High Desert Center For The Arts

About Us:

The concept of an arts center in the High Desert began at the organizational meeting of the High Desert Cultural Arts Foundation in 1987.  Mostly visual artists and a few performing arts people met in the back room of a gallery owned at that time by Jocelyn Hunt.  The meeting was called by High Desert sculptor Joe Corda, who conceived the idea of the Foundation and served as its first President.  At that gathering, the framework of the organization was agreed upon, and some goals were set.  Dates for an art show were selected immediately, a multi-venue event embracing all the arts was discussed for the future, and the long range goal was a facility, in which the group could host visual and performing arts events while fostering support for the arts and artists of our community.

Several members kept the dream of an arts center alive in the early years of the HDCAF.  Principal among those were Gudelia McMurray and Ruth Theodos, who were very active in fund-raising projects.  Were it not for the dedication of these two individuals and some others, there may never in our lifetimes have been a High Desert Center for the Arts.

This document has been drafted so that HDCAF leaders of the future will know that the Center for the Arts, which they will have inherited, is not an accomplishment of merely those who were on the scene at the time.  Generous accolades must go to those who labored long and hard before the fact.