CITY TO TAKE OVER OPERATIONS OF ARTS CENTER\Citizen panel to focus on funding.Byline: Terry Kanakri Daily News Staff Writer The city plans to take over the operations of the Simi Valley Simi Valley (sē`mē, sĭm`ē), city (1990 pop. 100,217), Ventura co., SW Calif. in an oil, fruit, and farm region; laid out 1887, inc. 1969. Cultural Arts Center from a citizens group, a move expected to spur efforts to raise $2 million in pledges. The five members of the citizens group have been serving dual roles as the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Commission, which operates the center, and the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Foundation, the fund-raising arm. By relieving the group of management duties, city officials hope the members will be able to give more attention to raising funds. "It just isn't working," said Councilwoman Sandi Webb. "It was just too much for them to do, so we're going to expand the foundation and let them just concentrate on going off and raising funds. They were wearing too many hats, and they were getting burned out, and it was just asking too much." Webb said the success of the fund-raising campaign Noun 1. fund-raising campaign - a campaign to raise money for some cause fund-raising drive, fund-raising effort crusade, campaign, cause, drive, effort, movement - a series of actions advancing a principle or tending toward a particular end; "he supported is crucial to the viability of the arts center, which opened Nov. 3. "That ($2 million) endowment has to be achieved to run the operations of that facility," she said. "Without having that endowment there, we'll wind up subsidizing that facility all the time, and we can't have that. No one on the council wants to do that." In a joint recommendation to the City Council, the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center Ad Hoc Committee ad hoc committee A committee formed with the purpose of addressing a specific issue or issues, which theoretically is disbanded once its raison d'etre is finished and the citizens group have proposed that the Cultural Arts Commission be disbanded. The City Council is expected to consider the recommendation in March. The recommendation calls for the committee to oversee the operation of the center. That includes working with the theater manager to book plays, draw up budgets, and determine what kind of entertainment should be featured. Now serving on the committee are Webb; Bill Davis For the artist, animator, creative director, see . For the baseball player, see .
The foundation's board would be expanded from five seats to 21. Foundation President Peggy Sadler said the group is fully behind plans for the city to take control of the Cultural Arts Center operations and free foundation members' time to concentrate on raising funds. "There were only five of us, and we were both serving as a commission and foundation. It was really hard to focus on both," she said. "We need to really focus on fund raising because we'd like to wrap the pledge drive A pledge drive is an extended period of fundraising activities, generally used by public broadcasting stations to increase contributions. The term "pledge" originates from the promise a contributor makes to send in funding at regular intervals for a certain amount of time. up by the end of the year. That's our goal, and I think we can do it, but I think we really have to focus on it." Jay Bloom, president of the Cultural Arts Commission, which would be disbanded under the joint recommendation, said it was difficult for the citizens group to be responsible for both operations and fund raising. "Now, we'll be able to focus and put all of our efforts on the fund raising instead of the management and operations as well," he said. "Hopefully, the result will be that we'll be able to do our job a lot better and we'll be able to devote a lot of our time to the fund-raising efforts Noun 1. fund-raising effort - a campaign to raise money for some cause fund-raising campaign, fund-raising drive crusade, campaign, cause, drive, effort, movement - a series of actions advancing a principle or tending toward a particular end; "he supported ." The foundation embarked on a $2 million fund-raising campaign in July and has secured about $600,000 in pledges so far - money that will be invested to subsidize sub·si·dize tr.v. sub·si·dized, sub·si·diz·ing, sub·si·diz·es 1. To assist or support with a subsidy. 2. To secure the assistance of by granting a subsidy. the center's operation and some attractions. Assuming control over the center's operations is a natural move, Davis said, because the city has spent $3.7 million on the historic building at 3050 Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Ave., a former church, synagogue synagogue (sĭn`əgŏg) [Gr.,=assembly], in Judaism, a place of assembly for worship, education, and communal affairs. The origins of the institution are unclear. One tradition dates it to the Babylonian exile of the 6th cent. B.C. and mortuary. "The city has its money invested in it, and I think that from that standpoint we probably understand that facility better than anyone else," Davis said. "It was very difficult for (the citizens group) to wear two hats - to stay on top of operations and at the same time raise funds for the foundation." The city bought the Cultural Arts Center property in August 1991 with $825,000 from municipal general funds. Acting as the Community Development Agency, the City Council then spent about $2.9 million to design and refurbish re·fur·bish tr.v. re·fur·bished, re·fur·bish·ing, re·fur·bish·es To make clean, bright, or fresh again; renovate. re·fur the building and create a 292-seat theater, a separate multipurpose mul·ti·pur·pose adj. Designed or used for several purposes: a multipurpose room; multipurpose software. multipurpose Adjective room and gallery space. The newly renovated center - on 1.4 acres - opened Nov. 3 with a performance by singer/dancer Rita Moreno. Originally constructed in 1924, the center was a 15,000-square-foot neoclassical ne·o·clas·si·cism also Ne·o·clas·si·cism n. A revival of classical aesthetics and forms, especially: a. A revival in literature in the late 17th and 18th centuries, characterized by a regard for the classical ideals of reason, form, church by Los Angeles Avenue. |
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