The building of a brand new, state of the art performing arts center is underway at Long Beach City College’s Liberal Arts Campus and a ceremony took place Wednesday to commence its official ground-breaking.
The new performing arts center will replace the old music Building G and the theater arts Building H and will feature a 238 seat theater, renovated classrooms, smaller scale performance areas and even host the schools new radio station that is set to open Fall 2025.
“(The building) will be a center for the arts and training all across Southern California,” said Mike Munoz, superintendent president of LBCC.
LBCC’s jazz band played as crowds formed in front of the construction site for the future performing arts center.
Chip West, the vice president of business services, started off the ceremony with a land acknowledgment and the introduction of the board of trustees and city members.
The board president, Herlinda Chico, took the stage for a speech and called the new center the new shining star of projects and said it will be a true gift for students and the community alike.
Chico then welcomed Munoz to the stage to introduce the school’s choir, the Viking Singers, to show an example of the talent that will be nurtured in the new G Building .
The choir sang “Bonse Aba,” a song from Zambia that is meant to invoke joy.
After the choir left the stage, Lisa Orr and Janet Hund, took the stage to acknowledge the important past of the arts buildings at LBCC and highlight some of the notable names who got their starts there.
Orr and Hund mentioned that the new Building G is being built next to the Bob and Barbara Ellis Auditorium, a building that will now become more available for use since the new Building G can house smaller performances.
West re-entered the stage and made more acknowledgements, including those who helped create and pass the bonds that led to the renovations and the people who helped create swing spaces for classes to continue since the old buildings had been demolished.
These swing spaces include portable classrooms on LAC’s campus as well as the use of classrooms on LBCC’s Pacific Coast Campus.
“(We are) making do,” said Syke Angulo, director of choral studies, who teaches in these spaces. “We keep thinking of the beauty that will be coming soon.”
The building is estimated to be finished in Fall 2025.