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TO Arts reports growth, major-gifts progress and plans for downtown arts venues; council receives report
Summary
TO Arts board chair Al Lowe told the council the organization exceeded outreach and fundraising milestones, has an independent audit with no negative findings, has raised more than 60% of a $5 million campaign and seeks council receipt and a CEQA not-a-project finding; the council voted 5–0 to receive the update.
Thousand Oaks — TO Arts (the nonprofit that operates programming at the Bank of America Performing Arts Center) presented an operations and programming update for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, and the City Council voted to receive the report and to find the action not a project under the California Environmental Quality Act.
Al Lowe, chair of the TO Arts board, told the council the organization completed an independent audit with a positive opinion and reported progress on a $5,000,000 major-gifts campaign that has reached over 60% of its goal. Lowe highlighted a $350,000 challenge match (dollar-for-dollar) that yielded $700,000 and said $2,000,000 remains to reach the campaign goal. He also reported grantmaking and operational support to local nonprofits and resident companies, including $118,000 granted to 13 nonprofits and $60,000 distributed to resident companies.
Lowe described educational and outreach metrics: Kids in the Arts reported record attendance of more than 6,800 students and teachers, the TO Arts family-pack program provided 332 low-cost or complimentary tickets, and TO Arts presented 70 programs to more than 46,500 patrons in the fiscal year. Lowe also said the board promoted Nikki Richardson to executive director effective July 1, 2025, and launched an artist incubator program to train multidisciplinary professional artists.
Community and Cultural Services Director Jonathan Sarrette placed those efforts into the downtown master-plan context, describing plans for a flexible black-box venue (roughly 200 seats as an example), an outdoor amphitheater and an arts incubator that would provide rehearsal and demonstration space and tie into a public-market concept to support commerce.
A councilmember moved to receive the TO Arts operations and programming update and to find the action not a CEQA project; the motion passed 5–0.
