Rallying for Arts & Culture, Part Two
Showcase Interviews Redlands’ Nelda Stuck
Nelda Stuck served as Community and Arts editor of the Redlands Daily Facts for 22 years, and when folks talk about movers and shakers in Redlands, CA, her name tends to turn up. Among her projects, she and Liz Beguelin took the idea of an historical museum in January 2000 to the Redlands City Council who encouraged them to form a committee and do a feasibility study. Since then, the Redlands Historical Museum Association has worked 22 years, resulting in today’s nearly-complete construction. We asked her about launching cultural institutions in the current economic climate, or even attempting one at all. See last month’s showcase for Part One of our discussion. We continue below.
Showcase: Redlands has a reputation for cultural icons. Please expand on this.
Stuck: At least three iconic institutions are a century old and thriving: The University of Redlands with many arts opportunities; the A.K. Smiley Public Library with its Heritage Room and Lincoln Memorial Shrine (founded 1932); and our Redlands Bowl, which celebrates its centennial year this coming summer. We have the Redlands Symphony Orchestra, the UR Peppers Art Gallery, the Redlands Art Association and its gallery and bi-annual foreign and arts film series, the Historical Glass Museum, the Inland Master Chorale and Community Chorus of Redlands, the long history of our Fourth of July Band, and currently four excellent live-performance theaters, in addition to the myriad of music and theater performances at the university.
Showcase: Where will you find the items for your collection?
Stuck: The main goal for building the Museum of Redlands has been to move the 125 years of historic items now stored in the library out on public display so Our Town can appreciate its history. We’re have a storage house and two storage units filled as we await completion of the storage built as a major addition on our new museum. It’s been difficult to keep up with a stream of donors the last couple years as people have read about and seen our museum rising.
Showcase: Share some details about your location and construction.
Stuck: We found in our early research that it took most cities we visited about 25 years to finally get a museum up and running. And that’s about what has happened here. After 15 years of considering site possibilities, in 2015, with the unfortunate downsizing of newspapers, the 1956 Mid-Century-Modern Redlands Daily Facts building at the corner of Brookside and Center Street came on the market. Benefactors Clara Mae Clem purchased the building, and Tim and Carol Rochford purchased the vacant adjacent land. Very important in the total renovation construction was inclusion of a separate Pavilion for classroom space, and events rental as a funding source as we anticipate our continued financial support needs and responsibilities.
Showcase: Who will oversee the museum?
Stuck: The plan is to complete our Redlands Historical Museum Association construction. The Museum of Redlands will then be transferred to the City of Redlands under the auspices of Smiley Library, which has 90 years of experience running the Lincoln Shrine, and who actually owns all the objects to be displayed. RHMA will continue to raise funds, organize the necessary docent program, and plan historical programs related to the museum.
Showcase: When will the museum open?
Stuck: Fall of 2023
Showcase: We’ll look forward to it. Anything you’d like to add?
Stuck: Let me mention our architects – Johnson-Favaro of Culver City. Their dream was not to copy the past century of Redlands’ prominent architectural styles of red-tiled missions, or Greek columns, or Moorish and Queen Ann mansions or Craftsman cottages, but to make a statement showcasing our generation. That’s why our MOR building is becoming the new visual and cultural icon for Redlands.