Builder’s Gift to Be Used for Art Studios

CalArts will add some badly needed student work spaces because of a donation from Eli Broad, the Los Angeles construction magnate who is also one of Southern California’s leading arts patrons.

Twenty art studios will be built on the Valencia campus this summer and should be ready for the fall semester, institute officials said.

“Every student in the School of Art has to have their own studio, their place to make art,” said Lee Howard, a CalArts vice president. “As the school has enlarged, what has happened is that we have a dire need for new studios.”

According to plans by Elyse Grinstein of Grinstein/Daniels Inc., the studios will feature skylights and will open onto a central courtyard. One student will be assigned to each space.

“Much of the school’s success has been due to its emphasis on doing rather than viewing the creative process,” Broad said in a news release. “The idea of a few students working closely with practicing faculty in the studio rather than the lecture hall is central to the CalArts philosophy.”

The donation is another example of Broad’s frenetic involvement in the arts.

Starting as a private collector of modern art--including the works of former CalArts teacher John Baldessari and alumnus David Salle--he went on to serve as a board chairman for the Museum of Contemporary Art before stepping down to form the Eli Broad Family Foundation, which collects art and lends it to museums.

All of this has been funded by Kaufman & Broad Home Corp., one of the state’s largest home builders. The company has been the focus of bitter complaints and lawsuits over substandard construction practices in recent years.

But Broad remains a champion in the Los Angeles arts scene. He has asked that CalArts not reveal the amount of his donation.

Groundbreaking for the new studios will take place Saturday, during the institute’s annual open house.