Oceanside museum undergoing $4 million expansion

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published September 25, 2006 at 5:51 AM PDT

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

The Oceanside Museum of Art broke ground Sunday on a $4 million expansion. The new wing will allow the growing North County art museum to start a permanent collection. KPBS reporter Alison St John has

The Oceanside Museum of Art broke ground Sunday on a $4 million expansion. The new wing will allow the growing North County art museum to start a permanent collection.

The Oceanside Museum of Art is currently based in a 1929 building designed by the architect Irving Gill. Its traditional white mission style arches will be complemented with a contemporary extension that will triple the size of the exhibit space Director Skip Paul says this gives the growing cultural center a chance to expand.

Become a KPBS sponsor

Paul: It gives the museum two additional galleries-- one of those is a revolving gallery to be used like this one here with changing shows the second gallery will be used for a new permanent collection that documents the art history of the San Diego region.

Paul says the plan is to exhibit art by San Diego artists from 1900 to the present day. The Museum, which opened nine years ago, has grown steadily and remains solvent with community support. Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

twitter

Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.