Newport couple donates $40,000 to OCC

Danette Goulet

COSTA MESA -- A Newport Beach couple has donated $40,000 to help OCC

build a cultural arts center devoted to fostering young artistic talent.

The $2-million arts center would be a companion project to a $15-million,

state-funded academic arts building planned for the southern side of

campus.

The center will house a young artists’ gallery, the college art gallery

and a coffee house.

“The young artists’ gallery will be close to the two day-care [centers]

on campus,” said Doug Bennett, executive director of the OCC Foundation.

“We hope to form a relationship between the arts and young children.”

It is that connection that prompted Mary Lynn Bergman-Rallis and her

husband, John Rallis, to donate the $40,000.

“Our specific donation is to fund the cost of a story alcove” where

children and their parents could read, Bergman-Rallis said. “I jumped at

the chance because it combines my three passions, which are children, art

and reading. My hope is it will be an intimate, cozy environment that

will foster a sense of perfect symbiosis of those three.”

The story alcove will be located in the young artists’ gallery, which

will feature the works of children and young artists, as well as provide

educational programs.

The arts center also will add much-needed space for OCC’s arts program,

Bennett said.

“It will more than triple the amount of gallery space on campus,” he

said.

Currently, the art department has about 1,500 square feet in which to

display work, said Victor Casados, professor of art at OCC. The center

would provide about 8,500 square feet.

Casados said he can’t wait to see a larger, nicer gallery at the school.

In launching the fund-raising campaign for the arts center, OCC’s student

government and the foundation pledged $300,000. The Rallis donation is

the first outside contribution to the project, Bennett said.

The larger, three-story arts building will house academic programs as

well as state-of-the-art labs for photography, digital media, film and

video production and computer music.

Construction is scheduled to begin this summer with an anticipated

completion date sometime in 2002.

Groundbreaking for the arts center will be in 2002, after the completion

of the academic building.