A Center for the Arts Grows in Piedmont

Nancy Lehrkind has an ambition.

“We want people to go on Piedmont Patch every Friday and say, ‘What’s happening at the Center for the Arts this weekend?’”

Lehrkind, president of the board of directors of the nascent Piedmont center, is looking for a little renaissance in the middle of Piedmont at a fixer-upper of a vacant former church.

“We have such a depth and breadth of artistic talent here that it will be nice to have a place for it to coalesce,” said Lehrkind.

A proposed lease of the city-owned building on Magnolia Avenue, for one dollar a year, goes before the City Council for a first reading Monday. If all is approved, the lease of the former Christian Science church will go for a second reading in two weeks, and then a 30-day waiting period before it takes effect.

Lehrkind, a real estate agent and lawyer, can just feel the weight of a set of keys in her hand come June 3, when she will let in a host of contractors for a whirlwind of renovations to begin.

The goal will be an initial performance and opening in late August, when many Piedmont families are back from their vacations and school about to begin, Lehrkind said.

“The dream is to have an arts institution where there never has been one, an institution that marks our little city of Piedmont as a community that values the arts,” said Lehrkind.

The organization has already lined up a donated harpsichord and Steinway piano for the building.

“We don’t want this to be an expensive venue for arts groups,” said Lehrkind. “We want this to be used. Our pricing structure for using it is geared toward being always used.”

The former sanctuary, painted in sky blue, will be the performing hall, with “hanging art always on the walls,” said Lehrkind.

“It’s not a big space,” Lehrkind said. “That’s attractive for children performing a play so they’re not overwhelmed by being in a giant space.”

Sculptor Bruce Wolfe of Piedmont, who is on the advisory board of the center, will lend his national reputation and a sculpture to the center.

Among the plans: productions of “Our Town” using Piedmont actors in theater-in-the-round format and “Becoming Julia Morgan,” by Berkeley playwright Belinda Taylor, dramatizing the life of the famous architect who designed about two dozen homes in Piedmont.

The Center for the Arts organization plans to send a fund-raising letter to its Piedmont friends on Tuesday. The letter estimates $85,000 for the renovations needed, including roof, furnace, seismic work, windows, painting, plumbing and landscaping.

The center organization has received a letter from the IRS saying that its papers are in order for 501©3 non-profit status, Lehrkind said. That means donations are tax-exempt as of the organization’s incorporation by the state, March 10.

Right now, the church building is littered with plaster chunks and peeling paint, not to mention some mud and a cracked furnace in the basement.

Contractors are lined up, and many have pledged “raging discounts,” Lehrkind chucked.

Oakland electrician Mark Finnegan said he would replace the electrical panel for $650. “It’s the lowest I can go without crying,” Finnegan said, according to Lehrkind.

 “It’s a giveback to me as a professional and it’s great to have these wonderful professionals donate their goods and services,” she added.

The house was built in the 1890s and became a church in the 1930s. As the congregation aged and dwindled, the remaining members thought of selling it to the city eight years ago. The city bought the building, which is in the same block at City Hall, for the land, said City Administrator Geoff Grote.

Lehrkind’s partner in visioning the center has been Gray Cathrall, a musician and publisher of the Piedmont Post. “Everyone who comes in here has another dream,” Lehrkind said.

The center’s board of directors is Cathrall, a musician; Valerie Corvin, visual artist; Joseph Gold, violinist; Nancy Lehrkind, actor and producer; and Tom Lehrkind, pianist and watercolorist.

Nancy Lehrkind has a plan for maintaining cash flow. The center will sublease to the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir for office space, starting in August. The basement, after major work is done, will be rented out as storage space for other non-profit organizations in town, Lehrkind said.

“We wanted the right to sublease to other tenants to cover the carrying costs so rentals of the hall (for arts events) will be minimal,” said Lehrkind. She and her husband Tom, both lawyers, researched leases between the city of Berkeley and many of its non-profits.

There are plans for a day care center to use the church addition, which is now littered with yellowing city records.

 “This is just a fabulous dream and it’s coming true,” Lehrkind said.

THE PIEDMONT CENTER FOR THE ARTS

If you’d like to volunteer or donate to the center, call (510) 499-8177, email info@piedmontcenterforthearts.org or send a check to Piedmont Center for the Arts, 801 Magnolia Ave., Piedmont, CA 94611.