HUNTINGTON BEACH : Work on Arts Center Due to Begin in June

Representatives of the Allied Arts Board announced Monday that construction on the city’s long-proposed downtown arts center will begin this June.

They said the new facility should be completed in January of 1993 and will open to the public in April.

Although the board members appeared before the City Council Monday to discuss various projects, the Arts Center was the main topic.

Lloyd Baron, a member of the Allied Arts Board, said arts officials have been encouraged by the strong response to fund-raising efforts for the project.

“Despite the recession and despite not employing a professional fund-raiser, we feel we have been very successful in raising money for the art center,” Baron said.

The Arts Center will be at 538 Main St., in a building that formerly served as office space for Southern California Edison. City officials purchased the vacant 11,000-square-foot building in 1988 for $365,000 and donated it to the nonprofit Huntington Beach Arts Center Foundation.

The Arts Center Foundation was assigned the job of raising $750,000 to renovate the old Edison building. The plans call for three galleries with 16-foot-high exposed wood ceilings and movable walls to be varied according to the art exhibit.

There will also be a 1,000-square-foot multipurpose room in the new Arts Center which will be used for film screenings, lectures, performance art and group discussions.

Another part of the building will be used for art classes and workshops.

In their report on Monday, the Allied Arts Board members said the nonprofit foundation has raised about $480,000 of the $750,000 needed for the renovation.

Major contributors include a variety of corporations as well as the Arts Center Founders Committee, a newly created civic committee.

Baron told the City Council she is optimistic that the foundation will raise the remainder of the money in time to begin construction as scheduled. “We expect to raise another $100,000 by the end of this year,” she said.

Naida Osline, director of the arts center, said after the session that she is extremely pleased at the progress made by the Allied Arts Board and the fund-raising foundation.

“I think it’s remarkable at what they’ve been able to do despite the recession, and we’re all very excited and enthusiastic and looking forward to the opening of the art center,” Osline said.

The Allied Arts Board announced that it would host a celebration at the old Edison building on May 29. Members of the City Council are expected to be among the invited guests.