Sherry Lapidus was right… A few months ago in this column, I asked – and answered – the question: “What’s the next big thing in the Valley?” I concluded that the small business owners (not in stature, but in size of company) who were creative entrepreneurs were the Valley’s next big thing. Barely had that column hit the streets (a phrase with little meaning in light of the impending near-death of newspaper street sales) that I heard from friend Sherry. The next big thing in the Valley – she admonished me – was CSUN’s Performing Arts Center. (We all know that the University’s much-admired president, Jolene Koester, prefers the complete use of the University’s name, but journalistic brevity compels the use of the abbreviation). So, on a drizzly December morning, in pursuit of journalistic accuracy, I toured the budding Valley Performing Arts Center. Friends from Over the Hill often deride the lack of cultural offerings in Our Valley. They ignore the little theatres that cluster together in NoHo, the caliber of productions mounted by our several community colleges, and the artistic offerings of the thousands employed in the film, commercial, and television fields who live North of Mulholland. And while those who never venture North of Mulholland will continue their snide sniping, we have a new jewel in our community’s cultural crown. For example, the ever-so-hip (at least in their own minds) editors of Los Angeles Magazine couldn’t help headlining their coverage of the soon-to-premier Performing Arts Center with an outdated ode to Valley Girl Speak with: “OK, fine…fer sure, fer sure: Northridge gets a cultural landmark”. Are they out of touch, or what? But back to the Performing Arts Center… I’ve toured opera houses, theatres, and other performance venues across this country and Europe, and I don’t hesitate to say that the new CSUN Center need not take a balcony seat to any of them. Now, admittedly, it’s not elegant in an Old World, 18th century Rococo, or Art Deco sort of a way. It’s a lot of glass and square corners and hard surfaces, but it’s new and fresh and need not take second fiddle (a musical pun being appropriate here) to the Ahmanson Theatre, Orange County Performing Arts Center, Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, or almost any other venue you may have visited. The project has been developed under the leadership of President Koester, who has been at the University’s helm for ten years. And while she’s enough of a visionary to lead the band for this project, she’s realistic enough about her job to have once said, “At any given moment at least one of our 33,000 students is doing something I don’t like.” And if you think building the Performing Arts Center has been easy in this economy, keep in mind that Dr. Koester announced earlier this year that she is faced with reducing enrollment by 17 percent over two years due to budget cuts. Public-private partnership The Performing Arts Center is being funded to the tune of $125 million through a public-private partnership, of which approximately $110 million has been received or committed so far. Eighty million is coming from federal, state, and county sources, while $30 million is from a combination of individuals, corporations, and foundations. So who rode to the rescue of the Performing Arts Center in this dreadful economy? You did: the business community of the San Fernando Valley. Upon entering the Center, visitors will admire the curving David and Jean Fleming Grand Staircase, just one of a number of prominent Valley business leaders’ names listed among the project’s major supporters. The donor list boasts such familiar names as Paris Industrial Parks (Sandy & Valerie Paris); The Gelb Group (Rickey and Robbi Gelb); National Notary Association (Milt & Debbie Valera); Lamps Plus (Dennis & Manja Swanson); Agora Realty & Management (Cary & Marla Lefton); California Industrial Group Companies (Walter Perez); and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. Kudos to you all. But the Valley Performing Arts Center is not just a creation of the high rollers; more than 400 donors have signed on to assure its viability and there are already more than 700 season subscribers. What’s in it? So, what are we getting for $125 million and 166,000 square feet? A 1,700-seat hall acoustically adjustable to accommodate all types of performances; A 178-seat black box theater for experimental and smaller-scale student productions; Two full-size rehearsal spaces; Indoor and outdoor public and entertainment areas; Lecture hall, labs, and other academic spaces; Technical support space for audio and video recording and electronic amplification; and Studio and administrative space for campus radio station KCSN-FM. But as the fast-talking TV pitchman says, “But wait…there’s more.” The “more” is that when the new Valley Performing Arts Center takes its first bow, on January 29, 2011, one very large spike will be driven in the coffin of the misconception that the Valley is a cultural wasteland. Sherry was right; the Performing Arts Center is the next big thing in Our Valley. Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. Writer/philosopher Albert Camus Martin Cooper, President of Cooper Communications, Inc., is Immediate Past President of the Los Angeles Quality and Productivity Commission; Founding President of The Executives; Vice Chairman of the Boys & Girls Club of the West Valley; and a member of the Boards of the Valley Economic Alliance and of the LAPD’s West Valley Jeopardy Program. He is Past Chairman of VICA and Chairman of its Board of Governors; and Past President of the Public Relations Society of America-Los Angeles Chapter and of the Encino Chamber of Commerce. He is the 2010 recipient of VICA’s Harmon Ballin Community Service Award. He can be reached at [email protected].
CSUN’s Brand New Cultural Gem is the Valley’s Next Big Thing
