The question is “What is the state of the arts in the city of Santa Clarita?” The arts community in Santa Clarita does exist I am sure but it just has not been identified as who the art community is. The interest in the arts exists among the residents of our city but seems to be in the shadows of the performing arts as there are no art galleries to represent the visual arts at this time in Santa Clarita.
But maybe with the Newhall library which is in the planning stages there will be art gallery created. A community meeting was held a week ago with the Consultant who has been retained by the city to gather information about what the people see as the needs for the Newhall library. A power point presentation was made by the consultant and showed examples of other libraries recently built in California. It was a real eye opener to see all of the ideas that have been used in other libraries. At this meeting the people attending told the consultant what they felt should be in the library, the list was long and all of the ideas and surveys turned in will be used in the recommendations given to the City Council. The city is spending $10 million dollars to build the library and construction is slated to start at the end of 2009 and be completed by 2011. The size of the library is to be 16,000 square feet to 24,000 square feet. But many people at the meeting did not feel this would be large enough even at 24,000 square feet considering the increase there will be in population.
Of course there are those who oppose building the library at the site chosen on Lyons Avenue as well as spending the money for the library. Opposition seems to always be part of any plans for the future. The old Newhall Library is too small and cannot accommodate the needs of the people who use it. There is no more space in the library for anything according to the librarians who work there.
At the new Topanga Library on Topanga Canyon Boulevard, artists are fabricating artwork for the $12.6 million facility and part of the $111,000 art project will be the creation of a “Welcome Mat” for the main entrance of large flower-like ceramic sculptures for the terrace and light sconces. Does this sound exciting? The Newhall Library must be an icon of beautiful architecture that will be the most outstanding building in Santa Clarita. It will be a great visual adventure to watch what happens to this space where the library is to be built in the coming weeks and months.
For more information contact Jaylene Armstrong, retired art educator from Madison Wisconsin, at 661-255-3050.