Laundry of Quake-Damaged Hospital in Sylmar Reborn as a Showplace for Artists

When the 1971 earthquake shook the Veterans Administration Hospital in Sylmar, 47 people were killed and most of the buildings were damaged beyond repair.

The hospital closed, but the laundry building survived. And in 1977, when the 90-acre site reopened as Veterans Memorial Park, the laundry building was transformed into a public art gallery. Atop a hill amid eucalyptus and palm trees, the Century Gallery overlooks the San Fernando Valley, with a view on a clear day as far as Sepulveda Pass.

“Local people in Sylmar still don’t know it’s here,” said Priscilla Neilsen, who has worked for two years as the gallery’s curator and only paid employee.

Neilsen says the gallery’s mission is to aid emerging artists and make art available to the public free of charge. The gallery, which closes during the summer, has opened its season with an exhibit of works by local Latino artists.

Neilsen is paid for 12 hours a week by the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation, which operates the park. The Century Gallery is the only gallery in the county’s parks and recreation system, and it is kept open mainly by volunteers.

The county pays for the building’s maintenance and the invitations to each exhibition opening, but not much else. Artists are asked to pay $40 to help with printing and other costs.

“It’s catch as catch can as far as a budget goes, and it gets worse every year,” Neilsen said.

The gallery’s 12 volunteers are called the Docent’s Council, and most are members of the Sylmar Women’s Club, a philanthropic group that donates about $600 a year to the gallery. The docents provide the food for the art show openings.

“They bake their own cookies,” Neilsen said. “It is very much a labor of love.”

Despite the small budget, Neilsen says, the gallery has professional standards. “Everything is screened, and we look for high-caliber work. We don’t show back-yard artists.’

The works range from $100 to $3,000, and the gallery takes a 25% commission from sales.

The gallery runs five exhibits a year, at least one showcasing the works of local artists. The current show, “Para Nuestro Exhibicion Latino,” features more than 50 works of eight Latino artists from Sylmar and Sun Valley.

“It’s giving some new artists exposure that they couldn’t get elsewhere because they don’t have the experience,” said Andro Avendano, an artist who proposed the show. Avendano hung the show himself, mixing his work and that of seven other artists throughout the 5,000-square-foot gallery. The exhibit includes oil paintings, colored-pencil drawings, bronze sculptures, watercolors and photographs.

Neilsen says the show is unusual for the gallery. “We’ve had a lot of avant-garde, conceptual, Southern California art, but it doesn’t necessarily appeal to the San Fernando Valley. This is more pictorial, more figurative. There’s nothing here that you don’t know what it is.”

The gallery’s next show, which opens Nov. 5, will feature paintings, prints and photographs of the San Fernando Mission by two local artists.

Mary Dahlsten, president of the Docent’s Council, says the volunteers give tours to elementary school students from the inner city, sometimes as often as twice a week. “It’s usually their first gallery,” Dahlsten said. “Whether they get anything out of the art show or not, it’s a beautiful park.”

Business people who come to the park occasionally visit the gallery during lunch breaks, Dahlsten says, but the gallery doesn’t get many other visitors. She says she and other volunteers used to advertise art shows by putting flyers on neighbors’ doorsteps, but they stopped because of the poor response.

“People around here probably go to Los Angeles to see something when it’s just as good here,” she said.

Not only is it difficult to attract visitors, Dahlsten says, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to attract volunteers, which they have tried to find through women’s clubs and running ads. “I’m 72,” she said. “And I’m about the youngest one we’ve got.”

“Para Nuestro Exhibicion Latino” can be viewed at the Century Gallery, 13000 Sayre St., Sylmar, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. For information, call (818) 362-3220.