured artist bios &  more lesson plan model poems 7) Explore past anthologies (find links at the bottom of the website) for more prose and poetry examples

8) Copy, fill, save and send the REQUIRED RELEASE FORM in English or Spanish

TEACHERS: please contact Art Tales curator Tobie Roach at 805.658-4759 or [email protected] to request printed copies of materials for your classes and for further contest information.

By Elizabeth Rodeno

February and March seem to be chock full of exciting events, new and old.  The city is buzzing like an active hive. The launch into it is the Festival of Talent, an amazing show with amazing kids doing amazing stuff. Amazing, huh? This year as every year, the CAPS mobile truck with its cutting edge equipment, staff and a well-trained team of volunteers set up a full production to record the show. These volunteers come from the student body of the VUSD schools and are thrilled to be part of the show. Whether in front of the camera or behind, there are stars everywhere.

We can’t share enough about what we can do to help you and your organization. From tours with school children to high school news shows to event coverage of the annual awards for a notable non-profit to city council meeting and events, we provide the possibility for exposure and information about your organization. Ask any non-profit in the city from the Ventura Chamber, the VUSD, Ventura Police Dept.  Habitat for Humanity, Ventura County Fair, Project Understanding, and the St. Patrick’s Day Parade hosted by the Elks Lodge 1430. The best way to share your story is by coming in, signing up, training in our free classes and producing your own video. As all of art is a work in progress, we are always delighted when one of our members develops skill through experience and their programs become more polished.  All of us, members and staff, are always learning.

As CAPS Media grows and evolves, what we offer expands. Soon we will be offering more comprehensive classes, injecting some of what we teach in our youth programs and including our new radio station training program we hope to launch soon after we go on the air. The first hill to climb is to fund the station where we will let you share your voice. Radio is an exciting place to be. It is the number one place to go for information. We spend a lot of time in our cars and will be able to go to CAPS Radio to get a taste of Ventura.

Check out our new website with all the info you need to sign up, reserve your space in a class and catch not only the CAPS Media productions on Vimeo but watch the channels live streaming from your computer. Go to www.CAPSMedia.org. Thanks to Donald who has work diligently to create the new website.

Thirteen-years ago, an optimistic group of Temple Beth Torah members recognized the need in Ventura County for a Jewish Film Festival.  They hoped that if they created a special festival, presenting movies not normally shown in commercial venues, people would attend.  The beginning was modest, but through these past thirteen years, as word has spread, moviegoers who appreciate art house films and feature documentaries look forward to the annual March festival. This year’s major festival sponsors are Sandra and Jordan Laby.

Opening night, Saturday, March 5, 7 PM, at Ventura’s Regency Theater, will feature the English film, Dough, a heartwarming tale of an aging baker played by Jonathan Pryce  (Game of Thrones) who forms an unlikely friendship with his young Muslim apprentice.

On Sunday, March 6, at 7 PM at Temple Beth Torah, The Festival will offer the West Coast premiere of Raise the Roof.  This remarkable documentary chronicles an ambitious ten-year artistic project to reconstruct a 17th century synagogue, destroyed in WWII.  Special guest speakers The honorable Counsel General of Poland in Los Angeles, Mariusz Brymora, and local artisan, Al Geller, will discuss the restoration and commemoration of 1000 years of Jewish history in Poland.

The Farewell Party, filmed in Israel, combines comedy and drama in the unlikely setting of an old age home. When a terminally ill friend prevails upon Yehezkel, a mechanical genius, to build a Kevorkian-like suicide machine, the trouble begins.  The film provides a thoughtful yet entertaining starting point for discussion of the ethical and humane questions of euthanasia.  Following the film, which will be shown at the Regency on Tuesday, March 8, at 7 PM, a lively discussion of the issues raised by the film is anticipated with guest speaker Dr. James Hornstein.

Also screening at the Regency, on Thursday, March 10, is the Dutch-language film (with English subtitles), The Price of Sugar.  In the mid-eighteenth century, in the Dutch colony of Suriname, there existed a thriving population of Jewish sugar-plantation owners, descended from Portuguese refugees of the Spanish Inquisition.  One of the plantation’s African slaves  recounts the story of her life.  She and her mistress, born the same day, share a father.  Her half-sister, the beautiful daughter of privilege, descends into cruel narcissism when jilted by the man she expects to marry.  Filmmaker, Dutch-African Jean Van de Velde’s historic drama, based on a novel by Surinamese writer, Cynthia McLeod, explores the island’s tragic experience of African slavery, with an unsparing look at the savagery, violence and sexual abuse that accompanied it.

From France comes director Alexandre Arcady’s drama, 24 Days, that retells the story of the kidnapping of a young French-Jewish man by a Muslim gang who hold him for ransom.  The beautifully made and skillfully acted film illuminates the serious nature of the current wave of European Anti-Semitism.  The film will be screened on Saturday afternoon, March 12, at the Regency Theater, at 4 PM.

For more information on The Ventura County Jewish Film Festival, please visit the festival website VCJFF.org.

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Join Ventura College’s Opera and Musical Theater for their production of Sondheim’s Into the Woods, a story about a baker and his wife’s struggles to have a family because of a witches curse, all while being assisted by our favorite fairy tale characters along the way. Directed by Brent Wilson, costumes by Abra Flores, and set and production by Willy Eck. Runs February 18 through 28 in the Studio Theatre at Ventura College’s Performing Arts Center. Tickets $15, Students/Seniors $10. General Admission $15, Students/Seniors/Faculty/Staff $10

For more information, call 289-6307 or visit our event website: www.facebook.com/vcomt

“Into the Woods” is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI).

The Community Memorial Healthcare Foundation is holding its 43rd Benefactors’ Ball on Saturday, April 16, with proceeds benefitting the new Community Memorial Hospital.

At this event, three notable individuals will be recognized with the prestigious Cephas Bard Award, named after the founder of the first Community Memorial Hospital. Awardees to be recognized at this event are: CMH Physician – Dr. Thomas F. Golden, CMH Retired Physician – Dr. William L. Hart, and Community Member of the Year – Barbara Meister.

Festivities begin at 6 p.m. at O’Brien Hall at Historic Mission San Buenaventura. Dinner is set for 7 p.m., with dancing and music at 8 p.m. The evening is black tie optional.

The event represents an opportunity for residents to support community-based healthcare. The new Community Memorial Hospital will feature advanced medical technology, all private rooms and a considerably larger emergency department.

For information, tickets or sponsorship, visit www.benefactorsball.org, or call the foundation office at 667-2881.

Join Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurse Association’s remarkable core of volunteers–community heroes that give special gifts of time and compassion to patients and their families at the end of life.

Livingston will provide you with training that gives you the confidence to enter the homes and lives of others to support them as a part of the Livingston Hospice Team. Training begins Wednesday, January 27th from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm and continues for eight consecutive weeks.

What you receive back is as priceless as what you give.

For more information, contact Maddy Hazard at 642-0239 x775 or [email protected].

The Ventura Avenue Adult Center
550 N Ventura Avenue
January 25, 2016

Doors open at 7 pm
Program begins at 7:45 pm

The Ventura County Potters’ Guild welcomes Christy Johnson, founding Director of the American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA), Pomona, CA.

She holds a BA in English Literature from California State University, Los Angeles, and later studied studio art at Otis Art Institute under Ralph Bacerra and at Pasadena City College with Phil Cornelius.