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A Flower Grows at Bergamot : Fostered by public/private effort, Santa Monica’s pioneering arts complex is expanding

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At Bergamot Station, they stand next to each other. Henri Cartier-Bresson’s humble, unadulterated “On the Banks of Marne” and Carlos Almaraz’s ironic “California Promises”; an old RCA Victor phonograph turned into a fishbowl and a cement sculpture of a hairy dog contemplating a silk-screen that depicts fading traces of a murder scene.

Many years ago, Santa Monica’s trolley car station was given the name Bergamot, a flower of the mint family that flourished in the area. Eventually, the trolley stopped running and the station sat abandoned. Later the City of Santa Monica, trying to revitalize the area, thought of building light rail service based at Bergamot, near where Cloverfield Boulevard passes over the Santa Monica Freeway. Though that idea did not prosper, the site itself sparked the imagination of a visionary arts entrepreneur named Wayne Blank, who talked the city into renting the old station site for an arts center.

The city turned to partners in the private sector to help bring the idea to completion. Now, a little less than a year after the center’s opening, the city is generating revenue through rent and taxes and neighborhood businesses are benefiting from the crowds attracted to the area. By redeveloping the area, a mixed group of public, private and art interests are transforming what used to be an ugly industrial section of a grim neighborhood into an unpretentious but dignified cultural space of seven acres. With ample parking and easy access, Bergamot Station provides a place where people can stroll through the nearly 20 art galleries and shops and dine at a cafe.

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Collectors and browsers have responded in great numbers. The opening celebration, last September, brought out 20,000, and on every weekend since then Bergamot has been packed with visitors.

Before long, the Mark Taper Forum will open a two-stage theater next to the Gallery of Contemporary Photography, scheduled to open in October. Besides the new cafe, there soon will be a first-class restaurant.

Bergamot Station is a pioneering development, and the arts community should make a special effort to patronize it in these times of economic austerity. Once Bergamot’s success is assured, other communities should step up to create similar attractions. Such initiatives are need especially now, in the face of a determined drive by some in Washington to eliminate federal support for the arts.

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