OC Music and Dance is giving the Pasadena-based cultural institution entrée into an 800-seat multipurpose venue slated to open at the Great Park in 2027.
A seemingly straightforward and routine press release dated June 5 reports that Pasadena-based Asian Hall of Fame, which issued the release, is teaming up with Orange County Music and Dance “to build a state-of-the-art performing arts center at Irvine Great Park.”
Anyone reading it couldn’t be faulted for being inclined to ask: “How is the creation of yet another performing arts venue in Orange County of interest to me?”
Indeed, most Irvine and O.C. residents might not recognize this project’s significance. But according to the release, the 800-seat, 15,000-square-foot venue, slated to open in 2027, will “become the first such Asian and Indigenous facility in the United States.”
This is, again, a seemingly innocuous statement, but think about it closely: The presence, culture, art, music, cuisine and more of millions of Asians of countless nations have, over decades and centuries, become part of the fabric of American life – and yet this project, located in the heart of Orange County, will be the first of its kind in the United States.
The release notes that Irvine has the fifth-largest Asian population in the U.S. – a fact confirmed by the U.S. Census Bureau, one that attracted the Asian Hall of Fame to Orange County and led to its partnership with OC Music and Dance.
And here’s another fact, not covered in the press release that’s almost equally startling: Until just a handful of months ago, the paths of the leaders of Asian Hall of Fame and OCMD had never crossed.
Their intersecting plans led them to realize how closely their goals align, fast-tracking a project through which each will realize immense benefits.
In a nutshell, OCMD gets a big chunk of funding toward kickstarting construction of the project; Asian Hall of Fame gains access toward a state-of-the-art performing arts venue, naming rights and a foothold in a prestigious, Asian-heavy city in Orange County.
A School in Need of Resources – and a New Venue
Douglas K. Freeman, CEO and executive chair of OC Music and Dance, relates that the school “was formed as a nonprofit organization in July 2016, and we opened our doors in March 2017. Our school offered lessons and performance opportunities for children ages 5 to 18 years of age and provided financial assistance to enable nearly 40% of our children from low-income families to attend.”
Freeman said that the building had been given to the school “free and clear” by Charlie Zhang, founder of Pick Up Stix and on Pacific Symphony’s board of directors. Zhang is also on the Asian Hall of Fame’s board of governors – but more on that later.
As Freeman relates, the OCMD facility “has been a wonderful home for us, but it has several drawbacks, most important of which is it’s an office building. It wasn’t built for a school.”
Within two years of opening, enrollment maxed out at 450 students. “The demand for our school made it clear that we needed to expand our 21,000-square-foot facility.”
Freeman reached out to Five Point Communities, whose CEO offered them land at the Great Park. Then along came COVID and conversations stalled out.
Changes in Five Points’ leadership prompted Freeman to “knock on the door of city management,” which led to feasibility studies aimed at creating a strategic plan and a serious plan for development of the Great Park as site for a new OCMD facility.
That was roughly 18 months ago. As Freeman puts it, “what could have been a very long series of steps” was fast-tracked by the city.
The city of Irvine offered Freeman and the OCMD about two acres that they could start developing for construction.
Freeman told Culture OC his school’s “real goal has been to build a facility designed specifically from the ground up to give our aspiring young artists the environment, tools and opportunities that would optimize their personal journey.”
The Spotlight (Finally) Shines on Accomplished yet Unheralded Asians
Located in Pasadena, 48 miles north of the OCMD, is the Asian Hall of Fame, whose website said it was established in 2004 “to educate the public about Asian contributions to the United States and the world, advance early career development, and promote Asian artistic excellence and cross-cultural narratives.”
Its June 5 release touts the entity as “a cultural, educational, and research institution that elevates public perception of Asian and Indigenous legacy in America and globally.”
Among its numerous inductees are Robert and Ruth Chinn, Margaret Cho, Judy Chu, Connie Chung, Senator Tammy Duckworth, James Hong, Carrie Ann Inaba, Kevin Kwan, Nancy Kwan, Brandon Lee, Bruce Lee, Dr. Linda M. Liau, Freddie Mercury, Norm Mineta, Anna May Wong and Kristi Yamaguchi.
Maki Hsieh, president and CEO of the Robert Chinn Foundation, which runs and operates the Asian Hall of Fame, said the concept for the Hall of Fame can be credited to Ruth Wong and her daughter Karen, undergirded by the fact that Asian leaders were not getting recognition.
