The Arts feed the soul of The Beach community
The Arts feed the soul of The Beach community and beyond
At Cal State Long Beach, the arts continue to enhance students’ education and enrich the community. To further that mission, the Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum and Bob Cole Conservatory of Music are undergoing major renovations to improve experiences for all visitors.
The museum has doubled its footprint to include three exhibition galleries, a reading and archives room, a works-on-paper room that doubles as a student study space, an education lab, expanded collection storage, updated workspaces and a new outdoor sculpture garden.
The museum is woven into the fabric of both The Beach and the community, said Museum Director Paul Baker Prindle. All types of students come to the museum to enhance their education: CSULB chemistry students learn about printmaking, history students analyze artwork from different time periods, and more than 1,500 local elementary and high school students visit the museum each year.
"We are not our building — the museum is a community that has a building,” Baker Prindle said. “The building exists to serve and support the community, and because of these improvements, we’ll be able to do so much more with the museum community and welcome so many more people in.”The museum is inspired by the CSU’s emphasis on empowering people through education and welcomes everyone who wants to visit, Baker Prindle said.“Museums, for a long time, have been monocultural elitist spaces,” Baker Prindle said. “We’re trying to change that — and philanthropic partnership makes that possible.”The Conservatory of Music is also planning renovations to the Daniel Recital Hall that will improve accessibility with ADA upgrades, as well as acoustic and aesthetic improvements to properly showcase the high-caliber performances at the venue.
"The music department puts on about 300 events per year, and this facelift will greatly improve how we’re able to serve the community,” said Johannes M. Stosch,
