The years-long dream of a new Pacific View Arts Center came to fruition with an ebullient ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house last Tuesday on the campus of the former bluffside elementary school.

Another open house will be held this Saturday, August 10, from 10am to 3pm. Classes and workshops begin this Tuesday, August 13, at the center, located at 380 West F Street in Encinitas.

The Pacific View Arts Center officially opened as (l. to r.) Deputy Mayor Allison Blackwell, volunteer Rachel White, Councilmember Bruce Ehlers, Councilmember Joy Lyndes, former Mayor Teresa Barth, Mayor Tony Kranz, former Councilmember Lisa Shaffer, Councilmember Kellie Hinze (with newborn daughter!) and Arts Administrator Collette Murphy enthusiastically attacked the traditional red ribbon.

Mayor Tony Kranz, who was instrumental in the acquisition of the historic 2.8-acre school site, presided over the event, addressing the crowd of approximately 200 celebrants.

Local musician, singer-songwriter, teacher and poet Darius Degher recited his original poem, Pacific View Lost and Found, which concluded with these words:

“Today it might be seaside office space – except that wisdom and community can join to make a kind of art as well and reimagined beauty’s rise again

from the echoes of a once-abandoned shell.

That process is a thing that wants respect, demands it as our haven has come awake, created as a place where we create,
made for makers and the things they make.

A Pacific View can change the way you see.”

In his remarks, Mayor Kranz recounted a personal story of his experience with Pacific View, and began to sing the classic hymn “Amazing Grace.” For a poignant few moments, many in the crowd began to softly sing along, a spontaneous reaction he hadn’t anticipated.

Kranz attended elementary school at St. John’s on Marcheta St., a site where where housing now stands.

“During my early 20’s,” he explained, “I was ‘kickin’ around on a piece of ground in my hometown, waiting for someone or something to show me the way [Pink Floyd song lyrics].’ On several occasions I would spend time in the church alone, sitting in the back, singing out loud, listening to the lyrics echo off the walls.

“When Darius changed the title of his poem from A Pacific View to Pacific View Lost and Found, it immediately brought back those memories. I tried to connect my sense of loss about my elementary school being bulldozed with my fight to keep my kids’ elementary school from suffering the same fate.

“It’s a fairly complicated connection but it was important enough to me to try and share my feelings — and to sing the chorus of ‘Amazing Grace.'”

While spacious, the new dance studio at Pacific View looks bigger than it actually is because of its wall-length mirror.

The television studio offered demonstrations of its equipment and green screen visual effects.

Revisiting a critical moment in Pacific View’s evolution

In November 2010, over three years before the City of Encinitas was finally able to purchase the 2.8-acre Pacific View property from the Encinitas Union School District, Encinitas resident Sarah Garfield made her case to the City Council against selling the property. Click here for the 4-minute video.

Garfield logically and eloquently made a stirring case for keeping the promise of Pacific View as she addressed the solemn and generous intentions of our Encinitas founders:

“[They] didn’t give us cash, or land on Quail Gardens Drive. They gave us land on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Old Encinitas – walking distance to the Public Library, City Hall, the transit center, and numerous parks.”

“And whether you want it to be an early childhood development center, an elementary school, a technology or science teaching hub, a park, or rent it out for a myriad of uses – the gift is the site itself, not a cash account.”

“This is not private property. It belongs to all of us. And at this moment we, as citizens and elected officials, need to see the significance of this.”

Fittingly, Garfield and her husband were on hand at the ribbon cutting to help celebrate what she stirringly helped to inspire 14 years ago.

Media coverage of the Pacific View Arts Center’s grand opening can be found at these sites:

• San Diego Union-Tribune: Encinitas hosts grand opening for Pacific View Arts Center
   
• Times of San Diego: After Years-Long Effort, City of Encinitas Opens Public Arts Center at Historic School Site
   
• ABC 10 News: Pacific View Arts Center to open in Encinitas
   
• The Coast News: Encinitas celebrates long-awaited Pacific View opening

Over a decade has passed since the City of Encinitas purchased the shuttered school from the Encinitas Union School District in a last-minute bid before the property came up for auction. The purchase was buoyed by immense public demand, and dozens of Encinitas residents worked to make the facility come back to life after its closure in 2003.

Hopes for the revitalization of the mid-century facility had risen and fallen over the years, but the blufftop campus’ fortunes turned when the city decided to fund the project after private efforts didn’t succeed.

The Pacific View Arts Center is now poised to enrich the lives of Encinitas residents for generations to come. Congratulations to the hundreds of North County residents whose vision, passion and energy made this success possible!

SavePacificView.org is a grassroots group of concerned north coastal residents formed in 2014 by longtime Encinitan Scott Chatfield. Alongside hundreds of other locals, they successfully worked to preserve the historical bluffside Pacific View Elementary School site for present and future generations to enjoy – it’s now open to the public as our new Pacific View Arts Center!

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