Ventura County Star
By Lisa McKinnon Posted January 28, 2010 at midnight
For supporters of the $3 million plan to rebuild Ojai’s Libbey Bowl, raising the final $600,000 for the project by late March isn’t just a dream. It’s a necessity.
“There is no Plan B. If we don’t have the money, we can’t tear it down,” said Alan Rains, president of Ojai Valley Service Foundation, one of the groups spearheading the campaign.
And if the performance venue isn’t torn down and rebuilt, it runs the risk of being condemned in its current state, said Jeff Haydon, executive director of the Ojai Music Festival.
Built in 1957, the outdoor structure has deteriorated to the point that it takes little effort to push a pencil into the rotted base of its wooden arch, Haydon said.
In recent years, the music festival has been able to present concerts at the bowl thanks primarily to the quick-fix efforts of “a MacGyver on our staff,” Haydon added.
Designed by Ojai architect David Bury, the project calls for relocating the stage so that it faces the lawn rather than a row of tennis courts, improving the drainage system and replacing the existing plywood benches with individual seats.
As the bowl’s most visible and longest-running tenant, the music festival raised the first $1 million for the project in just three months in 2008, said Haydon. Then the stock market took a dive, slowing but not halting the fundraising drive, he said.
The city of Ojai contributed $750,000 to the effort, adding an additional $170,000 by underwriting development fees, Haydon said.
Last winter, supporters suggested and then retracted a controversial idea to sell the naming rights for the bowl for $1 million. Donors still have the option of paying $250 each to have their names etched on bricks for new walkways.
“We’ve also got people naming trees; that’s very popular at $10,000 a tree,” said Haydon. Many such donors are opting to pay $2,000 per year for five years rather than the full sum all at once, he said.
Money also is coming in from neighborhood wine and cheese parties, noted Nita Whaley, who is coordinating community outreach efforts.
Time is of the essence, supporters say, because demolition of the bowl has to begin right after the music festival this June in order for the venue to be ready for the 65th annual Ojai Music Festival in June 2011.
As is required of any Ojai development with a budget of $1 million or more, the project will include the installation of a piece of public art. With a total price tag of $3 million, the Libbey Bowl project requires a public art component that is worth $40,000 or more, said Steve McClary, assistant to the city manager.
The winning proposal for the public art work was selected Tuesday by the Ojai City Council.
Titled “Sound Arch,” it will be created by sound sculptor Trimpin, the 1997 MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant recipient whose work was featured at the music festival in 2006 and 2009. It will consist of 24 reclaimed metal tubes, each fitted with resonators and internal mallet mechanisms that, when triggered by a motion sensor, will play electronic musical sequences.
The cost of the piece was factored into the $3 million fundraising campaign, Haydon said. “But if someone wants to underwrite it, we would be thrilled to take them up on the offer.”
