Alan Llavore | Office of Marketing and Communications | (909) 537-5007 | allavore@csusb.edu
The new Performing Arts Center at Cal State San Bernardino, billed as “a beacon for the arts” in the Inland Empire, made its debut with more than 400 people attending the formal ribbon-cutting celebration on a sunny late Southern California winter afternoon.
“This exceptionally designed and beautifully appointed structure represents the intersection of arts, education and excellence,” said Tiina Mittler, the center’s newly appointed executive director, during the ceremony on March 4. “It's called a beacon for the arts and envisioned to be the Inland Empire's new performing arts hub. I proudly join my colleagues across the campus and in our community with the belief that our Performing Arts Center will act as the university's new unifying connection point that fosters creativity and cultural expression through live shared experiences.”
In addition, the center is envisioned as a focal point for performing arts in the region.
“Through this building, we will be able to host professional touring shows and performers on campus,” university President Tomás D. Morales said. “This will bring the spotlight of Southern California's global entertainment industry here to CSUSB, increasing collaboration and post-graduation employment opportunities for our students.”
“There's nothing like this building within 100 miles of us,” said Raymond Watts, interim vice president of University Advancement. “This is the most beautiful theater space you'll see between Coachella Valley and Los Angeles. So, we're thankful to have it in our backyard, in our front door, in fact.”
After the formal ceremony, students, faculty, staff and university guests had the opportunity to tour the 73,337-square-foot, state-of-the-art Performing Arts Center. Inside, they were serenaded by student singers and musicians in the Ellen and Stan Weisser Foyer beneath a chandelier, created by Katherine Gray, glass artist and chair of the university’s Department of Art and Design.
In the theater, students with the Players of the Pear Garden, the university’s oldest student organization, shared a student written and directed work from their “Other Theatre Project,” and the University Dance Company performed.
Students also treated guests with musical and dance performances in the center’s main rehearsal spaces, all the while as a string quartet’s music echoed through the building from a lower-level student lounge.
While the center’s construction took nearly three years, actual work took more than two decades, as theatre and music faculty pushed for a new facility. The first center, just next door, opened in 1977 as the Creative Arts Building.
The topic was raised in 2012, when Morales, who had just arrived on campus, met with the theatre and music faculty, who showed him paperwork dating back two decades stating the case for a new facility.
“I don't think I've missed a theater production in the 13 years that I've been here,” Morales said. “And I realized after sitting in those seats in the old theater that they were right, that we needed a new facility, that our students, our faculty, our staff, our community deserved a new performing arts facility.”
Through perseverance, Morales was able to obtain $126,907,000 in state funding from the California State University Board of Trustees for the Performing Arts Center, making it the first new state-funded academic building on campus under CSUSB’s current master plan. And while the building is paid for, Morales said the CSU still wanted university participation, and that came through the leadership and generosity of Ellen and Stan Weisser and Jim and Judy Watson, as well as the leadership of Kathryn Ervin, theatre arts professor emerita, all working together to marshal community support.
“Your collective spirits have been poured into this into the very foundation of this building,” Morales said.
Looking into the future, Mittler outlined how the Performing Arts Center would be a major piece contributing to the growth of performing arts in the region.
“Naturally, the new Performing Arts Center will serve as a state-of-the-art learning environment where our distinguished faculty, along with our students, guest designers, and artists can collaborate across the disciplines of performance, production, design, and technical theater for a future-focused live experience that celebrates the dynamic between artist and audience,” she said.
“Through this innovative space, we now have greater capacity to introduce children to what could be their first experience seeing a live production,” Mittler said. “Performances for young audiences on our new stage will plant the seeds of wonder and curiosity while offering a new way to introduce CSUSB to future students and their families. And as a new hub for entertainment in the region, we hope to see diverse and engaging entertainment in all forms, from speakers and authors to comedians and live music.”
