A local arts center looks to provide Cal State Long Beach art students with another training ground to hone their craft.
Now in the planning stages, the Art Exchange will be built on the former Acres of Books site at 3rd Street and Long Beach Boulevard. Executive Director Alex Slato said he has meetings scheduled in the coming weeks with CSULB’s art department to plan how the exchange can work with students and graduates.
“An important part of what we’re going to be doing is embracing artists within the community,” Slato said. “The graduating artist from Cal State Long Beach is one of our prime targets.”
The Art Exchange plans to host programs for professional artists and university students to help them build their business and creative skills to become marketable.
Fifteen studios will be set up for painting, sculpture, glass, ceramics, photography, video and digital art. Those who work there will be required to put in a certain number of hours so visitors can watch them create art, Slato said. There will also be a glass-blowing studio, educational programs for children, and a courtyard with a stage and space for 200 people to watch events.
“Our main intention is really to magnify and help promote local artists and support them,” Slato said, “and to create an art area in this part of downtown where it is much-needed.”
The Art Exchange held a fundraiser July 10 at Acres of Books, where unsold inventory still sat after the store’s closing. More than 600 people lined up around the building to buy a vintage fruit crate and fill it with as many books as they could carry for $25. Slato said they sold 260 crates of books and are planning another fundraiser for later this summer.
The exchange is being funded by the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency in partnership with the City of Long Beach. The project is part of a larger vision to revitalize downtown through art. The RDA recently sponsored the “Summer and Music” concert series, designed to bring people to downtown Long Beach to enjoy free shows and patronize the area’s shops and restaurants.
Slato said he believes art plays a crucial role in redevelopment efforts.
“We have a great deal of collectors and artists in town, plus we have a university that has one of the best art schools in all of the state,” Slato said. “We’re so close to Los Angeles and Orange County that we are positioned to be a major cultural hub in Southern California. We just have to work hard and get that process going, but there’s a great future in this town and the East Village Arts District.”
The Art Exchange is scheduled to open late summer 2011. Information: artexchangelb.org.
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