WOODLAND HILLS : Last-Minute Funds Sought for Stage

The Valley Cultural Center has embarked on a frantic, last-week-of-the-year fund-raising drive to raise money for improvements at its new performance stage at Warner Ranch Park.

The center has until Friday to raise $75,000 to meet a $150,000 challenge pledge offered by Warner Center Properties, said Marilyn Hankins, executive director.

Warner Center Properties put up the money on the condition that the center could match it with an equal amount from donors, she said. So far, corporate grants totaling about $75,000 have been collected. Hankins said she is optimistic the center will make the year-end deadline.

If not, she said, the offer may not be renewed. Warner Center Properties has already agreed to extend the offer once, after the center failed to attract enough donors by October.

Hankins said $300,000 is needed to add a movable dance floor, electrical cables, dressing and storage rooms to the new $1.2-million stage completed with city funds earlier this year.

The stage is used for the weekly free concerts in the park sponsored by the center. The concerts, which have been held every summer for 18 years, draw about 5,000 people per show.

Until last year, a stage was improvised by rolling two flatbed tractor trailers together, and portable toilets provided restroom facilities. Now there is a new stage and the center includes complete plumbing and restrooms.

Hankins said that center organizers want to add more improvements to attract more well-known acts.

“We’d be able to give them a dressing room. Before, it was just a tent,” she said.