Commentary: Your Ventura County Museum

By Mona AlvaradoFrazier /Guest contributor

On Sunday’s I take a little longer reading the Arts and Culture section of the newspaper because of the variety of museums, theaters, and cultural events in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Ventura Counties. I’m particularly interested in Latino’s contributions to the arts. The Los Angeles Museum of Art (LACMA) has an exhibit on Women Artists in Mexico and the United States and the Gene Autry just finished with Art Along the Hyphen: The Mexican American Generation.

Our own Ventura County Museum features Hilos de la Vida/Threads of Life exhibit and Music before Columbus, Archaeomusicologist Luis Perez’s collection of Pre-Columbian musical instruments and ritual objects from Mesoamerica. I wonder how many people have seen these exhibits and if not, why haven’t they?

Ventura County’s Hispanic/Latino population accounts for 38.5 percent of the population (US Census 2010). Of that, only 5 percent attend the Ventura County Museum’s exhibitions, according to audience research conducted in 2011. How can the museum engage Latino’s in museum programs, events, and services so that it is consistent with the Latino population?

There may be a myriad of opinions on this subject however to ascertain specific reasons the museum is ‘coming to the people.’ Our museum is a recipient of the James Irving Foundation Grant and with this funding, they hired Contemporanéa, a marketing communications consulting firm that is committed to helping museums better understand the Latino community. Salvador Acevedo, President of Contemporanéa participated in “Forecasting the Future of California Museums,” in 2010.

The Museum has a “Capacity Building Plan,” and their first issue is “Cultural Participation.” The V.C Museum’s Strategic Plan calls upon their board and staff to develop exhibitions and programs that build patronage and membership among the Latino population in Ventura County.

To accomplish this goal, Contemporanéa will hold specific focus groups, the “Latino Audience Survey,” on March 19, 2012. An online questionnaire is required before a selection is made to attend the focus groups.

Requirements:

• Must be of Latino(a) origin
• Must live in Ventura County
• Must be over 21 years of age and have children under 18 years old
• Must fill out an online questionnaire before March 17, 2012

If you qualify and participate, Contemporanéa provides a cash incentive. Click on the link below to take the survey (which it will take approximately 5 minutes):

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MuseumParticipation

(Note: If the link doesn’t work, please copy-and-paste the address above into your browser.)

Your opinions are very valuable for a study they are conducting. Through your participation, you will also help to improve the outreach to the community and long-term, improve that 5 percent Latino attendance at the Museum.

— Mona AlvaradoFrazier is a writer and proprietor the BookNook in Downtown Sol, 328 W. Third St., Oxnard. To see more of her work, visit www.latinapen.blogspot.com