Visual arts museum seeks a location in the Conejo

Thousand Oaks Boulevard may become the site of a visual arts museum that a group hopes to build in Conejo Valley.

Former city mayor and county supervisor Frank Schillo attended the Feb. 24 City Council meeting and gave a short presentation asking the council to include among its goals a visual arts museum in Thousand Oaks. The council responded favorably.

Schillo's request came after the Conejo/Las Virgenes Future Foundation did a study that showed community support for a visual arts museum. The board of the foundation appointed Schillo its task force chair. Now he's working to find about 2½ acres for the museum.

"We don't have a site, a theme, a budget or an executive director," Schillo explained.

The foundation isn't ready to do fundraising, either, he said.

Right now, the group is looking for a place to build the museum; when they find a location, they will then decide what kind of art they plan to show there. Right now the task force is researching what already exists in the area so they can be careful not to duplicate that, Schillo said.

Schillo served on the City Council for 10 consecutive years beginning in 1984; after that he was county supervisor for eight years.

While he was on the council, he helped bring the Civic Arts Plaza to Thousand Oaks and since then has brought artists together for the two-day Thousand Oaks Arts Festival, attended by 15,000 last year.

"When the Civic Arts Plaza was built for the performing arts, I was asked why we didn't do something for the visual arts— paintings, sculptures," he said.

So he began the arts festival to showcase the talented artists in Thousand Oaks.

Visitors to the visual arts museum will be treated to a permanent collection along with shows by local artists, he said.

The task force determined the best site would be on Thousand Oaks Boulevard, Schillo said.

"I'm very delighted the city added the visual arts museum as one of their goals."

Not so happy was Councilmember Claudia Bill-de la Peña, who said she was taken by surprise.

"I'm in full support of the arts, but this came out of nowhere. After a three-minute presentation, all of a sudden we're supporting a visual arts museum without proper scrutiny," said Bill-de la Peña.