The Hall of Fame came into existence in 2004, inducing its first class of honorees, with the concept snowballing and attracting the likes of Chung, Bruce Lee, Yamaguchi and 130 others who have since been inducted.
The institution’s first founding board of governors led Hsieh to Zhang and other successful Asian business people in Southern California.
Yet in its 20 years, the organization has never had its own brick-and-mortar space. Its 133 inductees and eight “goodwill ambassadors” – can only be seen in one place: the organization’s website.
Whenever a new individual was to be feted and inducted, the Hall of Fame would have to rent a facility for ceremonies and a more-or-less annual gala – frequently, the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
Hsieh said in 2019, right before the COVID pandemic, they got a multiyear sponsorship from the Robert Chinn Foundation providing financial support in the form of multicultural generational grants.
Discovering that nine out of 10 of the Asians Hsieh was dealing with either worked or lived in greater Los Angeles or Southern California prompted her, in July 2020, to urge the foundation to move its operations from Seattle to Pasadena.
Hsieh told Culture OC that up until its fortuitous meeting with OCMD this past spring, the institution “had been looking for a city as a hub for five years – not a community center, but a world-class hub for our distinguished leaders to impact social change.”
Rochelle Srigley, Asian Hall of Fame’s managing director of public affairs, says the 20-year-old organization “previously owned and operated a community center in Seattle, but it was not a physical Hall of Fame.” Currently, the only place to see its 20 years’ worth of inductees is on its website.
Hsieh said there was “nothing wrong with having a gala once a year, but we’re a Hall of Fame. We need to have a center. It doesn’t have to be a $100 million center, but it has to be in the right city.” The creation of such a center and its location is “a huge vision that has to last 100 years.”
Hsieh noted that “all Asian HOFs are in China, Japan or Korea,” with only one in North America – in Canada. The United States, she said, has no such entity; the Smithsonian has a traveling Asian American exhibit but there are no permanent institutions in the U.S.
North American institutions that recognize Asians worldwide
Hsieh said this need for the new project in Irvine addresses the fact that “many leaders don’t even know that three out of four of the world’s Indigenous peoples live in Asia” and underscores the Asian HOF’s mission of “educating the public in Asian and Indigenous peoples.”
More crucially, she notes, the Irvine joint venture with OCMD “will be the country’s first Asian performing arts center focusing on the arts.”
A Match Made in O.C. Heaven
A key figure in this story is Zhang. He is not only founder of Pick Up Stix and on Pacific Symphony’s board of directors, but also helped Freeman to found OC Music and Dance, and is on the Asian Hall of Fame’s board of governors. As such, Zhang is the only person in this saga involved with both OCMD and the Hall of Fame.
Freeman points out that “four months ago we didn’t have this relationship with Asian HOF. It came on very suddenly. Maki had been looking for a home where the Asian HOF could hang photos of honorees and have a place for their events instead of the Biltmore.”
This past Mother’s Day, Freeman relates, Hsieh, through Zhang, “heard about Great Park and was told just enough to say she was ‘gonna go talk’ with us (OCMD).” He said Hsieh came to OCMD “on a Saturday in May or June” and that after a four-hour conference, he and Hsieh “shook hands” on a new partnership.
Charlie Zhang: From Communist China to the American Dream
Hsieh and Freeman each told Culture OC they feel incredible gratitude at having connected.
Hsieh said “honoring this range of individuals is incredible. …(OCMD) has the ability to organize a ton of events. We’re really lucky because their model fits our model – something multicultural that can generate a lot of activity in our new venue.”
Freeman said, “We couldn’t have found a more synergistic partner to help us complete our performing arts campus. They’re focusing on Asian and Indigenous peoples, which includes communities like the Native Americans, Canadians, those of Greenland, the Inuit and the Yupik people, typically referred to as ‘Eskimos.’”
Why Irvine?
The Hall of Fame press release notes without much fanfare that “Irvine is known as a start-up incubator” and, as previously stated, is the city with the fifth-largest Asian population in the U.S.
Comments by OCMD’s Freeman underscore these crucial points: “The city offered us 2.2 acres for $1 for next 75 years – a 50-year lease and five five-year options – and the city will develop all the land around it.”
