Workshop to Share Ideas for Bergamot Art Center

By Lookout Staff

July 13, 2011 – In four years, Expo Line trains will pull into Bergamot Station. The name now refers to a popular art gallery center, which in turn was named for its former incarnation as a stop for the Southern Pacific rail line.

As City planners decide how to integrate the arts center into a larger transformation of the district which will accommodate the Expo transit hub, they want residents to share their visions for the area.

Wednesday night, the second community workshop, “Bergamot and the Creative Economy,” will be held at Studio 59 at the Bergamot Station art center, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Representatives of the City Planning Department will present examples of arts-based developments around the world that they feel are “engaging, vibrant and economically successful.”

They'll ask participants to help them figure out how to imbue the proposed Bergamot Transit Village and nearby mixed-use creative district with the same kind of creative energy the arts center embodies.

And planners and residents will look at ways to expand the creative economy in the district.

“Your input is needed to develop principles for retaining the character of Bergamot Station and expanding the presence of art and the creative industries in this area,” say City planners.

At the first workshop in February, which focused on Bergamot Transit Village, over 150 residents turned out to discuss plans that development.

The Bergamot Area Plan encompasses 140 acres of land around the future Expo Light Rail stop, and will include the Bergamot Transit Village, the Bergamot Art Center and a mixed-use creative development.

Studio 59 is located in the Bergamot Station Art Center at 2415 Michigan Avenue.