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target="blank">awarded $25,000 to help pay for a national design competition.

Craig Watson, Executive Director for the Arts Council, spoke about the grant process.

Craig: This is the first new grant initiative under NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. So, when the notice came out, we were particularly curious to see what he was interested in. This was the same time as he started using the Art Works campaign.

The guidelines spoke about the intersection of design and art. Coupled with mentioning festivals and falling on the heals of our A Lot series...the concept just spilled out.

Sander: What does this new project hope to accomplish?

Craig: This project will fund a national design competition that seeks designs from artist/architect collaborations for a portable, performance space that could meet the needs of groups as varied as the Long Beach Opera and the Khmer Arts Academy. In fact these two groups will consult on the competition specifications.

Sander: But why a portable performance space?

Craig: Long Beach's neighborhoods are culturally rich but facility "poor". As we saw with the A Lot series, by placing an outdoor public performance in the middle of an empty lot, we could attract a great audience to a corner of Long Beach they might not otherwise visit or experience.

We also heard about this need from community commentary during our Create Long Beach process.

Sander: How long do you think the selection process will take before a final design is chosen?

Craig: The competition will kick off in the fall, with a design likely to be chosen in early 2011.

Sander: The grant funds the search, at least in part. Who will fund the actual creation of the stage?

Craig: We will have to raise the funds to implement the design. We will likely build into the design competition specs something about cost estimates for construction within a certain manageable range. But we think the result will be so compelling that we will be able to raise the funds from a variety of sources.  At the end of the competition, we also expect to mount an exhibit of all the submissions.

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