Demise of Downtown Art Center Shows City’s Unpredictability

Every day people start new ventures. An author begins a book, an artist a painting, executives a new corporation, actors and directors a theater company, and another Mom & Pop restaurant opens down the street.

Of all these ventures, I’d guess only the corporation may have done an unemotional investigation of its chances of success.

My experience is in starting new nonprofit organizations, each with a special purpose but all competing for funds with the other worthy causes that a city like this offers. In the last decade, I have begun three of these projects, and the one that was preceded by the most careful analysis--the San Diego Art Center--has, so far, been the least successful.

You don’t begin a nonprofit organization unless you believe it will fill a need and the community will respond. But you can’t know for sure whether you are being too enthusiastic just because it is your own idea. If you’ve judged wrong, reality can really wake you up.

Each of the three organizations I’ve started had a different metaphysical genesis, and perhaps therein lies a lesson. Partners for Livable Places came first and was in answer to a request from the mayor’s office. Eight years ago, downtown redevelopment was under way, though few were sure it was going to work.

Nationally, Partners for Livable Places had embarked on a program to demonstrate that many of the things developers traditionally regarded as expensive frills were actually the attractions that could draw people back to America’s deserted downtowns.

National Partners President Bob McNulty came to town to start us off with a rousing speech, and I was astounded at the energetic group of young people who turned out, hoping Partners might present a way for them to act on what was almost a passion for them, as it was with me--turning San Diego into a vibrant city with a downtown core full of rich activity.

Partners has an annual budget of $10,000, some of it from our own pockets because we believe. The budget covers one public symposium a year and lobbying for the things we want to happen downtown.

There are no territorial ambitions, and it’s a joy to have another organization adopt our ideas, as has happened with annual awards for contributions to downtown liveliness.

Pent-up demand, good timing, low budget--maybe that is why Partners worked from the beginning.

Five years ago, and with no certainty as to the outcome, the Foundation for the Performing Arts presented its first season of national dance companies at the East County Performing Arts Center. The idea had been perking at the back of my head for several years. It seemed ridiculous that San Diegans had to drive to Los Angeles to see national performing attractions, but I did not know whether the community would support dance here.

We figured a season of performances would tell us whether we should go forward with the foundation. At the end of that season, we presented the Joffrey Ballet Company in the Civic Theatre. The excitement of the audiences at those three sold-out performances gave us our answer: Go for it!

The young woman who had joined in that first year’s experiment went on salary, built a staff, and we assumed the burden of overhead.

The arts do not make money--we knew we would have to raise funds to stay in business. Were there enough people in San Diego who cared about seeing the best to help us bring it here? Probably, but could we find them quickly enough so that we would survive? The Irvine and Parker foundations were early “white knights,” and as we near the end of our fifth season we are finding more wonderful friends and volunteers who share our goal. But will there be enough friends to keep us around and presenting in the future? Sometimes the past seems overwhelming, and I think it will take us another three years to answer the question.

The Foundation for the Performing Arts has required much more money than Partners. When you start a new venture based on your dreams, you had better be prepared. If your home isn’t mortgaged when you start, it will be in five years.

The toughest of the three ventures was another based on ideas that had been percolating for some years--an art museum in the heart of the city in a wonderful historic building no one wanted. The plans for the San Diego Art Center, which would be located in the Balboa Theatre, sailed along for two years generating enthusiasm, friends and financial support.

It seemed an idea whose time had arrived. We opened a temporary exhibit space in Horton Plaza. And there was even talk of public subsidy--but oh, what that brought forth! The historic building became attractive overnight to groups who had ignored it for years.

A campaign against the museum began and worked very well with the aid of the press, which was thoroughly confused.

Fund-raising became difficult because we could not say for certain that we would have the Balboa and besides, we felt bad about asking for money when we didn’t know whether political considerations outside our control might prevent us from delivering as promised. By trying to please everyone, the politicians delayed decisions so long that the project became more and more expensive.

The controversy over the Ellsworth Kelley sculpture was burning at the same time, and it was a notable coincidence that nay-sayers in any San Diego controversy are much more noted and quoted in the press than the yea-sayers.

“Ah, well,” one local observer of the Kelley fiasco noted, “when all else fails, lower your standards.”

My original idea had been to have an art center downtown to make San Diego a more interesting place and to contribute to downtown’s revival. But I loved the Balboa Theatre and it became part of the dream. I thought we had found the perfect use for it.

Earlier this year, however, with no resolution of the political problems in sight, the Art Center’s board of directors reluctantly decided that adapting the Balboa Theatre as a museum would never be within our means. We realized that it was foolish to commit one penny more to a project generating so much dissension. The decision was made to close the temporary space and to give up on the Balboa.

Among the most difficult parts of the decision was that we had to let our staff go. The board remains intact and committed.

Some of the members today seem more enthusiastic about the project than I am, and I am pleased by that. When you are convinced something is a good idea, it doesn’t matter who gets it done as long as it does get done.

Was the Art Center an idea whose time had not yet arrived? There certainly wasn’t enough money to weather the dissent and delay. Timing, demand and a real commitment by a cadre of believers seem to be the keys to making a project like this successful. We had a good cadre, but perhaps the timing and demand were not there.

Patience, patience, patience, I keep counseling myself. San Diego will join other great cities in the richness of its arts. Sometimes a late bloomer is the most beautiful of all.