Courtesy photo.
THOUSAND OAKS — Thousand Oaks Arts (TOArts) is proud to announce the promotion of Niki Richardson to the role of Associate Director; Richardson has served as Development Director since 2017. The growth of the arts nonprofit over the past four years, since the merger of the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza Foundation and the Alliance for the arts, has been steady. Richardson’s responsibilities have evolved correspondingly;in addition to development, Niki has taken on oversight of arts education programs, grants, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Through the challenges of the last year, TOArts has been able to evolve programs to continue meeting the needs of the community. “Niki came to me and pitched an idea for virtual field trips, since we could not present our Kids and the Arts programs in the theatres as we typically would,” said TOArts Executive Director Jonathan Serret. “It was a great idea, Niki figured out how to make it happen through our website and ultimately this has provided continued exposure to the arts for students, from the safety of their homes.” TOArts’ Virtual Field Trips are viewed by approximately 500-700 students each month. Visit www.toarts.org/vft for more information.
Richardson previously worked for the Alliance for the Arts between 2001-2008. Before coming to TOArts, she worked for different nonprofits in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.
About TOArts — nTOArts is the nonprofit fundraising and presenting partner of the Bank of America Performing Arts Center at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. Its mission is to enrich lives and strengthen the fabric of the community through arts education, and the presentation and support of visual and performing arts at the Bank of America Performing Arts Center and beyond. Formed in 2017 from the merger of the Alliance for the Arts (founded in 1980) and the TOCAP Foundation (established in 1994), TOArts delivers high-quality arts exposure to youth and world-class performances to the region, along with vital support for local nonprofit performing arts groups. TOArts newest program strives to support Ventura County school districts to reinforce arts in elementary curriculum. For more information, please visit www.toarts.org, and follow TOArts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.