ART

Better Times Ahead: The tide is turning for Cal State Long Beach’s University Art Museum, which had been threatened with extinction due to state budget cuts. “We now have the support of the system and the state. We’re very much alive and in no way are we in danger of closing,” a spokeswoman said. Much of the good fortune comes from $30,000 from philanthropist Robert Gumbiner that will allow the museum to move into its first permanent facility--a newly designed 4,000-square-foot exhibition space adjoining the North Campus Library. Because of that gift and other fund-raising successes that have more than made up for lost state funds, the museum is set to receive an even larger capital improvement grant from the CSU Chancellor’s Office. The new facility, scheduled to open in 1994, will feature greater accessibility, parking and extended evening viewing hours.