OCSA Launches $20M Expansion Campaign

SANTA ANA, CA—For the first time in the school's history, the Orange County School of the Arts here will build a new facility on its Santa Ana campus rather than using repurposed commercial buildings. The $20-million construction project will give the school the opportunity to create an instructional center that meets all of its needs from the ground up.

OCSA announced at its 2014 gala on March 22 that it is publicly launching a “Masterpiece in the Making” capital campaign to raise funds for the school campus completion. Campaign co-chairs Marybelle and S. Paul Musco, Sandy Segerstrom Daniels and OCSA alumnus Matthew Morrison, as well as campaign cabinet co-chairs Doug Garn and Jerry Mandel, Ph.D, have been guiding the school's leadership team to refine the strategic vision and raise funds for the new state-of-the-art expansion.

The expansion plans will focus on:

• constructing a 60,000-square-foot instructional center with science labs, dance studios, music-rehearsal facilities, practice rooms, dressing rooms and storage
• creating a central quad and outdoor stage with landscaped and hardscaped areas for collaboration and showcasing student talent
• building a new double-lane student pick-up/dropoff area to improve access to all campus destinations
• continuing capital equipment acquisition and technology improvements for all programs
• unifying and beautifying all exterior facility elements to create a secure and attractive urban campus
• expanding the program excellence fund to attract and retain the best arts and academic faculty, increase professional development, expand the guest artists/master teachers program and invest in enhanced technology and instructional resources.

OCSA has partnered with architect John Sergio Fisher to crate the vision for the expansion. Sergio's firm has more than 40 years' experience designing arts facilities, including the Orpheum Theatre, the Los Angeles Theatre Center, Los Angeles Music and Art School and the new expansion of the Discovery Science Center here. The construction firm for the project has not been disclosed.

The campaign has currently raised $9.5 million toward the $20 million needed. Construction of the project is scheduled to begin this summer, with completion in Summer 2015.

“When completed, OCSA will be an impressive urban campus featuring more than 300,000 square feet of instruction, performance and support facilities—high-quality facilities that will match our high-quality programming,” says Ralph S. Opacic, Ed.D. at OCSA. “I'd like to extend a gracious thank you to the lead supporters of the 'Masterpiece in the Making' capital campaign and the entire Orange County community for their generosity. Together, we will be able to create a model center for arts and academic education that will make the community proud, and be unequaled in the state and nation.”