Kingman Amphitheater Fundraiser
By Jennifer Heller, Communications Coordinator
Please join us on April 26th for a Kingman Amphitheater Celebration to commemorate the completion of the first stage of the amphitheater restoration project. The event, held from 1pm to 5pm, will include a smorgasbord of gourmet eats provided by the Kingman residents and live music. Following a discussion of how the amphitheater will be transformed into a community space, the students welcome all in attendance for an open microphone music and story afternoon. Proceeds from the event will fund the next stages of the project.
This project first took root two years ago, when residents of Kingman worked alongside their longtime neighbors, Jim Sharp and Daniela Thompson, to obtain $15,000 from the newly created Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund. Their vision was to use those funds to transform Kingman’s amphitheater into a c
ommunity gathering space filled with natural light and native plants, improving the quality of life for everyone in the neighborhood. Kingman residents had the best turnout yet at their bi-annual Neighbor Brunch in March 2007, where students and neighbors discussed how the new amphitheater would serve as a venue for Northside Neighborhood Association meetings, performances by student groups, do-it-yourself workshops, and community yoga classes.
The amphitheater, though quaint, was badly in need of a makeover. Using the grant, the co-op hired a landscape architect to replace the decaying wood tiered seating with attractive stone wall tiers. The architect also trimmed substantial amounts of overgrown branches to open the space to natural light. Students have hosted monthly cleanup/vegetation management parties for the past year to remove the invasive ivy and blackberry bushes surrounding the amphitheater and, using the remaining grant funds, replanted the hillside with native ferns and redwood sorrel.
Though the amphitheater has been significantly transformed since the project began, there is still much to accomplish. The second phase of the project includes installing a safety fence to border the active amphitheater space and the drop off to the creek below, reconstructing the retaining wall to the culvert that is currently falling into the creek, and building steps for the north entrance (which have long ago fallen away, leaving the entrance unusable).
This project has been phenomenal in building collaborative relationships between students and their neighbors. The restored amphitheater will sustain community within the Northside neighborhood with regular events, such as the upcoming Kingman Amphitheater Celebration on April 26, 2008, which promises to be a spectacular afternoon.
For more information and to reserve your tickets,