REEDLEY — The Valley’s newest high-tech performing arts center was unveiled Tuesday morning with a traditional ribbon-cutting ceremony followed by speeches inside the center’s state-of-the-art auditorium.
The air was still chilly Tuesday morning as several hundred people, eager to see the inside spaces of the new center, gathered on the plaza outside and were serenaded by the college’s brass quintet.
Reedley College’s McClarty Center for Fine and Performing Arts will be a facility not just for the college’s students but for the entire community and region, officials said.
Fantastic Acoustics
For performing musicians, the center’s auditorium will give them the opportunity to showcase their work in a space where acoustics can be fine-tuned to the most-precise degree, State Center Community College District Chancellor Carole Goldsmith told the audience.
The Meyer Constellation Acoustic System can be adjusted to produce the best possible listening experience, Goldsmith said. That, and the rest of the center, would not have been possible without the support of voters who approved Measure C in 2016 as well as donors like Harold McClarty and his family.
“And for those of you in the community, I want to extend our deepest, most sincere thanks for your support in making this vision a reality, because it is truly a gorgeous building,” she said. “And it’s gorgeous because we listened to what you wanted. So thank you for voicing your thoughts and for voicing your dreams.”
HMC Farms owner Harold McClarty, whose family foundation contributed $1 million to the center and is its namesake, joked that he would be able to brag that he was the stage’s first performer. McClarty read four poems with Valley and agriculture themes, including one written by his 10-year-old granddaughter, Lyla Ketelsen.
“What we do next will determine if this was truly a success,” he said. “We need to fill the center with poets, authors, musicians, and artists. This will be the place where for generations we get to be educated, enlightened, and entertained. This is something for our children and grandchildren and more. This is our thank you to all deserving artists, patrons and working people who call this area our home.”
Bringing the Arts to Rural Communities
State Center board president Magdelana Gomez, whose area includes Reedley, said she got emotional trying to express her thanks and sharing a stage with McClarty, a farmer. Gomez, the daughter and granddaughter of farmworkers, said having such a world-class facility means a lot to people in rural communities in the Valley.
“This is a great moment for all of the rural communities because this will be the heart piece. It’s our Disney Hall. It glows in the dark. It’s the mother ship, you name it,” she said. “This is just the heart and soul of what is to become.”
