CalArts Comes Full Circle to Downtown

The last time the California Institute of Arts made headlines was in 1994, when the Northridge quake rolled through its hometown of Valencia, leaving the campus with $35 million in damage and scattering its approximately 1,000 students to makeshift practice rooms and study halls in such unlikely locations as Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park, the local YMCA and a health club in a strip mall.

Now, CalArts students will be on the road again, but for happier reasons. Earlier this week, the Walt Disney Co. and one of its top executives, Roy E. Disney, announced that they will donate a total of $30 million to downtown’s Walt Disney Concert Hall project.

Of that money, $10 million--$5 million from Walt Disney Co.’s challenge grant of $25 million and another $5 million the personal gift of Walt’s nephew, Roy E. Disney, and his wife Patty--is earmarked for the construction and endowment of a small performance space at Disney Hall for use by the innovative arts institute, best known as the nation’s premiere training ground for animators.

The space will be named for Roy E. Disney’s late parents, Roy O. and Edna F. Disney.

The remaining $20 million from Disney Co.’s challenge grant goes toward the hall’s funding gap, leaving approximately $25 million to be raised to build the new home for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, most recently estimated to cost $255 million. Disney Hall will become the fourth venue of the Los Angeles Music Center when it opens in 2001.

Meetings begin today with concert hall architect Frank O. Gehry to determine the site and specifics of a proposed 200-seat theater either within Disney Hall or as part of a separate Disney Hall administration office building, which may be built nearby the concert hall.

Last spring, Music Center chairman Andrea Van de Kamp made the first inquiries to Disney Co. president chairman and chief executive Michael Eisner and vice chairman of the board Roy E. Disney about whether they would be interested in tying a major donation to the concert hall to CalArts.

The two executives, both of whom are CalArts trustees, were enthusiastic about the idea of making a gift that would also benefit the school, founded by Walt Disney in 1961.

Roy E. Disney’s ties to the school aren’t just through his uncle: After Walt Disney’s death in 1966, his brother and business partner Roy O. Disney--Roy E. Disney’s father--saw the institute through to completion. The school opened its doors in 1971.

The blood connection also extends to the Music Center, where Walt Disney was a founding board member. In the early 1960s, Walt Disney and Music Center founding chairman Dorothy Chandler discussed the idea of building a CalArts theater at the Music Center, but Walt said he planned to build one on campus in Valencia instead. That theater was never built.

In April, a representative for Eisner and Roy Disney phoned CalArts’ president, Steven Lavine, asking if they might be able to use a space at the Music Center. “I said: ‘It’s at the heart of all our dreams and plans for CalArts,” Lavine said.

In September, Van de Kamp, Lavine and Lawrence Ramer, chairman of CalArts board of trustees, presented a formal proposal to Eisner and Roy E. Disney. Details were hammered out over the next few months, culminating in an announcement of the gift on Monday. Roy E. Disney credits Stanley P. Gold, CEO of his company Shamrock Holdings, for working hard behind the scenes to put the deal together.

In a telephone interview Friday, Disney said that speculation about whether Disney Co. would contribute began 10 years ago, when Walt’s widow, Lillian B. Disney, 98, instigated the project with a $50-million donation.

Naturally, he acknowledged, that speculation was always accompanied by discussion of the a well-publicized feud between Walt Disney’s descendants and brother Roy Disney’s--sparked when Lillian Disney’s son-in-law, Ron Miller, husband of daughter Diane, was forced out as CEO of Walt Disney Productions, largely at the hand of Roy E. Disney.

Disney said that not only will the CalArts space create a much-needed performance venue for the school, its naming will remind visitors of the early partnership of Walt Disney and his brother. “There were two guys at the start, and they played an equally important role. My mother and dad, Walt and Lillian--the four of them were pretty much the seeds of this empire,” he said.

He added that he and Diane Disney Miller, who chatted about Disney Hall for the first time on Monday morning before the gift was announced, plan to meet soon, together, with architect Gehry. “The school is certainly bigger than the feud,” he said.

Van de Kamp said details remain up in the air, but one option Disney Hall officials are considering is making changes in the structure of an outdoor amphitheater that is already part of the Disney Hall plan to accommodate the smaller, enclosed space required by CalArts. She added that the structure will not significantly alter Disney Hall’s current design. “They are not looking for a huge, dramatic space,” she said.

Although the space may not be dramatic in size, Lavine said he expects dramatic changes in life at CalArts based on the new arrangement, which will finally give students a downtown performance space. The new space, he said, will also play an important role in the school’s Community Arts Partnership, in which students and faculty engage in arts programs with high school students from underserved communities.

Lavine added that the institute plans to use the space not only for music but for theater, film, dance and all sorts of experimental high-tech multimedia work. He added that the school and the Los Angeles Philharmonic are already negotiating an annual spring festival of new music.

Lavine said that the institute has struggled hard since its inception to strengthen its academic credentials in order to move its art, dance, music and theater departments into the top academic ranks.

He says the new space will allow more opportunity for students to work with local professionals and develop real-world applications for their skills. “We have struggled hard to become a college; now we want to put some of the ‘institute’ back into it,” he said.