BILL SPARKES/Acorn Newspapers EFFORT ACKNOWLEDGED- - Hugh Ralston, president of the Ventura County Community Foundation, presents Linda Pappas Díaz of the city of Thousand Oaks with a local government award. The presentation was made earlier this month in Oxnard. The Ventura County Arts Council celebrated artists and their supporters at the recent second annual Arts Stars Awards and luncheon at the Courtyard by Marriott in Oxnard.

Winners in eight categories ranged from the businesses and city that have supported the arts to individual artists and arts philanthropists.

The winners are:

+Nonprofit Arts Organization: Studio Channel Islands Art Centers, Camarillo

+Artist in Community Service: Pat Richards, Camarillo

+Arts Education Award: Donna Granata, Ventura

+Business Supporting the Arts: Armando Lopes of Plaza Development Partners, Oxnard

+National Recognition Award: J. Handel Evans, Camarillo

+Local Government Award: Thousand Oaks

+Cultural Tourism Award: Ventura Visitors and Convention Bureau

+Arts Philanthropist: Sandra and Jordan Laby, Ventura

The awards ceremony "honors the people and organizations that have given their money, time and talents to contribute to a thriving arts community," said Margaret Travers, executive director of the Ventura County Arts Council.

In addition to honoring artists and their supporters, the event serves another purpose, according to Monica Nolan, arts council president. When artists and organizations are brought together, each learns about the projects being done by their counterparts elsewhere in the county, she said.

"I think what it does . . . when you join together and you let other people know what you're doing, it creates a synergy," Nolan said.

The city of Thousand Oaks, which beat out Camarillo and Moorpark as the government entity that best promoted the arts, was recognized for providing a rentfree gallery to the arts community and sponsoring performing and visual arts programs with its 40-year partner, the Conejo Recreation and Park District.

Thousand Oaks Assistant City Manager Linda Pappas Díaz said the city and community share "one guiding goal: to get the arts out to the community as much as possible."

Camarillo artist Pat Richards, chosen from a field of seven prominent finalists that included musicians and actors, was recognized as the individual who best demonstrated that the arts must serve the needs of the community as well as the artist. Richards is a founding member of the Studio Channel Islands Art Center and has been instrumental in the recent opening of the studio's satellite gallery in Oxnard.

"To be nominated and receive an award in arts from my peers is really the greatest award," Richards said.

The arts council also recognized the studio for drawing national attention to the county's arts scene by exhibiting the work of nationally and internationally acclaimed artists. The studio includes a gallery and artists' workshop at its facility located on the campus of California State University at Channel Islands.

"I think we have not only set out to accomplish what we wanted to do, but to grow," gallery director Michele DePuy Leavitt said.

The awards celebration this year included two events- the luncheon earlier this month, when the winners were announced, and an April 22 benefit concert to honor the finalists and winners in each of the eight categories.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy was to perform; and the evening included a silent auction and no-host bar.

Money raised through the concert will augment the arts council's cultural arts fund, which finances classroom art instruction in public and private schools throughout Ventura County and artists' fellowships, said arts council volunteer Celia Reich of Camarillo.

The Ventura County Arts Council is a nonprofit organization whose primary goal is to restore arts education to the classroom and promote artists and arts organizations.