It's a complex set up. The non-profit Oxnard Performing Arts Center, known as OPAC, shares event space at the city's community center with for-profit entity Sterling Venue Ventures, also known as the Canyon Club.
"The two entities have struggled to have a good operating agreement for a lot of reasons," explained Carolyn Mullin, the Executive Director of OPAC.
Both sides are looking to amend the current agreement with the City council, which expires or rolls over at the start of next month. And Mullin says a change in the language of the agreement is cause for concern.
"So the renewal extension is pretty much the same as it was in 2020, the original language. But there's a subtle change and that change is going to be at SVV's 'sole discretion' as to whether or not they want to work in coordination with us. So there's no guarantee and that concerns us gravely," Mullin said.
OPAC plays a vital role in the community of Oxnard, but Mullin says she's worried about the future for the organization and the arts in the community.
"The arts are crumbling in this community. All of our big anchors have closed. And so for us to be in our current situation is just very painful to me and I think to this community and especially now, right? Our community is largely underserved, lot of Latino families here. We have ICE and deportations and families being broken. And I think what we need more than ever are these safe spaces to come together and we take so much pride in being that venue," said Mullin.
In a letter to the City last September, Sterling Venue Ventures were critical of the operation of the OPAC rooms at the center and claimed their liquor license was put at risk by an outside vendor selling alcohol at a Dia De Los Muertos event. Those are criticisms which Mullin addressed.
"Running a complex as large as this is no easy feat. We were highlighted for a couple of instances with alcohol. Mind you, our nonprofit does not sell alcohol. We're not allowed to sell alcohol. We don't have an alcoholic license and it benefits and no way for us to distribute alcohol," she said.
"We had a Dia De Los Muertos celebration, one of our biggest events of the year, with a couple thousand people on site and one vendor happened to sell some beverages and was apparently doing this without our knowledge. But they were flagged by security and escorted from the premises and were not invited back ever again. They have been banned and that's exactly how the process should happen. There is no venue that is going to be without these sorts of instances, but this is why you have good protocol, good people and good policy in place to mitigate this," she said.
Mullin says a new, separate agreement is needed for the non-profit to be able to continue to thrive.
"What we would love to see is for the Canyon to stay if the city of Oxnard is happy with their services for theater operations. We totally support that. We understand our community loves live entertainment. That is their specialty. We applaud that every day," she said.
Mullin continues, "This community center, we believe, should stay with the community, run by the community and for the community and uniquely only OPAC can do that. I would love to get over this hump. I mean, I think this is taking so much time and energy away from doing the work, the good work. And we have big plans for OPAC. We want to expand, we want to create more programs. We want to have an impact citywide, if not even beyond."
KCLU reached out to Sterling Venue Ventures for comment, but they didn't return our email.
