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Street scene in Hueneme. (Photo courtesy Museum of Ventura County)<\/p><\/div>\n
The courtyard of the Museum of Ventura County was filled with dignitaries reflecting on Ventura County\u2019s rich history and bright future as Matt LaVere, chairperson of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, took the stage. LaVere addressed a multicultural crowd whose roots run deep in Ventura County during a kickoff celebration on Friday, June 23, marking the 150th anniversary of the county\u2019s official founding and separation from Santa Barbara County. Guests in attendance included ranching families whose ancestors lived in Ventura County during 1873, as well as Chumash elders who trace their culture\u2019s history back many thousands of years.<\/p>\n
LaVere said Ventura County was just a small farming community of about 3,500 people at the time of its founding, while the population is now approaching 850,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot has changed. We now have a thriving port, a naval base which is tasked with our national defense, a thriving biotech sector,\u201d LaVere said. \u201cA lot has changed, but some things have also stayed the same. At the core, we\u2019re still an agricultural community.\u201d<\/p>\n
LaVere noted that Ventura County\u2019s natural beauty is one of the things that sets it apart from other parts of the nation and world. He pointed towards Channel Islands National Park on the ocean\u2019s blue horizon and pine-covered mountains of Los Padres National Forest to the north, surrounding the county\u2019s vibrant cities and bountiful farmland.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the space that really makes us love living here, it\u2019s the reason we\u2019re all here . . . This gives us a chance to really dig into our history to celebrate that,\u201d said LaVere, explaining that it\u2019s also important to look to the future while reflecting on the past. \u201cI think it\u2019s also a chance for all of us to recognize what we can do for the next 150 years, what we could be doing today that hopefully they\u2019ll be talking about in 150 years. So that\u2019s my intention these next four months is to celebrate the history, but think about what we are doing every day to make sure Ventura County remains the place that our grandkids and their kids want to be at and live at and thrive in.\u201d<\/p>\n
150 days of celebration<\/p>\n
The kickoff party at the museum was just one of many social gatherings scheduled through November that are being hailed as \u201c150 Days of Celebration.\u201d The events involve a partnership between Ventura County government and the Museum of Ventura County with help from sponsors including the Ventura County Community Foundation, the Economic Development Collaborative and the Port of Hueneme.<\/p>\n
An online festival is planned during July through the museum\u2019s website that will include historical games and puzzles. Pop-up celebrations are scheduled for Aug. 4 during the Ventura County Fair, Sept. 16 at a ragtime revival concert at Strathearn Historical Park in Simi Valley and Oct. 7 at Moorpark Country Days. The Oxnard Historic Farm Park hosts a 150th anniversary weekend Sept. 9 and 10.<\/p>\n
One of the biggest events promises to be the Oct. 21 \u201cMountain to Sea Jubilee: Celebrating 150 Years of VC,\u201d at the Museum of Ventura County\u2019s Agriculture Museum in Santa Paula. The jubilee will include a parade, the unveiling of new museum exhibits and live music by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, a local band that made history themselves when they performed at the halftime show of the Super Bowl in 1999.<\/p>\n
On Nov. 2, there will be a celebratory gala and dinner at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum that will also feature a State of the County address.<\/p>\n
Museum of Ventura County Executive Director Elena Brokaw said she wants residents to learn about Ventura County history in the coming months, but also realize that history is shaped by everybody all the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that they recognize that they are part of something larger than themselves, recognize that we all have a role in creating the future, that we\u2019re not just objects that are subject to somebody else\u2019s direction, that we can create the world we want to live in,\u201d Brokaw said. \u201cI hope people come to understand that by working together we can achieve much more than we can alone. And I hope that people are curious and inspired about what got us here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The arts plays major role in observance<\/p>\n
Art, music, literature and other creative expressions will feature prominently in the celebrations unfolding over the next few months.<\/p>\n
Donna Granata is founder of Focus on the Masters (FOTM) Archive and Library, a nonprofit that maintains archives of prominent Ventura County artists including oral histories, videotaped interviews, photographic portraits, and examples of artists\u2019 work. Granata has contributed to the anniversary celebration with an exhibition that includes 150 large-scale photographic portraits she made of artists at work in their creative environments. A small selection of portraits was on display at the kickoff celebration, and the entire show titled History is Now, 2023, will be installed in the Atrium Gallery at the Ventura County Government Center July 10 through Sept. 5. A reception is planned for July 13.<\/p>\n
Granata said it was back in 1989 that she took the first portrait of Ojai artist Beatrice Wood, who died in 1998 at age 105 and was known worldwide for her beautiful glazed pottery, humorous drawings and association with avant-garde art movements about a century ago.<\/p>\n
