We are in support of proposals to reconsider the use of Paseo Nuevo, particularly if they will provide affordable housing. This seemed to be the consensus among Santa Barbara City Council members at the September 19 City Council meeting when AllianceBernstein, the current lease holder, presented a concept to redevelop the mall into 500 units of rental housing to house roughly 750 people.
However, we call on the City Council to ensure that Center Stage Theater and the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB) are prioritized in the redevelopment plans. These two esteemed arts organizations — that call Paseo Nuevo’s Arts Terrace home — provide unmatched enrichment to our community, serving roughly 35,000 community patrons each year. In addition to audience members there are artists, performers, families and friends, technicians, designers, and institutional staff. These are patrons bringing revenue to our downtown restaurants and shops, and paying parking fees.
But when City Administrator Rebecca Bjork was questioned by Councilmember Kristen Sneddon about how MCASB and Center Stage fit into the housing proposal, Bjork entertained finding “an alternative way to provide those benefits.” Contrary to Bjork’s assumption that there are numerous alternatives to these two organizations, the reality is that each holds a very unique place in the community that actually cannot be found elsewhere.
MCASB is completely different from any of the other museums or gallery spaces in the city and offers drastically different programming. Rooting its programming directly in the community it serves, MCASB is the only museum dedicated to contemporary art — living artists and issues of social justice — between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.
The same can be said of Center Stage despite Bjork’s indifference. “I will say at the time that Paseo Nuevo was built,” she stated, “we did not have the benefit of the wonderful theaters we have now so there may be alternate ways to provide that and still preserve the opportunity to get other priorities out of council…” The reality is that the only theater in town today that was not in existence then is Center Stage. The Lobero, Granada, Arlington, New Vic, and Marjorie Luke were all in existence long before Paseo Nuevo. For the dozens of community organizations that use the 130-seat Center Stage Theater for their productions — where the base rent is $330 for a performance — it is not realistic to turn instead to the 680-seat Lobero where the base rent is $2,250 or the 282-seat New Vic where a one day performance rental is $1,250.
Destruction of MCASB and Center Stage would be a huge loss to our community artists and cultural producers.
While we expect this process will be drawn out, we feel urgency to advocate for and defend our spaces from the onset of these evolving plans. We serve as responsible stewards of these important community assets. At the inception of Paseo Nuevo, our community and city council prioritized these dedicated visual and performing arts spaces that continue to thrive. There’s absolutely no reason nor guilt-free reality that includes their destruction. We need our elected officials to really listen and ensure this is not a fate we must endure.
We are eager supporters and advocates of affordable housing for artists, arts workers, immigrants, low income communities and the unhoused. We understand the need for mixed use, and for some market rate living as well, as it’s all connected. And we see the healthy intersection of the arts and housing as fundamental to the greater well being of our community. Part of the motivation for this redevelopment is to bring people into downtown. Much of the renovation that was undertaken at Paseo Nuevo just prior to the pandemic was to create experiences and destinations other than retail to bring people into the area. The institutions that make up the Arts Terrace should be seen as part of the solution.
We hope you will join us in securing a future that does not allow our elected officials, city staff, and corporate partners to destroy arts institutions like fascists or dictators. Instead, let’s work together to build a future that nurtures a healthy arts and cultural ecology.
Let’s work together to build a better future. The Arts Terrace is a decades long proven cultural asset with not only an economic but a quality of life impact. Let’s rally together to reimagine how the essential art scene at this location can complement a housing and mixed-use plan. Join us in leading our community into a better future by ensuring now that the city and the developers are committed to retaining the spaces that our community has decided long ago are critically important.
