I'VE WRITTEN A LOT HERE about the economic value of the arts but little about their community-building effects. Ventura's arts community is close-knit and eclectic -- a group of people who choose to live here because their work is appreciated and valued. "Arts events actually encourage a camaraderie," internationally known arts advocate Jerry Yoshitomi told me.

Artists sure know how to pack a City Council meeting, too. From poets to painters to sculptors to actors to the Ventura Music Festival's Nuvi Mehta and his violin, creative types showed up Monday night to protest budget cutbacks to Ventura's cultural arts programs.

Somebody even brought a dog.

The artists and arts organizations in Ventura are one of the reasons I choose to live here. As a member of the city's Cultural Affairs Commission, the proposed cutbacks in the city's cultural programming and staff have been distressing to me. Our cultural grants program, which helps support the budgets of regional entertainment luminaries like the Rubicon Theatre and the Ventura Music Festival, was up for a nearly 50 percent reduction.

Despite the impassioned pleas of 32 public speakers, the City Council voted for most of the cuts proposed by the Budgeting for Outcomes teams. Gone will be ArtWalk (unless it is resurrected privately), the Holiday Street Fair, a film series, all operating hours of the Albinger Museum, technical assistance for artists, and Plaza Park events, along with some staff.

TO RESCUE A FEW THINGS, staff and council got, well, creative. With the potential for two federal stimulus grants in the offing, the council voted to provide "bridge" funding to save one staff position which will work with the new non-profit foundation to raise funds to support cultural programs, which will hopefully include our city's now county-run libraries.

The cuts to our community services grants programs may only get a 25 percent reduction if revenues from our fee-based programs come in over projections. They could also be rescued with grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.

A lot depends on the $100,000 in NEA money the city is applying for, a gamble city staff is hoping will pay off. Volunteers will be needed now more than ever and our commission will be expected to step up its efforts.

"We will make it happen," Mayor Christy Weir said. "We won't let these programs die off."

The Cultural Affairs Commission meets the fourth Thursday of every month at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall.

I've written about this art program's complicated and misunderstood funding system so many times since I started this blog that I almost find myself reciting it over and over in my head as I go to sleep at night:

"It is an actual ordinance, passed in 1992, allocating 2 percent of eligible Capital Improvement Project (CIP) costs for the commissioning of artist services which tie into a project. Not very many projects are selected for this program. Most of the money comes from specific CIP funds which cannot legally be used to pay for police and fire personnel or libraries. ... blah, blah, blah."

Why, I found myself reciting it once again to long-time Star columnist Chuck Thomas just last week as I explained the difference between funding for the Public Art Program, which comes from the CIP fund, and other cultural activities which come from the General Fund. Chuck and I have been locked in a public battle over the merits of government funding of cultural programs for several years now. Sound economic strategy, I say. Waste of tax dollars, Chucks says.

But we had a very amiable phone conversation last week. He understands the Public Art Program funding process better now and while we still don't agree on government funding of cultural activities in general we did agree that it is easier to be a print columnist than a blogger.

IN THESE DAYS of budget cutting in cities around the country, cultural arts programs seem to be the mushrooms growing at the bottom of the totem pole. We're now cutting essential services like police officers and street paving and sidewalk repair.

Former Star writer Charles Levin wrote a great opinion piece Sunday on our city's public and private investment in revenue-generating cultural activities such as ArtWalk. I've written a few pieces like this myself. But his trumped all of mine.

Congress recently passed legislation which would pump more money into the nation's arts organizations; perhaps some of it will trickle down to our community through a grant. Nationwide, arts organizations are facing huge budget deficits. The nonprofit Americans for the Arts estimates 10,000 arts organizations could disappear in 2009.

Tonight the City Council will take another look at the list of cuts the Budgeting for Outcomes teams proposed, as well as the cuts to Public Art, and may vote on finalizing them. Several of our city volunteers, including myself, are looking into forming a non-profit to prevent some of our cultural programs, like ArtWalk, from disappearing from the local landscape. Our efforts may extend to helping out our county-run libraries.

If you're interested in helping, email me.