COUNTYWIDE : $26,250 in Grants to Benefit Arts Groups

The Ventura County Community Foundation announced that it will distribute $26,250 in grants to 16 local arts organizations this year, an increase of nearly $5,000 over last year’s donations to the arts.

The 3-year-old foundation created the County Arts Alliance in 1988 as a cultural arm to distribute grants that previously had been doled out by the Ventura County Arts Commission.

This year, $11,000 of the foundation’s grants came from The James Irvine Foundation, a statewide charitable organization that earmarks its funds for rural arts programs.

Community Foundation President Cathy Edge said most of the remaining $15,250 came from the California Arts Council, with some additional funds generated by local fund raising.

The grant recipients include:

Santa Paula Theatre Center, $2,500; Ventura County Symphony Assn., $2,500; Conejo Valley Art Museum, $2,000; Buena Ventura Art Assn., $2,000; Plexus Dance Theatre, $1,500; Ventura Arts Council, $1,250; Conejo Symphony Orchestra, $1,250; Santa Susana Repertory Company, $1,250; Fine Arts for Youth, $500; and Xanadu Theatre, $500.

The institutions that will share in the rural arts money include:

Teatro Inlakech, $3,000; Illusions Theatre; $2,500; Ventura County Multi-Cultural Art Council, $2,500; Royal Shakespeare Revels, $2,000; Brass Pathetique, $500; and Preserve Bottle Village, $500.