Performing Arts
Center
Our magnificent performing arts
center is the result of a partnership and a true spirit
of cooperation between California Polytechnic State University,
the City of San Luis Obispo and the Foundation for the
Performing Arts Center. The vision came into focus in
November, 1986 when these three partners entered into
a unique agreement to do what no single entity could do
alone - build a state-of-the-art performing arts center
to serve the greater San Luis Obispo community.
From the beginning it was recognized
that through partnership it was possible to accomplish
what none could do alone. It was believed that the people
of our area and visitors to our community deserved a special
facility devoted to the enrichment of lives through the
quality presentation of arts and cultural activities.
During the course of the center's planning,
it was decided to incorporate the existing 497-seat Cal
Poly Theatre and to call the entire complex the Performing
Arts Center San Luis Obispo. The new facility, featuring
a concert hall with 1,282 seats, the pavilion - a multi-purpose
venue, and a 170-seat recital hall, was named the Christopher
Cohan Center. Cohan's family ties to San Luis Obispo date
back to the early days of television. His father, the
late John Cohan, was president and part owner of television
station KSBY and radio station KVEC from 1955 until his
death in 1974. Christopher Cohan resided in San Luis Obispo
from the 1970s until 1982 and was the president of Sonic
Communications. In 1990, Cohan made a gift of $2.1 million
on the eve of the inauguration of the capital campaign
for the center's construction. It was the largest single
gift to any individual California State University campus.
Cohan was recognized in the naming of the new center in
1996.
Construction on the Cohan Center
began in the spring of 1994 and a weeklong festival opening
was celebrated in September 1996. The facility is dedicated
to many people who, through their vision and effort, brought
this Center into existence, and to those who will use
and enjoy the facility long into the future.
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