Irvine ranks fifth in top ten U.S. cities with highest Asian or Asian American population
Irvine, he said, “is spending $91 million to clean up the Cultural Terrace” at Great Park – steps that include environmental mitigation that will be completed “by the time they turn land over to us in January of next year.”
“It’s a gift from God,” Freeman said. “You’d be hard pressed to find anything in the U.S. where a city, a municipality, has offered that kind of an environment for that kind of cost.”
Pete Carmichael, assistant city manager for Irvine and head of the project for the city, explained the underlying reasons for providing OCMD so generous a plan. Irvine “is trying to build a great public park for the next 300 years,” Carmichael said. “We need to bring in great nonprofits that offer all kinds of culture, benefits and services that the city can’t offer.”
“OCMD is a great example: It has a huge following and will provide wonderful contributions running and operating the building and programs for generations. Providing the land was a worthwhile contribution to that.”
The arrangements and partnerships are, Carmichael said, “something not unlike Exposition Park in Los Angeles: A campus and museums, all in one geographical area” – in Irvine’s case, “four institutions (including OCMD) all offering something different and that are complementary. Each of four non-profits – OCMD, Pretend City, the Flying Leathernecks Aviation Museum, and the Asian-American Heritage Museum – are getting a land contribution by the city.” He noted that the latter is not the same organization as the Asian Hall of Fame that’s the subject of this article but, rather, a newly formed, Orange County-based entity that needed a leg up from Irvine.
What the Venue Will Provide
Freeman and OCMD are working with the Irvine-based design and build organization Canfield Partners. “They bring in architects, engineers, all the trades, then they construct the building,” Freeman said. “The value of that is mind-blowing.”
“Our hypothetical budget is $40 million. Canfield is designing the building from the inside out in a way that addresses OCMD’s special requirements – aspects such as the sound, lighting and the nature of the flooring needed for both the music and dance programs.”
Freeman notes that up until now, OC Music and Dance’s students have had anything but “the perfect environment” in terms of the facilities needed to learn, rehearse and perform music and dance.
So you can understand his tendency to burst with enthusiasm when describing what the new multimillion-dollar venue will have to offer current and future students.
Freeman said the new, specially designed 800-seat multi-purpose venue is “the jewel in our new campus” that offers flexible acoustics and seating.
“The seating is all retractable,” with 500 seats on the floor and “close to 300” on the mezzanine. OCMD’s site lists some of the new venue’s features, including 16 practice rooms, state-of-the-art dance studios, a “versatile” black box theater, an upstairs café and lounge seating, conference rooms, and a professional recording studio.
Hsieh states that the Asian Hall of Fame plans to bring a considerable level of “avant garde digital media tech angle” to Irvine, a city, she notes, which “already has a lot of wonderful arts and culture but, we believe, room for more art.”
The Asian Hall of Fame’s June 5 release states that “the world-class concert hall will be a permanent home for the Asian Hall of Fame and its cross-cultural content. It will host community and student performances in music, dance and theatre. Year-round shows also feature members of The Doors, Chicago, Earth Wind & Fire, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and other Asian Hall of Fame Goodwill Ambassadors.”
Knocking On the Door
The Hall of Fame release says the new venue “will cost approximately $15 million.” As the Asian Hall of Fame is providing $8 million, it has earned naming rights for what the release calls the Asian Hall of Fame Performing Arts Center.
With the benefit of three months having passed since Hall of Fame’s press release, Freeman relates projected costs exceeding three times that sum: “We need about $48 to $50 million.”
Freeman said amounts in hand total out to between $20 and $22 million, including Asian Hall of Fame’s $8 million, OCMD’s existing campus, and various amounts that have been pledged.
That leaves roughly $30 million. Freeman said “my only job these days” is to raise that sum.
As CEO of OCMD, he has “turned over running the school to others. My entire focus is the design and construction of the building and raising money to get there.”
He’s “looking at 18 months from now” to have the entire sum. “We’ll have bridge funding to cover us. We won’t take on long-term debt – unusual, I know. We’ll pay off our building costs within five years. Financial institutions are providing the draw-down: As we raise the funds, we pay down the debt.”
Freeman said Irvine “has committed to completing the preparation of the pad on which OCMD’s building will be built by the end of this year. We anticipate starting construction in January or February of 2025 and completing the venue by late 2027.”
Douglas Freeman, quoted in this story, is a member of the advisory board for Culture OC.
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