Chapter
Arts and Culture
Thousand Oaks offers a rich local arts community and has become a regional destination for arts, culture, and entertainment opportunities. The City is home to an abundant and diverse collection of cultural assets including businesses, nonprofit organizations, venues, people, and cultural heritage places. Residents work as independent artists and performers, musicians, designers, tech workers, writers, among others. Current cultural participation by residents includes attending performances at the Civic Arts Plaza’s Bank of America Performing Arts Center (BAPAC) or other community theatre spaces, viewing exhibits at various galleries, small informal events at local restaurants, citywide events, and activities, as well as access to other outside events in neighboring cities. The Thousand Oaks Grant Brimhall Library is one of the central points for cultural participation in the community and has significant arts and cultural offerings for a city the size of Thousand Oaks. Currently, many events are geared toward mature residents (over 40) or the very young (under 10). Thousand Oaks youth and young adults want opportunities to participate in cultural activities in the City. Teenagers and young adults are seeking activities such as speaker series, creative spaces to collaborate on projects, places to gather with other like-minded youth, music festivals, and more accessibility to arts activities.
Goals and Policies
Arts and Economic Development
Goal AC-1: Embrace arts and culture as a key partner to Thousand Oaks’ economic development.
AC-1.1 Creative sector.
Continue to develop programs and support systems for Thousand Oaks’ creative sector, attracting new workers to the community and retaining current workers and businesses.
AC-1.2 Creative spaces.
Prioritize the development of arts and creative spaces and gathering places within mixed use, commercial, retail, and civic developments.
AC-1.3 Civic Arts Plaza Campus Master Plan.
Support and enhance the Civic Arts Plaza Campus Master Plan’s goals to develop arts and culture spaces and programming for the new Civic Arts Plaza.
AC-1.4 Competitive advantage.
Take steps to incorporate the arts and cultural vibrancy and vitality of Thousand Oaks as a distinct competitive advantage for the City as a place to live, work, and recreate.
The Civic Arts Plaza and Cultural Affairs
Goal AC-2: Ensure the Civic Arts Plaza remains the vibrant cultural center of Thousand Oaks.
AC-2.1 Arts programming.
Continue to focus on the high quality of the Civic Arts Plaza facilities and programs while expanding and enhancing offerings.
AC-2.2 Finances.
Sustain the financial health of the Civic Arts Plaza operations and programming and explore new funding sources in addition to the TOArts policy related to BAPAC and the enterprise fund.
AC-2.3 Resident organizations.
Ensure longevity for the resident organization program, providing continued incentives and benefits, such as reduced theater fees, donated office space, and marketing assistance.
AC-2.4 Arts and business roundtable.
Develop an Arts and Business Roundtable to expand community partnerships, assist with programming of the new Civic Arts Plaza and other relevant topics for advancement of the arts for the City.
Resident Cultural and Creative Experiences
Goal AC-3: Enhance and expand arts, cultural, and creative experiences throughout all areas of the community.
AC-3.1 Public art.
Adopt a City Public Art Ordinance to develop a City public art program that creates permanent and temporary art works in locations and places throughout the City.
AC-3.2 Citywide arts experiences.
Through the Cultural Affairs Department, expand the current arts and cultural programming to extend to venues and spaces throughout the city, including informal places and experiences.
AC-3.3 Cultural facilities.
Take steps to identify partnerships and locations in Thousand Oaks for a large (10,000+ seat) venue for concerts, festivals, and other entertainment and cultural events.
Goal AC-4: Foster new generations of culturally literate and healthy residents.
AC-4.1 Lifelong learning in the arts.
Working with local organizations and the schools, support access to lifelong learning in the arts for all residents of all ages in community settings.
AC-4.2 Partnerships.
Further define and develop partnerships and collaborations among the CVUSD, California Lutheran University, the arts community, and other agencies in the provision of arts learning for youth.
AC-4.3 Cultural relevancy.
Continue to develop and expand arts and cultural programming that appeals to diverse cultural interests, including young adults, families, youth, seniors, and other specific audience groups.
AC-4.4 Program expansion.
Expand Cultural Affairs Department programming by developing partnerships, identifying satellite venues, and creating new programming for all communities and neighborhoods.
City Arts and Culture Leadership
Goal AC-5: Assure effective arts and cultural leadership for the Thousand Oaks community.
AC-5.1 Creative sector leadership.
As part of the development of an Arts and Business Roundtable, convene and activate Thousand Oaks’ creative sector and facilitate their participation in civic leadership.
AC-5.2 Community leadership.
Activate the Arts and Culture Roundtable with specific responsibilities as a community advisory body.
AC-5.3 Shared leadership.
Continue and expand Thousand Oaks’ well-established practice of City collaborations with the Library, CRPD, California Lutheran University, CVUSD, and others to leverage these relationships for arts and cultural programming, information sharing and facilities.
Goal AC-6: Utilize arts and culture as a policy tool for other civic goals.
AC-6.1 Equity, inclusion, access.
Utilize art to provide a unique opportunity for engagement and programming content strategies to develop relationships with the Thousand Oaks community.
AC-6.2 Community health.
Utilize arts and cultural programming to support community health policies (teen suicides, crisis response), and social service initiatives.
AC-6.3 Creatives in City government.
Develop artist-in-residence or an artist-in-residence on demand program within City government to provide creative perspectives and services in planning, design, communications, community engagement, and other functions.
AC-6.4 Cross-departmental.
Convene City departments on a regular basis to explore cross-departmental initiatives with Community Development, Public Works, Police, and Library Services.
Arts and Cultural Funding
Goal AC-7: Secure diverse and sustainable arts and cultural funding.
AC-7.1 Expanded impact.
Allocate City funds to support arts and cultural programming and functions outside the Civic Arts Plaza and its enterprise fund.
AC-7.2 TOArts.
Support the Thousand Oaks Alliance for the Arts (TOArts) to continue and expand its funding partnership with the Cultural Affairs Department in support of programming in places other than the Civic Arts Plaza.
AC-7.3 Dedicated funding source.
Explore development of a dedicated revenue source for arts and culture.