Other portraits include artists based elsewhere who made major contributions to the local arts scene, including Pierre Boulez, the late conductor who served as artistic director of the Ojai Music Festival, and Dennis Oppenheim, who created the \u201cBus Home\u201d sculpture (loved by some but not all residents) at the bus stop at the north end of Ventura\u2019s Pacific View Mall.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to document the artists that come into our community and influence our artists because not only are they historic, but they\u2019re also contributing to the music scene or, in the case of Dennis Oppenheim, the \u2018Bus Home\u2019 sculpture is such a huge, monumental piece,\u201d Granata said. \u201cHe was a New York-based artist that we documented as well. So they all had ties to Ventura County.\u201d<\/p>\n
Granata said art and music help people better understand history and one another, so it\u2019s appropriate that so much of the celebration relates to creative pursuits.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes imagination. It takes that spirit to bring our society forward. And art is a great vehicle to do that. And the great thing about artists is no two artists are the same,\u201d Granata said. \u201cThat\u2019s a lesson in and of itself, is to celebrate each other, celebrate each other\u2019s differences, celebrate who this individual is. And if we can share that mindset and foster more understanding of each other, we can live in a more peaceful world. I know that sounds very grandiose but it\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the History is Now, 2023 exhibition is displayed at the government center in Ventura it will be moved to Thousand Oaks\u2019 Bank of America Performing Arts Center where it will be on display between Sept. 11 and Nov. 6. A talk featuring FOTM directors will be held on Sunday, Sept. 17, at 2 p.m. and will be followed by an exhibit reception 3-5 p.m.<\/p>\n
Celebrating agricultural history<\/p>\n
Museum of Ventura County Board Member Leslie Leavens is from a fourth\u2013generation Ventura County farming family that continues to grow lemons and avocados east of Santa Paula. She attended the museum event with her partner, John Krist, an author and journalist who\u2019s written about Ventura County agriculture since the 1980s. Leavens said the history of Ventura County and agriculture will be forever intertwined.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, this is an unbelievable place to grow things. We can have as many as three crops on a piece of ground in a year if we have the water,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is the best place to grow lemons in the United States and avocados do pretty doggone well here, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leavens added that she\u2019s looking forward to new exhibits at the Agriculture Museum that will be unveiled as part of the 150th anniversary celebration. \u201cIt\u2019s just really exciting to be part of this. There are so many opportunities for people to learn about their county.\u201d<\/p>\n
Krist said his familiarity with Ventura County history and agriculture started in 1983 when he was a newspaper intern at what was once known as the Star-Free Press. One of his first assignments was digging through the museum\u2019s archives to put together a \u201cToday in History\u201d column for the Sunday newspaper that looked back on events from exactly five, 20 or even 100 years ago. Many years later, Krist spent a year documenting the local agriculture industry. His efforts led to a coffee table book called Living Legacy: The History of Ventura County Agriculture published in 2007.<\/p>\n
After so many years writing about the local ag industry \u2014 and also traveling around the western U.S. for other farming-related stories \u2014 Krist can say with authority that there\u2019s something special about Ventura County\u2019s farming industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, the first people to settle here who weren\u2019t the Chumash or Spanish missionaries and soldiers were the farmers and ranchers. And that legacy holds with us today,\u201d Krist said. \u201cVentura County is unique among coastal Southern California counties in having a remarkably robust agricultural economy, the irrigated acre for every paved acre. And one of the wonderful things about studying history . . . is watching how community decisions made that happen. It wasn\u2019t an accident. It was land use planning, it was innovation, adaptation on the part of the growers, lots of creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chumash community included in the celebrations<\/p>\n
Three cousins who are descendants of Chumash ancestors \u2014 KC Rodriguez, Julie Tumamait-Stenslie and Brenda \u201cCookie\u201d Guzman \u2014 gave a traditional welcome and blessing at the kickoff event.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really appreciative that people in the communities are asking us to be present and to be acknowledging that we are still here,\u201d said Tumamait-Stenslie, a Chumash elder who has been associated with the museum since the 1980s. \u201cIn the days of my father, Vincent Tumamait, everybody labeled us extinct because of oppression and people were afraid to say they were native, because there was so much stigma attached to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rodriguez said her relatives are still in the process of healing from the traumas that have happened over hundreds of years and hopes people will learn more about her culture during this year of reflection, even though 150 years is a blip in time compared to how long her ancestors have been here.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s our home. We don\u2019t see it as Ventura County. We don\u2019t see it in county lines. The whole area was many different villages and it\u2019s just a sacred place,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cBut we\u2019re opening arms and inviting people to work with us, learn how to take care of the land better, and invite us into spaces so we can tell our story for them to learn and we can collaborate together in a better future.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more information on the 150th Anniversary of Ventura County, including upcoming events, visit venturacounty150.com.<\/p>\n