Progression of
the 90 foot Frieze being created by Dr. Ronald McDowell
...
What do headliners such as
Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Dave Brubeck and
James Brown as well as the San Francisco Symphony and
international performers have in common with Pittsburg High
School students and other local actors and musicians? They have
all performed to appreciative audiences in Pittsburg’s Creative
Arts Building.
Located
on the Pittsburg High School campus, the 2,000-seat Proscenium
Theatre with an adjoining 242-seat Little Theatre is the largest
performing arts venue in Contra Costa County. What was
Pittsburg’s brightest jewel of yesteryear is the community’s
hidden treasure today.
The
Creative Arts Building opened in 1959 after Pittsburg voters
passed a $5 million bond project in May of 1956. It was the
largest school bond in state history at the time. The project
also funded construction of Hillview Jr. High School as well as
work on El Pueblo and Heights elementary schools. The Creative
Arts Building was constructed substantially enough to be
considered Pittsburg’s community bomb shelter during the Cold
War era.
In its
early years, the Creative Arts Building was used for regional
entertainment, playing host to world-famous as well as local
performers. Community use, which was a strong selling point in
the original bond issue, had dwindled with the exception of
performances by Pittsburg Community Theatre before the Pittsburg
Creative Arts Building Corporation’s CAB Concerts began a series
of concerts in 2004 to raise awareness of the historic building.
The Creative Arts Building remains an important part of the
daily educational experience for students at Pittsburg High
School as a site for classrooms in drama, choir and band. It is
also a venue for concerts and plays and a gathering location for
school assemblies and district-wide meetings.
Currently undergoing a $9
million renovation/modernization, the Creative Arts Building is
educationally functional with classroom facilities and
artistically impressive. Theater consultants from Landry and
Bogan, who conducted a complete architectural review of the
building, rate the Creative Arts Building at 9 on a 1-10 scale
as a performing arts venue.
An
“Adopt-A-Seat” program, whose goal is to restore all the seats
in both theatres, has raised more than $500,000. All the seats
in the Little Theatre have been restored as have 1,510 in the
main auditorium with another 175 to be restored during the
current renovation. The City of Pittsburg has contributed
$200,000 of redevelopment funds through a “grant challenge”
program in which provided $3 for every $1 raised by the
nonprofit Pittsburg Creative Arts Building Corporation. Through
Supervisor Federal Glover’s help, the Creative Arts Building has
also been the recipient of nearly $100,000 in Keller Canyon
Mitigation Funds that have also been instrumental in the
restoration project.
