Uploaded on July 22, 2022 at 11:30 am PDT
Artist Michael O’Kelly is hard at work. The Ventura painter, and sculptor has created a massive, more than 30 feet long mural in the basement of a theater.
While many arts organizations in the Tri-Counties are struggling to survive, Ventura’s Rubicon Theater Company is growing. It added an art gallery, and performing arts space to its theater complex.
“It’s about more art, more art, more art,” said Beverly Ward, who is Rubicon Theater Company’s Director of Outreach. “We have space … we need to take advantage of that space … and in doing so, engage more people.”
She took us on a tour of the new gallery space. There are two dozen paintings and prints by artist Michael O’Kelly in a long corridor that has been converted into a gallery. Many of them are Mexican scenes, where the artist once lived.
Off the corridor, Ward took us into a large room that had once been used as a training ground. Now it’s a lounge, with sofas and tables. It’s called the Rose Room.
At the north end of the Rose Room, O’Kelly is working on his giant mural project. It looks like a giant party, with pictures of some of the people who have performed in the theater for decades.
Among those featured are Lisa Minnelli, Joel Gray, Linda Purl, and Ted Neeley, Amada McBroom and George Ball. McBroom and Ball donated money to make the Rose Room possible. McBroom wrote the hit song The Rose, which Bette Midler recorded, and was featured in the 1979 film The Rose.
O’Kelly said the idea was when people were in the Rose Room, the mural would help them feel like they were part of the party. It is a big hometown project for the artist, who has exhibited in around 50 galleries in three continents around the world.
O’Kelly says he is about halfway through the mural project, so visitors to the theater complex can see it as needed form.
Transfer Rubicon can be considered bold. Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties both lost art museums this summer due to related financial issues. However, the nonprofit theater hopes the expansion will help it become an arts center for the community.
Rubicon Founder and Artistic Director Karyl Lynn Burns said during the pandemic, they are trying to reimagine the role of professional non-profit theater companies in the community. They concluded that there is potential to do more to improve the area’s arts scene.
And, with theater groups around the country struggling with lagging ticket sales due to the pandemic, Ward said they realized that more art would bring more people.
The new gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. When it is not being used in conjunction with theater performances, the intention is to operate the Rose Room as an intimate nightclub space for cabaret or jazz performances.
