Performing Arts Center to Spruce Up

First came the name change.

Oxnard’s Civic Auditorium quietly became the Performing Arts Center last November in attempts to improve the aging facility’s lackluster image, at least on paper.

“I think the biggest reason was to try to move the center out of the 1960s and get a name that was more appropriate for the 21st century,” said Jack Lavin, the center’s general manager. “ ‘Civic Auditorium’ was a little generic.”

On Tuesday, Oxnard City Council moved beyond the superficial change to what the 28-year-old center really needs: a $643,416 refurbishing job this summer. The council voted 4 to 0, with Mayor Manuel Lopez absent, to provide the needed money.

Built in 1968, the facility on Hobson Way is aging poorly. Many of the theater’s 1,604 seats are missing foam padding. Workers have taped pieces of the carpet together to keep it from falling apart at the seams.

And last week, the theater’s dimmer system went berserk, causing lights to blink on and off while the New West Symphony rehearsed “La Traviata.”

“It has become rundown,” Lavin said. “We just need to upgrade it and make it look more modern. We want it to be a first-class hall.”

The city plans to pay for the improvements using more than half a million dollars from a special capital improvement fund slated for new roofing, new carpet and other improvements to buildings in the City Hall complex downtown.

Citing a need to boost the center’s revenues and continue to draw big-name acts, City Councilman Andres Herrera said the other work can wait.

“We have to establish priorities,” said Herrera, who along with Councilman Bedford Pinkard has pushed for the arts center upgrade. “It is money that, if properly invested, will provide Oxnard residents with a venue that increases their quality of life.”

Herrera has performed at the center with the now defunct Ventura County Symphony. He plays the jarana, a string instrument.

Lavin said attendance at the center peaked in 1988 when more than 105,000 people came to see performances, including many free shows. That number dropped by about 20,000 in 1990 and attendance levels have hovered around 85,000 ever since--a trend Lavin blames on the recession.

The city now provides a nearly $600,000 yearly subsidy to operate the theater. And Oxnard returns any revenue it makes in theater receipts--generally $200,000 to $300,000 annually--to the city’s general fund.

Lavin said the upgrade could help the center narrow that budget gap by attracting more acts and increasing ticket sales.

“Just as you have to look good, you have to be able to operate well,” Lavin said. “When you are marketing the facility, when you walk people through, you don’t want them to see a rundown hall.”

Lavin said the Oxnard center has no plans to compete with Thousand Oaks’ tony, $64-million Civic Arts Plaza complex that includes a 1,800-seat concert hall and 400-seat theater. The 40,000-square-foot Oxnard center, he says, has so far had little trouble attracting major headliners.

Linda Ronstadt, Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton have appeared at the center, which city officials say offers first-rate acoustics. And the center has also hosted members of the Bolshoi Ballet and other international acts.

“The biggest competition is television,” Lavin said. “Not the guy down the street.” The money will pay for improvements to the theater including refurbishing its seats, replacing the carpet, painting the interior and upgrading the lighting and sound system.

Theater backers also plan to raise an additional $2 million to $4 million to perform more extensive renovations, including replacing the heating and air-conditioning systems, painting the exterior, building new entrances and expanding parking. The Arts Facilities Foundation formed last year to drum up the money from grants and private sources.

So far, the group is still waiting for its articles of incorporation, which would allow it to raise money as a nonprofit foundation. Nevertheless, Lavin said the foundation has received donations of paintings valued at $273,000. But the group will have to wait two years to resell them.