Long-awaited arts facility opens its doors

COSTA MESA — The bell sat on a table by the podium Friday night, its chipped and rusty exterior showing years of use. Cadets had rung it during World War II, when Orange Coast College was an air base.

In later years, it tolled for the wedding of two teachers and the funeral of a football player.

The chapel where it hung burned down in 1953, but the bell survived — most recently in a maintenance worker’s backyard.

On Friday, it sounded again for another key moment in OCC’s history, as the campus opened its long-awaited Frank M. Doyle Arts Pavilion. Foundation President Doug Bennett called three women to the podium who had donated money to the arts center, and Jean Hodge, Donna Clark and Margaret Raemondetti each gave the bell a hard shake.

The $6-million pavilion, paid for by the Measure C bond and private donations, opened on that ringing note, as more than 100 attendees toured the galleries. While the arts center looked to the future, the show inside looked to the past — a retrospective of OCC’s first 60 years, with photos, timelines and other memorabilia filling the walls.

“Our journey has been longer than we thought it would be when it started, but when you see inside the Arts Pavilion, I’m sure you’ll realize the journey was worth the wait,” Bennett told the crowd.

Assemblyman Van Tran, OCC President Bob Dees and Fountain Valley Mayor Gus Ayer were among the other speakers Friday night. Tran presented a proclamation from the state assembly while the grandchildren of Frank M. Doyle, an Orange County developer who passed away in 1996, cut the ribbon.

“It is indeed an important aspect of Orange County to have a cultural center like this here at OCC,” said Tran, an alumnus of the school.

The pavilion show, which is scheduled to run through April 20, is the opening of OCC’s 60th anniversary celebration. Over the next 20 months — the span of time between OCC becoming an official entity in January 1947 and holding its first classes in September 1948 — the school plans a number of activities, including a ceremony for past presidents, a musical production and an Alumni Hall of Fame induction gala.

Among the items in the exhibit are a band uniform from the 1960s, a skiff from the sailing school and murals from World War II depicting life at the air base. The pavilion also features a children’s gallery, which on Friday featured abstract paintings and a Nepalese rug spread in the corner.

Christine Carr, who attended OCC in the 1960s, walked wide-eyed through the pavilion as she relived part of her own history.

“There’s a lot of creativity here,” she said. “There always has been.”

IF YOU GO

WHAT: 60th anniversary exhibit at Frank M. Doyle Arts Pavilion

WHEN: Tuesdays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., first and third Wednesdays from 4 to 8 p.m., second and fourth Thursdays from 4 to 8 p.m. and second and fourth Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m.

WHERE: Orange Coast College, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa

INFO: Call (714) 432-5738