by Sheng Lor and John Pastor

With budget cuts still in effect across California, it comes as a beacon of light that many visual and performing arts centers have successfully been built or renovated within the past few years at community college campuses statewide. New arts facilities have emerged across the state backed primarily by local bond money. Sacramento City College reopened its Kondos Gallery in Fall 2010 after careful renovations to make the space more appropriate for exhibitions and for housing its growing collection. Nearby, American River College expanded its Fine Arts building to include a 360-seat theater and classrooms for other fine arts programs. Other recent performing arts projects have taken place at Evergreen Valley College and Cuesta College in 2009 and Napa Valley College and Chaffey College in 2010. College of Marin's renovated and expanded Fine Arts Building reopened it earlier this month. Furthermore, several California community college campuses have announced or started construction of new visual and performing arts centers on their campuses, including City College of San Francisco and Barstow College.

The support for new and improved cultural centers on community college campuses has never been more evident. Despite severe state budget cuts to the education sector, local residents, businesses, community leaders, art patrons, and many others continue to support the planning and construction of new arts facilities by passing local bonds and putting forth donations. They see the positive economic, educational, and cultural impact that these centers could have on their communities now and for decades to come and understand the crucial role that advanced cultural centers have on the education and preparation of youth today for the future.

For many of the colleges, planning and fundraising were long and arduous processes. The faculty at Cabrillo College began making blueprints for a new visual and performing arts center as early as 1994. Only after 15 years was Cabrillo able to complete and unveil its 120,000-square-foot Visual and Performing Arts Complex in 2009, an impressive $80 million facility consisting of five buildings. Funding for the project came primarily from the local community, through donations and two voter-approved bond measures, one in 1998 and the other in 2004.

As difficult as it was to secure sufficient funding for the arts complex project, the rewards of now having new and advanced facilities remind faculty members at Cabrillo that it was all worth the wait. "The performances and exhibitions add to the overall arts community, and Cabrillo has become the center of the arts in the county because of location and quality of the programs," says Renee Kilmer, vice president of instruction at Cabrillo.

In February, Folsom Lake College will unveil its Three Stages performing arts center, an ambitious 80,000-square-foot, $50-million project. The brand new regional visual and performing arts center will house three distinctive stages: Stage One, the largest theater of the facility, seating 850and built with a full orchestra pit and fly tower; Stage Two, also called City Studio, a 200-seat black box theater designed for smaller theatrical performances and spoken word events; and Stage Three, an intimate 100-seat recital hall designed for small music ensembles and speaker's series.

The facility will also house a 2,500 square foot art gallery sponsored by Bank of America, a state-of-the-art digital recording studio, faculty office spaces, and lecture halls, labs, and other nonperformance spaces that will be used for classroom instruction. The spaces will give students real-world exposure to the arts through classroom instruction, internships, and volunteer opportunities.

"Three Stages at Folsom Lake College is designed with opportunity for enhanced and innovative teaching and learning to occur in a high-tech, interactive and engaging environment," says FLC President Thelma Scott-Skillman.

The new Three Stages facility is built with office space for about 60 faculty members. FLC is one of the newest California Community Colleges and is in no way close to having 60 faculty members in the visual and performing arts departments, but it is thinking ahead of its time. "We are trying to build for the future," says Three Stages Executive Director Dave Pier.

Building for the community and for the future have been important motifs in the planning and construction of new visual and performing arts centers at community colleges across California. Economically, the success of a regional art center can have a transformative ripple effect on the entire community, lasting for many generations. "Certainly on a local level, there will be a tremendous economic impact, particularly for local restaurants, hotels, wineries, and many other smaller businesses," says Skillman.

It is crucial that regional cultural centers continue to receive support and grow across California. They have power to transform the life of a community, bringing people from the region, from across the state, and from abroad together in one place. They offer the opportunity for students and community members to engage in the arts in ways they might not have otherwise. As Pier states, "Community colleges, a lot of it, is about lifelong learning; and the arts is certainly one area where that lifelong learning experience can happen."