Donors Seeking Splendor in the Brass

For Mickie Shapiro, intermission at the Irvine Barclay Theatre is more than a coffee break.

It is the time she visits Row L to gaze upon the brass plaque affixed to Seat 103.

It reads: “Curtain Up! Life’s Waiting in the Wings. It’s Your Move. Mickie.”

Shapiro paid $1,000 to have her philosophy of life displayed upon a seat in Cheng Hall.

“I wanted to give people something to smile about,” says Shapiro, of Irvine. “If my plaque makes somebody think about life’s possibilities, I have accomplished my purpose.”

Shapiro is one of hundreds of Orange Countians who have been given, by virtue of their generosity, the opportunity to leave their personal mark in a public space. And arts patrons seem to have a particularly rich choice of opportunities to buy a slice of immortality.

From chairs to stairs.

Over at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, the main hall is named for the Segerstrom family, but two more halls may become available. At the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana, the largest gallery is spoken for, but individual steps leading to a balcony are still available.

The late Richard H. Barclay pledged $1 million to have the 750-seat Irvine theater bear his name, but many donors have paid less for their shot at fame.

The Ed McGrath family of Laguna Beach donated $25,000 to see its name next to the ladies lounge at the Barclay. Ketchup heir Clifford Heinz of Newport Beach gave $50,000 to name the stage door. Other names are showcased on the Barclay’s lobby, elevator, dressing room, scene shop and box office.

And “space-naming opportunities” remain.

For $500,000, your name can appear on the Founder’s Room or Stage House. A donation of $400,000 will get your name on the Main Plaza. Write a check for $25,000 and see your name on one of the plaza’s bronze pavers.

Arlene and George Cheng of Newport Beach pledged $750,000 to have the auditorium named after them.

“We wanted to give something to the community,” says Arlene Cheng, an arts activist. “We came here with nothing much, worked hard, made the right investments. It was time to give back.”

The couple also wanted to set an example for the Chinese community. “There is such a large population of Chinese in Irvine,” Cheng says. “They are shy, don’t want the limelight. We thought we should have the pioneer spirit, pave the way for them.”

At the Performing Arts Center, only one name--Segerstrom--is associated with a physical space. The family donated the land and millions to help build the 10-year-old center.

“It was decided by the board in the early days not to put a name on every nook and cranny in the theater,” says Gary Neiger, the center’s director of development. “The only thing that carries a name is the hall itself.”

Center donors of $50,000 or more are immortalized on a glass element hung on a wall in the First Tier lobby. “The recognition wall is in perpetuity,” Neiger says. “It is updated annually.”

You can get your name on an auditorium seat too. A donation of $2,000 gets you in the orchestra, $250 the balcony.

When the center adds two major theaters to its performing-arts venue--a 2,500-seat concert hall and a 700- to 800-seat drama theater--new space-naming opportunities are expected to become available.

“You can almost say, without question, those two theaters will carry someone’s name,” Neiger says. “The center was built through private contributions, and the expansion will be built the same way. They would definitely be multimillion dollar gifts, reflective of a percentage of the total amount of money that needs to be raised.”

Center Chairman Mark Johnson, a philanthropist who has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the arts in recent years, doesn’t expect his name to be on either theater.

“I’m really not interested in having my name on any particular building,” says Johnson, president and CEO of Chapin Medical Co. in Corona. “That’s just not my particular style. What I’m about is trying to enhance people’s lives, not build a monument to me.”

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When Sharon Lesk--a trustee of the Leo Freedman Foundation--first lunched on the Fernando Niebla balcony at the Bowers, she was captivated by the museum.

“I loved the idea of a cultural art museum. Now, more than ever, we need to learn about other people’s cultures and respect their differences,” she explains. “It’s the only way we’re going to learn to work together, move forward as a society.”

Her conviction was so strong she decided to commit $1 million of her great-uncle’s foundation money to help expand and renovate the museum.

Now, the complex’s largest gallery is called the Leo Freedman Foundation Galleria. “That donation marked the foundation’s first major multiyear grant,” says Lesk, an attorney.

“My great-uncle had this thing about having his name on everything. He used to ask me, ‘How many people have a freeway exit sign and a road [Freedman Way in Anaheim] named after them?’ He was so proud of that. But I think Leo would be very surprised to know the foundation has had more impact on people, touched more people than any freeway sign or road.

“I really believe that you live on in the hearts and minds of people. That is your immortality.”

Patricia House, the museum’s vice president and director of development, believes space-naming opportunities are part of the lifeblood of nonprofit institutions.

“It is important that people have the opportunity to become intimately aligned with an organization they seek to support with financial gifts,” she says.

“It is a way for a family to be recognized and a way for the community to understand that an organization is not only existing for the community but by the community. This is what makes an institution immortal.”

To get his name on the Bower’s balcony, Fernando Niebla of Santa Ana donated $250,000.

“But there are also steps up to the balcony,” House says. “They are $2,500 each. And very popular.”