District accepts offering from Vanguard

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT-MESA -- Vanguard University in Costa Mesa has offered to share

its future 1,500-seat performing arts center with the school district,

which gratefully accepted.

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s Board of Education formalized

an agreement with the university Tuesday night that will allow schools to

hold eight performances a year in the new facility once it is constructed

-- free of charge.

“We’re thrilled to have this opportunity,” said Mike Fine, assistant

superintendent of business for the district. “There is also a mutual

interest to develop a summer arts program for our kids.”

The agreement allows for eight, three-day performances per year and the

development of summer art camps for students of all ages.

By reaching out to the schools, the university hopes to support arts in

the community and broaden its financial donor base.

“I think it’s primarily we want to be a good neighbor,” said David

Alford, vice president of business and finance for Vanguard. “But there

might be donors that have some interest in donating now that the school

district is involved.”

The new facility is a joint venture between the university and the

Newport-Mesa Christian Center, which has its offices located on the

Vanguard campus. The center expected to cost $9 million.

When completed, the 55,000-square-foot facility will be a fully

operational performing arts center with a hydraulically operated

orchestra pit for 45 musicians, and a fly gallery for dropping sets,

Alford said.

There will be 1,000 seats on a split-level main floor with balconies that

will accommodate another 500 audience members. Plans also include a

spacious foyer, a choir rehearsal room, state-of-the-art audiovisual

equipment, including a large video screen, two cry rooms for families

with infants, a senior adults parlor, a 24-hour prayer chapel, 5,000

square feet of nursery space, two sets of restrooms, and an elevator for

easy access to all three floors.

“It will be most unique in that it has a nursery, so that people will be

able to drop off their kids and see a performance,” said Chip Johnson,

executive pastor of the Newport-Mesa Christian Center. “It’s not in the

plans yet, but we are also looking at putting laptop [computer] hookups

at all 500 lower level seats.”

Both the church and the school are in the midst of campaigns to raise the

$9 million for the new facility, as well as other separate ventures.

The church has set a goal of $6 million for the sanctuary/ performing

arts building and to retrofit the existing building, Johnson said.

“We have $2.5 million raised in commitment and had a little more than a

million come in,” he said. “We reached $1,025,000 just two weeks ago.”

For the university, the arts center is part of a much larger fund-raising

campaign to build seven new buildings on campus.

The arts center will be built on the corner of Newport Boulevard and Fair

Drive, but no start date will be set for construction until more money

has been raised for the project, Alford said.

“It’s not immanent,” he said. “But we’d like to have ground broken in

the next year.”

School board members are excited about the venture and what it will mean

for the district’s students.

“We have award-winning drama productions; however, we have only one place

in the district for them -- the Norm Lotts Auditorium at Newport Harbor

High School that was built in 1930 and refurbished in 1977,” said school

board vice president David Brooks. “This gives us an opportunity to have

a new, first-class facility for students.”