Content area
Full text
Two new projects--a digital arts training center and a 70-unit mixed residential-retail complex--are on he drawing boards to expand the Artists Village in downtown Santa Ana.
The digital arts training center is being proposed by a consortium of local schools and colleges led by the University of California, Irvine in partnership with Venice, Cal.-based multimedia company Digital Domain and the city of Santa Ana. The project, which city officials estimate would cost between $5 million and $10 million, calls for the conversion of the 40,000-square-foot YMCA building at Civic Center Drive and Sycamore Street into a multimedia center offering training programs and internships for computer graphics and animation students.
Backers of the center, dubbed the Idea Institute for Digital Experimentation in the Arts, say it would draw students from and provide talent o the nearby Artists Village, and help prepare local students to enter he booming multimedia and entertainment industries.
"The best way to make the Artists Village part of the community is to link it with educational opportunities," said Susan Helper, Santa Ana's downtown project manager.
Already, the city is leasing out a gallery in the historic Santora...