Valley Performing Arts Center at California State University, Northridge, Opening 2010
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valley performing arts center

Programming and Community Service Priorities

The Valley Performing Arts Center at California State University, Northridge will:

  • accommodate full-scale Broadway-style and musical performances
  • allow smaller-scale performing arts organizations in the community to use the center
  • expand and enhance the university’s arts-related academic programs
  • foster a close working partnership between the Valley Performing Arts Center and the Los Angeles Unified School District
  • serve community groups by hosting conferences, large-scale meetings and outreach programs and provide the entertainment industry with a venue for movie premieres and other industry events

"The Valley Performing Arts Center at Cal State Northridge will provide the opportunity for all arts organizations in the Valley as well as the University community to come together in a beautiful facility, allowing for collaboration, creative freedom and the ability to pursue artistic dreams in a state-of-the-art performing arts center. It will be a landmark and a community resource that will serve the cultural needs of the Valley for generations."

Gordon Davidson,
Founding Artistic Director,
Center Theater Group
Co-Chair, Executive Committee for the Imagine the Arts Campaign

 

Performing Arts Center

A Place for the Arts

Meeting A Need

For more than 30 years, community leaders have explored the possibility of building a large-scale regional performing arts center in the San Fernando Valley. While its population of almost two million would place it among the six largest cities in the nation, the Valley is significantly underserved in the variety and quality of cultural opportunities it offers. To experience the excitement of a Broadway-caliber production, to hear the richness of a full symphony orchestra, or to see world-class performers and entertainers, Valley residents now must travel to Hollywood, the Westside, Pasadena, Thousand Oaks or downtown Los Angeles. This puts the arts out of reach for many, including countless children.

Northridge is the Place for Arts

As the intellectual, economic, and cultural heart of the San Fernando Valley region, Cal State Northridge is ideally positioned to lead this effort. Founded in 1958, it is one of California’s largest universities, each year educating more than 35,000 students and producing 6,000 highly skilled graduates.

Two independent feasibility studies have found that Cal State Northridge has all the critical success factors—available land, parking, state support, community support, educational mission, accessibility, audience base, visibility and credibility—to make a regional performing arts center a cultural and economic success. The Valley Performing Arts Center will solidify Northridge’s role as the cultural heart of the Valley.