Luis Castillo experienced something entirely new when he was touched by the Summer at the Center program back in 1994.
He was 17, he recently recalled, and had never been exposed to the arts.
Life in one of Santa Ana’s toughest neighborhoods had exposed him to others things, though—enough to put him in the category of “at-risk youth.”
Castillo had no idea how the arts might change him and his outlook on the world when he entered he two-week summer program designed by the Segerstrom Center of the Arts to give kids in rugged circumstances a chance for a new perspective.
“The only real knowledge I had was learned on the streets,” he recently said. “Summer at the Center taught me to think of myself in a positive way at a time when I needed true direction.”
Flash forward 20 years, and you’ll find Castillo working for a youth shelter that takes in children who’ve been removed from their homes. He sometimes sends kids to the Segerstrom Center for its various educational programs.
“Summer at the Center will always have a special place in my heart,” he said. “The people I met through the Segerstrom Center are the closest thing to angels that I will ever know. If it wasn’t for the changes that this program brought to me, I don’t know where I would be now.”
The summer program has been a mainstay of educational efforts of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts for the past 23 years.
It doesn’t shy away from the tough cases.
“These are kids who have been involved with gangs, with drugs,” said Talena Mara, vice president, Education and Community at the Segerstrom Center. “Some have been incarcerated. But in their hearts, these are kids who truly want to change.”
The two-week program centers around the goal of creating, producing, and acting in a variety show for the students’ family and friends. They build various skills along the way, Mara said.
“They learn how to visualize an end result,” she said. “They create props, write skits, and choose dance routines for the show. Over those two weeks, they develop discipline and commitment.”
Summer at the Center isn’t the only education program the Segerstrom Center offers youngsters throughout Orange County.
Professional artists, musicians, dancers and actors host student workshops, assemblies, and classes at local schools as part of its Art Teach program. Another called Masters at the Center gives students interested in an arts career the opportunity to learn from professionals.
On Stage at the Center brings students in from all over Southern California to experience live performances. Mara estimated that the center brings the arts to 250,000 to 350,000 private and public school students each year.
The programs help fill gaps in public schools’ arts education, which has been greatly curtailed in recent years due to budget cuts.
“We’re driven to work with school districts and cities to help provide arts education,” said John Ginger, who serves on its board of directors as education vice chair.
Center Without Walls
Arts education has always been a significant element of the center’s mission, said Ginger, who’s president of J. Ginger Masonry in Riverside.
In the past few years, he said, it’s greatly expanded its focus on education programs. The goal is to take its offerings into neighborhoods for the larger public, designing arts programs for senior centers, for instance, among other programs.
“We want the center to become a resource for the entire community—students, families, couples, everyone,” he said.
The Segerstrom Center’s board and President Terry Dwyer began to “re-envision” the education program’s mission early last year, seeking ways to respond to the needs of all local communities, Ginger said.
“We want to be more than a place where people go to see plays or hear music,” Ginger said. “We want to be a resource where people can experience and connect with the arts in all kinds of different ways—here at the center, out in their neighborhoods, at their local schools, online, you name it.”
Dwyer’s name for it: A “center without walls.”
“We’re not defined by our buildings,” he said. “We’re defined by our values.”
Partnerships, Programs, Parties
The board set a goal of partnering with city leaders and nonprofit organizations in a bid to get a handle on the unique needs of various communities in OC and affirm the center’s role as a resource and catalyst in the minds of community leaders.
Center officials said they’re in the very early stages of building relationships with partners and developing programs.
“We want our community partners to feel comfortable calling us up and saying, ‘Hey, we have this idea. Can you help us make it happen?’ ” Dwyer said. “In turn, we want to share our ideas with them and work together to make them a reality.”
The center put one of its board’s inspirations to the test in July, when it hosted a free community party centered on the World Cup soccer tournament. Hundreds of community members attended the event in the center’s arts plaza, a crowd that was was “incredibly diverse” with people of “all nationalities, ages, income levels, families, couples,” according to Dwyer.
It complemented broadcasts of the games—the primary inducement to draw members of the community for an introductory visit—with musical performers and other elements of the arts.
“We had giant-screen TV, music, picnics,” Dwyer said. “It was a really diverse audience. People had a terrific time.”
Look Ahead
The board is now working to raise money to expand the arts plaza with a new outdoor stage and sound system, among other features.
A fundraiser in July raised $250,000. Just as important, Dwyer said, the event created awareness about the program’s vision for the future.
Ultimately, he said, the center wants to partner with individuals, foundations and members of the business community who understand the vision and are excited to support it.
“We know visionary companies will want to get involved,” he said.
Ginger and Dwyer said they foresee a future when the center brings the arts to all of Orange County.
“I’ve always believed that life is better for everyone when music and the arts are woven into the fabric of the community,” Ginger said.
