PAUL LINDHARD – Art City – Monumental Artisty

As a Patron of Arts, mentor and Founder of Art City Studios, Paul Lindhard started his creative art studio in Santa Barbara. He later established in West Ventura where he continues to contribute to the local arts scene. Art City is a source of inspiration for Paul.

Paul Lindhard’s mission is to share his passion for the arts innovation in respect for nature, as nature is the great inspiration of his art. Billions of years contained in the beauty of the stones that are offered to us by nature to be sculpted. Paul wants to share his creative universe with the world in his studio surrounded by monolithic stones located in West Coast Ventura.

As the recipient of the 2007 Artist in the Community award, Paul has continued to significantly expand his participation in public art projects such as the Welcome to Ventura signage, the Main Street Bus Shelter, the Sheridan Way Elementary School Outdoor Classroom, the Gary Channer Memorial installation at the Ventura Botanical Gardens, the Cemetery Park Stone & signage installation, and countless other community projects that have made Ventura a special center of the arts on the Central Coast.

Meet Paul Lindhard

I have been an artist, painter, sculptor, public art, and multimedia collaborator for over fifty years. I moved to Ventura in 1985 from Santa Barbara with a vast and varied range of art materials and studio parts. Art City did not become what it is overnight but has constantly been evolving over the past thirty-seven years.

Recycling and repurposing are the stock-in-trade of what we do here. Cobbling together a studio is usually the first step in the artistic practice. Whether it is personalizing a space in a warehouse or other commercial structure, or sheltering projects from the elements, the environment you create can greatly enhance the scope of the work that is achieved.

Creating a viable space often costs more than a single artist can afford, whereas a collective studio can amalgamate compounded resources and energy. This becomes a community itself and, in turn, we were a great fit for the community of Ventura, remarkable synergies evolved. A Cultural Affairs Department offered grants and other self-perpetuating opportunities for a very productive partnership, making visionary Arts & Culture collaborations the cornerstone of an inspired and sustainable future.

I am grateful to have had this decades-long creative experience in Ventura. The Arts, Culture, and good work we have done with this community are the cornerstones of a sustainable and inspiring future. What we have developed here cannot be sanitized, confined to a box, or thrive from formulaic regulations.

Creating something from nothing is actually a messy process. Here at Art City, we celebrate innovation in an organic way. Like Nature itself, the grand design embraces a healthy diversity and learned respect for all the aspects of a dynamic evolution.

Art City has grown through all these years into an enduring manifestation of these principles. Our collective investment and commitment to the City of Ventura, indeed to the entire Central Coast of California, stands tall despite the many obstacles that we have faced. Our history here stands as a proud and tangible legacy for the future, whatever it may bring.