What’s next for the newly renamed 14-acre Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa?
Fresh shows, promotional ticket prices and new fundraising, according to President Terrence Dwyer.
For $100,000 to $10 million, a person or company can get naming rights to one of the art center’s rooms or venues.
Available venues include the 250-seat Founders Hall and the center’s outdoor plaza, which often holds free events with room for about 5,000 people.
There are no hard and fast rules on negotiations for naming rights, Dwyer said.
The arts complex—formerly known as the Orange County Performing Arts Center and the Segerstrom Center for the Arts—announced its shortened name earlier this month at a festive outdoor event attended by 1,500 people.
The Segerstrom Center for the Arts employs about 50 people. The center has an annual budget of $40 million to $44 million and includes theaters, concert halls, arts education labs and a cafe.
South Coast Repertory
Theater company South Coast Repertory moved to the site in 1976.
As “resident” groups, Pacific Symphony, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County and the Pacific Chorale call the center home for performances, although they each keep offices offsite.
The Orange County Museum of Art, now in Newport Beach, is slated to move to the center in 2016
Of the center’s $40 million yearly budget, ticket sales (excluding the resident groups, which operate independently) and other revenue accounts for $20 million to $30 million.
Cash donations and other kinds of contributions account for about $9 million to $11 million of the annual budget.
The center presents about 250 to 350 shows a year.
About 6,000 people a year donate to the center in amounts ranging from $10 to $100,000, Dwyer said
The center has the support of many prominent executives, as reflected in its board and venue names: There is the 500-seat Samueli Theater named for Broadcom Corp. cofounder Henry Samueli, and the Lawrence and Kristina Dodge Education Center performance space, after the wife of financier Larry Dodge.
Board members include outgoing chairman Thomas McKernan, chief executive of the Costa Mesa-based Automobile Club of Southern California; incoming chair Larry Higby, the retired boss of Lake Forest-based Apria Healthcare Group Inc.; and University of California, Irvine, Chancellor Michael Drake, among others.
The center’s rock is founding chairman Henry Segerstrom, managing partner of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons LLC.
In addition to donating the land, Segerstrom, now in his late 80s, has given millions in cash to the center, which is across from his family’s South Coast Plaza.
Segerstrom Support
The Segerstroms also support the center yearly through the family’s foundation, Dwyer said.
The center hopes to tap new and existing donors to raise an additional $51 million to pay off the $240 million it cost to design and build the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall and the arts plaza, which opened in 2006.
Perhaps the biggest challenge will be figuring out how to lure visitors and patrons from the ranks of younger folks who spend their leisure time differently than their parents and like their entertainment “on demand.”
The center has been giving a lot of consideration to how to strike a balance between pleasing the existing audience while attracting a new one, Dwyer said.
“We work at it all the time,” he said. “We’re in a constant state of reinvention and refinement.”
That’s why the center will be selling 10,000 tickets for shows at $10 apiece for its upcoming 25th season, which starts in July. The promotion has been dubbed “access for all.”
Also in the works are plans for more free events at the outdoor plaza, which typically hosts dance performances, movies and a band series.
The center plans to improve its social media marketing, and is commissioning new works in hopes of drawing new showgoers, Dwyer said.
The center recently announced a new dance show that will be created by leading members of Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet. The dance will debut next year.
