San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria last week announced his desire to work with the San Diego Community College District to redevelop Golden Hall, a vacant downtown event space adjacent to the City Administration Building.
Now, the district is sharing its vision for the space: A new home for its World Art Collection, with a public gallery, classrooms, storage space and an event center that can host performances featuring the mostly African artifacts.
Chancellor Gregory Smith said the 50-year-old collection — one of the largest of its kind on the West Coast — has outgrown its current home on the fifth floor of a library on the Mesa College campus in Clairemont. A new gallery downtown would allow more students, scholars and the public to view and enjoy the collection.
"We could have it then be activated in cultural celebrations across the year that various organizations in the city want to do," Smith said. "Many of the pieces in this collection were made by artists to be used in different types of rituals and ceremonies. It's important that we honor the legacy of the art itself and have people be able to experience it in the way it was meant when it was created."
Built in 1964, Golden Hall has hosted a number of events over the years including citizenship oath ceremonies and election night watch parties. It was most recently used as a temporary homeless shelter, but has been vacant for more than a year.
The Prebys Foundation has been working to reimagine the space's redevelopment along with the adjacent block of city-owned buildings that include offices for city employees and the Civic Theatre.
Smith said the community college district can use voter-approved bonds to help finance Golden Hall's redevelopment, but that he expects philanthropic donors will be able to cover most if not all the costs of the art gallery and performance space. He added that the bonds can also be used to finance affordable and workforce housing for community college students, faculty and staff.
"About 25% of our students, roughly 20,000 in a whole number, are unhoused, and then several thousand more are housing insecure," Smith said. "We're dealing with housing affordability issues with being able to recruit and retain faculty, classified professionals and staff. So we're in the process of assessing what the level of interest and need for affordable employee housing might be."
