> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # It’s all in a name - URL: https://www.smdp.com/its-all-in-a-name/ - Published: 2008-03-07T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-24T18:47:37.000Z - Author: Kevin Herrera - Tags: Education, Downtown, #archive-import *Known for generosity, Broads make a $10M gift to new arts center* MADISON CAMPUS Philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad on Thursday announced a $10 million donation to create an endowment for programming and arts education at the new performing arts center at Santa Monica College’s Madison Campus. In honor of the endowment, the theater will be named The Broad Stage and its 99-seat theater, which opened in August, will be dubbed The Edye Second Space. “Los Angeles is one of the world’s cultural and artistic centers, with world-class museums, theater, opera and symphony,” Eli Broad said at a press conference outside the new Broad Stage as public officials and celebrities, including Dustin Hoffman, looked on. “We have the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Downtown Los Angeles, and now the Westside will have its own premiere performing arts venue. We need to ensure the sustainability of our city’s cultural offerings, and this endowment will enable The Broad Stage to have the necessary resources to maintain first-rate performances for the public.” The gift, made from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, will benefit a new modernist steel, stone, glass and wood performing arts center that is currently under construction. The complex, designed by Santa Monica-based architect Renzo Zecchetto, is scheduled to open Sept. 20. The stages cost $45 million to construct, and were financed with money from two bond measures passed by residents of Santa Monica and Malibu, and $5 million from private donors. “Without people like the Broads, we wouldn’t have the commissioned work of Mozart and Bach and Beethoven and so many of the great painters. How they use their capital is commendable,” Hoffman said. Artistic director Dale Franzen said the new theater is “unparalleled in its acoustics and its design,” allowing patrons of the arts to have eye contact with the actors, musicians and dancers from any seat in the house. “The endowment created by the Boards has given our artistic vision a solid future, and it allows us to bring the very best artists and performances to the Westside,” Franzen said. “We expect, however, that our audiences will come from across Southern California to participate in a truly unique performing arts experience.” The idea for the performing arts center was first raised nearly a decade ago at a dinner party at the home of Piedad Robertson — then president of SMC — attended by the Broads, two-time Oscar winner Hoffman and Franzen, a former opera singer. The Broads became involved in the project last year after seeing the complex was under construction. Initially, Broad insisted that one of the new theater spaces be named after Hoffman, who took his first drama class at SMC. The Broads were ultimately persuaded to have the venues named after them. Despite a lifetime of cultural philanthropy, this is the first performing arts center they have allowed to be named after them. “Edye loves the theater,” Eli Broad said of his wife, who attends performances at least two to three times a week. “And after 53 years of marriage, I wanted to honor her by naming the second space The Edye.” Rob Rader, chair of the SMC Board of Trustees, said the Broad Stage and Edye Second Space “are the latest and greatest in Santa Monica College’s tradition of giving back to the community. “Once again, we’ve pushed the boundaries of the possible,” Rader said. “This isn’t our parents’ performing arts center, but rather a hotbed of ideas, creativity, learning, spontaneity and virtuosity, like Santa Monica College itself.” The Broad Stage will debut with an inaugural season entitled, “The World Up the Street,” featuring legendary singers, celebrated dance troupes, international actors, musical pioneers and acclaimed young talent of international scope and reputation. Opening night will feature chanteuse Barbara Cook. “Our purpose is to grow into a global theater and serve as a playground for the best performing artists working today, whether they are world famous or new on the scene,” Franzen said. Hoffman, who calls the new performing arts complex a “mini Lincoln Center,” believes The Broad Stage program-ming will only grow stronger, attracting more major artists as word spreads about the intimacy and versatility of the theater and the open, playful spirit driving its creative vision. ‘My early friends in New York like Bob Duval and Gene Hackman and other great actors who live here like Tony Hopkins and Annette Benning were trained for the stage, so it remains a vital part of who were are. They want a first-class theater. This is who you are going to get — all the great artists.” *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 7, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/030708.pdf?ref=smdp.com)