Overview
Angels Gate Cultural Center is a place of creative discovery, exploration and enlightenment, providing the Southern California community and visitors from around the world with opportunities for enrichment and education.

The Center's potential to grow into a sustainable mid-sized institution that benefits the economic vitality of the region as a cultural landmark and an educational infrastructure is currently attracting the attention of stakeholders and funders. As a result, the Center now stands at a critical moment in its history. To achieve its potential, the organization must obtain a long-term lease from the City of Los Angeles Dept. of Recreation and Parks, and create new partnerships with major private and public funders. A capital campaign must be launched to create an exciting public space to attract visitors and serve as an educational hub. Time is of the essence, due to the condition of the Center's 65-year-old former military buildings in Angels Gate Park.

Background
The Center is situated on one of the most beautiful art sites in Southern California, on a bluff overlooking the Pacific with notable views of ocean, harbor and hills. Since its inception in 1982, the Center has provided work-studio space for artists, year-round public gallery space for exhibitions, and occasional performing arts programming. Since 1999, the Center has also administered a highly successful Artists-in-Classrooms program serving Harbor area schools.

In the past few years, San Pedro has seen a sudden and rapid increase in the number of professional artists moving to the area. They are attracted to affordable loft space and the presence of Angels Gate Cultural Center as a community focal point. Plans for the development of the San Pedro waterfront have begun, and the value of the harbor's residential coastal property is moving upward. The development of visitor destinations, and the service jobs that come with them, are an important part of the economic future of the area, yet stimulating arts-oriented public space and educational resources are in short supply. In this context, the Center's role as a cultural venue is significant as a recreational destination and a site for community art classes. It is also a vital resource for educators, students, and young people training for jobs in creative fields. Well-known studies have affirmed the link between the role of creative facilities and the revitalization of economic activity in a community.

While the Center's annual budget has grown to the status of a mid-size arts organization over the last five years-thanks to rental fees and Artists-in-Classrooms grants-it does not attract major support for facilities or program development. The condition of the physical plant is approaching borderline functionality. Without the influx of major developmental funding, the Center may not achieve its full potential as a significant asset to the City. The Center and the site together represent a "sleeping princess" that must awaken soon, or stakeholders risk losing an exceptional resource.

Stakeholders: Local community, artists and art audiences, school-age children, the City
The Center and the site are ideally situated to provide significant benefits to (1) the local community, the City and international visitors, as a recreational destination, (2) school-age children and their teachers, as an important educational resource for art, and the technology that is increasingly an important part of art making, (3) professional artists and their patrons, for the development and presentation of new work, and (4) local business interests, as an element in the economic revitalization of the Harbor area. Indeed, there is an audible demand for many of these benefits among a growing number of stakeholders. A successful vision for the future of Angels Gate must address the intersection of these interests.

Program development
Technologically assisted printmaking, drawing, photography, graphics and interdisciplinary performance, as well as ceramics and painting, represent the future of art in the coming decades. Resources for this work benefit both educational constituencies and professional artists. This symbiosis should define Angels Gate.

Art making and public presentation
The Center's most economically essential program has been the rental of studio space for the creation of art by professionals. The Center must be able to plan major renovations in its 65-year-old temporary army barracks to continue this core program. For the presentation or work, a new public space is required. The Center needs approximately eight to ten thousand square feet of new facilities for digital media and public performances. A new building with an outdoor terrace and appropriate amenities may be built at the south end of the property, where the best views are available to the public. The interior should be devoted to an electronically equipped performance space, an art gallery and an exhibition space devoted to art and technology. The current professional artist studios, educational resources and art making acilities at the north end will be remodeled or rebuilt to work both separately and in combination with the south-end area dedicated to the public. The north-end studios must remain workable for artists to ensure that the symbiosis between the two areas of the campus is capable of bringing the site to full capacity as an exceptional use of public space for art activities, recreation and community enhancement.

Education
The Center represents one of the most important arts education hubs in the South Bay. The demand for Artists-In-Classrooms and use of the site for school trips and school-day workshops is increasing beyond the capacity of the current staff. This increase may easily be accommodated with the renovation of the buildings and the addition of a new Education Director staff position. Further, the Center must provide digital resources to students. Art and technology have always developed together; there is greater service to the community in job training and job market preparation where the teaching of art and creativity is taught side by side with technology.

Printmaking
The new Angels Gate Print Studio (AGPS) has the potential of becoming one of the most useful and productive printmaking facilities in the City. By attracting important artists and art consumers, printmaking will become a revenue stream for the Center. Equally important, this facility may become the focus of community art activities for artists of high-school age and older.

Sculpture garden
The site is ideal for a landscaped public sculpture garden. If placed in an area that can be seen from Gaffey St., a sculpture garden will function as an attraction to passing drivers and create a strong identification of the Center to the community. Artwork should be installed on a temporary basis to allow for changing shows. The Angels Gate sculpture garden would be an outdoor public gallery space, and a significant enhancement of the enjoyment of the site.

Residencies
Local, national and international residencies have been a priority at Angels Gate, due to the presence of the international Port, the natural beauty of the site, and the continued interest among artists and the community at large in cultural exchange. Any long-term plan for the site should include facilities devoted expressly to artist residencies.

Timeline
The timeline for development at Angels Gate is relatively short. The Center must attract significant investments now to expand its innovative programming profile. A new agreement for a 30-year (minimum) lease from the City is the critical factor for the immediate term.

A capital campaign must be launched within 2-4 years. Funding may be sought from individual donors, private foundations (including the S. Mark Taper, Ahmanson, Irvine and Norris Foundations, and the Johnson and Norton family foundations), state and Federal sources, and local corporations, such as Boeing and Toyota, among others.

Angels Gate Cultural Center
14 February 2004


Contact:
Angels Gate Cultural Center
3601 South Gaffey Street, San Pedro, California 90731
Phone: 310-519-0936, Fax: 310-519-8698


Office Hours: Tuesday - Friday, 10 am - 5 pm