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Luther Burbank Center for the Arts and Wells Fargo Announce Naming Sponsorship Partnership Will Help To Restore Center 's Facilities and Ensure Continuation of World-Class Performances and Sonoma County Community Programs
The Center, an independent, community-supported non-profit arts organization, will receive $3.75 million from Wells Fargo over 10 years in return for naming rights, and will officially become the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts in January 2006. The selection of Wells Fargo as the naming sponsor was the result of a rigorous, nearly two-year long search that began with a community survey of almost 500 donors, founders, sponsors, and ticket patrons to assure that the community was supportive of the name change. The Arts Center , which will celebrate its 25 th anniversary next year, was established by community leaders in 1981 under the aegis of the Luther Burbank Memorial Foundation, which will continue as the directing body of the Arts Center 's operations and programs. A rare entity in the world of community arts centers, the LBC is not owned or managed by the city of Santa Rosa , Sonoma County or a university. In addition, it receives only minimal funding from government agencies. Recently, the Arts Center has earned a wealth of distinctions, including recognition from such prestigious organizations as the Kennedy Center for the Arts in Washington, D.C., the National Endowment for the Arts, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. "The Arts Center is a living testimonial to the vision of is founders," said David Fischer, executive director. "Building on their foresight, we have proudly developed an Arts Center that regularly brings nationally renowned entertainment and fine performing arts to the area, and provides a home for numerous local organizations. However, for more than two decades we have funded operations with limited resources, and, as a result, have accrued almost $4 million in deferred maintenance projects. The time has come to address the needs of our physical plant, as well as to strengthen our position for future growth. Together with the ongoing support of the community, our partnership with Wells Fargo represents an important step in keeping the Arts Center an active, viable home for the arts for years to come." Headquartered in San Francisco , Wells Fargo opened its first Santa Rosa office in 1861, offering financial, delivery and sales services to the burgeoning farming community. Consistently honored as a model corporate citizen, Wells Fargo has been cited as among the 10 most generous corporate donors in the nation by both Business Week and Forbes magazines. The San Francisco Business Times recently announced that Well Fargo's $12 million in donations to local organizations was the largest in the Bay Area for the fourth year in a row. Since 2000, Wells Fargo has given more than $1.6 million to Sonoma County non-profits and arts organizations, including $824,000 specifically to Santa Rosa non-profits. While Wells Fargo has been a major donor to the LBC for the past three years, it is a highly unusual achievement for a smaller-market facility to secure title sponsorship from a large, national corporate entity. "We commend the role the Arts Center has played over the years in bringing a great variety of world-class entertainment, arts enrichment, educational outreach, and a diverse array of services to the people of Santa Rosa and the North Bay," said Greg Morgan, Community Banking President for Wells Fargo's North Coast Valley region. "It is a great honor to lend Wells Fargo's support and name to this extraordinary facility whose educational programs align with Wells Fargo's vision and commitment to supporting education and programs that contribute to improvements in academic achievement." In addition to serving as an arts education leader and as a popular venue for touring national headline performers, the Arts Center is the longtime home of a variety of local arts producing organizations, including Ballet California, the 54-year old Santa Rosa Concert Association, the Healdsburg Guitar Festival, and others. The Arts Center is also the home of The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), a vibrant space comprising four indoor galleries and four outdoor sculpture sites and presenting multiple exhibitions each year. "We are proud to present over 120 performances each year," noted Nancy Aita, chairwoman of the Arts Center 's Board of Directors. "But few people realize that we are a charitable organization that relies almost exclusively on community support. Our partnership with Wells Fargo is an important first step toward restoring our existing facilities and creating new facilities to accommodate an expanded agenda that will encompass Broadway musicals, opera performances, and other large scale productions." The Arts Center has also played a pivotal role for the past 16 years in the county's educational enrichment programs and is one of the few arts centers in the country that works to unite curriculum requirements from both state and federal governments. Approximately 35,000 students each year benefit from performances, interviews with touring artists such as Wynton Marsalis, hands-on workshops, and classroom visits from trained arts educators. In addition, the Center operates the Music for Schools program, a lending library of 400 instruments available to underprivileged youth in Sonoma County . "When we first had the idea to establish a performing Arts Center here in Santa Rosa , I don't think any of us envisioned the degree of success it would achieve," said Henry Trione, patriarch of one of the Arts Center 's 12 founding families. "I'm delighted that David Fischer and the Board have found a way to diversify its philanthropic base and begin to address the physical needs of the complex without sacrificing any of its excellent community programs or presentations. I think our friends at the Luther Burbank Gardens will also be delighted with this news. With our new name, for the first time in 24 years, visitors won't be coming to the Arts Center looking for horticultural exhibits or driving to the Gardens looking for the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre."
Located on 53 acres in the heart of California Wine Country, the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts is an independent, community-supported non-profit arts organization, widely recognized as the North Bay 's premier arts center. The Arts Center is nationally heralded for its diverse performing arts programs, which include top rock, pop, jazz, folk and country musicians; dance, theater and comedy productions; "Reader's Series" presentations; family-friendly productions; and a wide array of presentations by local arts organizations. The Arts Center has brought to the North Bay such wide-ranging acts as Carole King, Deepak Chopra, Jose Carreras, Jewel, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Cosby, Pinocchio by American Family Theater, Johnny Mathis, Joan Baez, Enrique Iglesias, Alvin Ailey II and Pepe Aquilar, to name but a very few. About Wells Fargo
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