Homeland Cultural Center Breaks Ground on New 2,000 square feet Visual and Performing Arts Center

It was 20 years in the making, but last month, Homeland Cultural Center broke ground for a new 2,000 square foot building dedicated to visual and performing arts. This new facility will provide a professional-quality venue for the exhibition and performance of the works of art that are already being created at Homeland. The center will have a flexible “black-box” configuration, with gallery space, flexible staging and moveable seating for 60, maximizing the ability to accommodate every genre of cultural arts.

Homeland Cultural Center was established in 1989 to provide a safe place to cultivate, present, and preserve the cultures of residents via the performing and visual arts, and to celebrate the Anaheim Street Corridor’s dramatic ethnic diversity. As the surrounding community has blended together over the years, many traditional crafts and skills have been in danger of dying out. Homeland is a place where those traditions take on new meaning and importance. As parents and grandparents pass on their traditions—from West Afrikan drum and dance, Hmong embroidery and crochet art, to gheej, Mariachi guitar, and Folklorico—children learn about their culture as well as the culture of others. Further, Homeland provides a venue for at-risk youth to share their artistic creations with their elders and to receive the validation they deserve for their creativity and artistry in a positive and controlled setting.

Homeland’s staff and family of artists have received numerous awards for outstanding contribution to the arts in Long Beach, including the League of California Cities award, the Helen Putnam Award for Arts and Culture, and, most recently, the 2008 Dorothy R. Mullen Arts and Humanities Award, the highest cultural arts award in the parks and recreation field.

This new building will allow Homeland to expand opportunities to support all artists, from centuries-old traditions to those who make up contemporary sub-cultures. These artists—who are frequently highly respected within their own communities but have received little recognition from mainstream culture—can bring creativity and understanding into the lives of all our citizens.