SeeCalifornia.com

Photos left to right: Karen & Richard Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts at Cal State Long Beach overlooks a unique pyramid; Renee & Henry Segerstom Concert Hall is the newest addition to Orange County’s entertainment scene; Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts at UC Davis includes innovative technologies with movable stages, floors and walls.

Surveying California’s performing arts scene you’ll find that the performing arts venues throughout California bring top acts to even the smallest cities. If you live in California, chances are there’s some sort of entertainment venue within an hour’s drive of your home, though you’ll usually find one much closer. These performing arts theaters often are built and operated by cities, or are taken on as renovation projects of historic buildings funded by cities. However, with redevelopment agencies disbanded in California, look for more private dollars to help renovate and create new arts & entertainment spaces.  New performing arts centers don’t appear on the California landscape that often, so when they arrive, there’s much fanfare attached to their unveiling.

One of the newer centers is Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts (mondaviarts.org) at UC Davis. Opened on October 3, 2002, the gleaming building and unique design by Architects Stanley Boles of Boora Architects cost around $60 million to construct. The venue includes several floor plans for concerts and events with moving floors and partitions to create the ideal spaces for each concert, play or performance, ranging from classical music and ballet to pop, rock and international flair.

Other new centers include the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, unveiled on September 15, 2006, part of a large complex of concert and entertainment venues under the auspices of Segerstrom Center for the Arts (scfta.org).

And all eyes will be on the stage at Kodak Theater in Hollywood this spring. Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center opened in November 2001 as the first permanent home of the Academy Awards. It seats 3,332.

What’s amazing about California’s historic to new concert and entertainment venues is the amount of support they receive–billions of dollars go into the arts, even though the California public grade school system no longer funds art programs for most students.  The good news is that many of these fine arts venues have programs providing cheap or free entertainment to the public and to school children. Not everyone can afford $25 – 250 concert and show tickets, but if you look for matinees and free events for the public, you may get to sample the entertainment. Some even offer volunteer opportunities so you can actually enjoy the program and help support the arts!