The artistic future of East Palo Alto is bright.
The Youth Arts and Music Center, scheduled to be up and running by 2019, is expected to provide a music production and artistic space for the community.
The current open field on the corner of Bay Road and Pulgas Avenue will be home to a 20,000-square-foot building. The center is slated to include an art gallery and a café staffed by city youth.
"We hope for the center to be a community living room for East Palo Alto," said Isaiah Phillips, a community arts liaison and city resident.
Interest from the John and Marcia Goldman Foundation helped the project start taking shape in 2010. The donation amount from the foundation, which now owns the land, has not yet been disclosed.
Project leaders say local youth, will be asked to contribute to building design, event planning, and fundraising, lie at the crux of the center.
Phillips, who has been interested in developing art programs since age 10, says East Palo Alto has gathering places for young academics and athletes, but not artists. He believes the Youth Arts and Music Center, where community artists will eventually work, will inspire creativity in local youth.
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"I really believe [art] saved my life and gave me something to look forward to," Philliips said.
