CARLSBAD -- Hoping to launch the careers of local painters and other artists, an award-winning theater group has obtained a $1-a-year lease on half of a city-owned building for an "incubator" project.
Similar to start-up programs focused on new computer technology or food products, this effort by the New Village Art Theatre company will give local artists an area to create their masterpieces, as well as a gallery to display and sell them. The space will be called "The Foundry" in honor of the building's former history as a lumber company, said Kristianne Kurner, the theater company's executive artistic director.
"We like that name better than 'incubator,'" she added.
On Tuesday night, the City Council approved a lease arrangement that gives the company roughly half of the old Bauer Lumber Co. building, which is a block away from the North County Transit District's downtown Coaster train station.
"I think it's a perfect place for it, it's absolutely perfect," Councilwoman Ann Kulchin said Wednesday, adding that she hoped the new arts facility would spark other arts-related ventures and encourage shops in the downtown to stay open late.
The theater company already has a $1-a-year-lease deal for the other half of the Bauer building at 2787 State St. -- it opened a 99-seat theater there in 2007.
The city has tried leasing out the rest of the site -- just over 3,000 square feet -- to various commercial enterprises in recent years, but none of the occupants have stayed long. The most recent -- Sowing Sisters Quilt Shop -- left before its lease was up, city documents indicate.
"This just seemed like the perfect match now in terms of timing," said Debbie Fountain, the city's housing and redevelopment director, as she discussed the new lease arrangement Wednesday.
The council approved the lease deal in a 4-1 vote, with Mayor Bud Lewis opposed. Lewis said he had no problem with the theater renting the building for an artists' promotion effort, but wished the group was paying more for it.
"We could have other uses for it that could obtain more dollars," he said during Tuesday's meeting.
Lewis also was the lone vote against leasing the other half of the building to the theater several years ago.
The theater company plans to officially open the art gallery Aug. 1, but activities are already starting to take place within the new rental space, Kurner said. A youth theater camp began this week in what will become a meeting room/rehearsal area, she said.
"It's very exciting for us … to already see the energy this is creating," she said.
Carlsbad Community Theatre is already enjoying the benefits of the arrangement, board President Penni Barachkov said Wednesday. The 26-year-old group, which usually attempts to rent rehearsal space from local schools, is using the new meeting room area to prepare for its performances of "Bye Bye Birdie" in late July, she said.
"It is such a needed space," Barachkov said. "The competition for space in the school district is huge now."
Call staff writer Barbara Henry at 760-901-4072.
