Art finds a new outlet at Coastline

Young Chang

The dizzying smell of fresh paint at Coastline Community College’s new

classroom foreshadows what’s to come.

Though still empty this week, with ladders, paint buckets and cement

chunks everywhere, dean of instruction Edward Decker hopes the art

classroom will be ready for a grand opening by next week.

A friendly woman named Olga, owner of the Village Farmer restaurant

next door, apparently can’t wait for a new entourage of student

clientele. But the appreciation will likely be mutual, Decker said.

Located in the heart of South Coast Plaza Village, among businesses

like Antonello’s, Gustaf Anders, the Bluewater Grill and the Village

Farmer, Coastline’s new art facility and gallery is, in a way, the most

unexpected tenant to join the neighborhood.

And in a way, it isn’t.

“This place has an arts ambience, in my opinion,” Decker said.

A joint venture between the community college and Orange County Fine

Arts, Inc., the 5000-square-foot space is expected to house at least 300

students a week, with classes including watercolor, Chinese brush

painting and life drawing.

Coastline, headquartered in Fountain Valley, has classrooms in Costa

Mesa, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Seal Beach, Westminster and a

portion of Garden Grove. Decker says the school will never have just a

single campus, mostly because the need for multiple locations is obvious

in the community.

“Our average age is 40,” Decker said. “Many of them don’t like to go

on the traditional college campus. A regional center becomes much more

comfortable for them.”

Jane Bauman, professor and chair of the college’s fine arts

department, says the new Village classroom falls in line with the spirit

of how the administration runs business.

“Rather than having the students come to us, we go out to into the

community. It’s truly being a community college,” she said.

The new Costa Mesa space was formerly a similar incarnation -- the H.

G. Daniels building, which was an arts supply store. It’s been vacant for

about six to eight years, and Coastline officials decided to occupy the

rooms after several faculty were at art shows held there in recent years.

“We’re always looking for attractive space to hold classes, including

art classes,” Decker said. “We thought this would be a very appropriate

place to have art classes and be connected with a gallery.”

Orange County Fine Arts, Inc. is leasing part of the space as a

gallery from Coastline, which is the primary tenant. But both entities

will share the classroom and exhibit hall.

“This is our biggest classroom at Coastline, outside of a lecture

hall,” Bauman said.