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New Film, Media Center Given Its Marquee
By EILEEN CONRAD
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Joseph and Helene Pollock and their family have donated $2 million for a campus cinema.
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Joseph and Helene Pollock and their family have contributed $2 million for the construction of a public film theater in the new Center for Film, Television and New Media at UC Santa Barbara.
The gift brings to $5.75 million the total raised so far toward the privately funded, $10-million center. Other leadership gifts for the center include $2.5 million from television executive Marcy Carsey and $1 million from Academy Award-winning actor/producer Michael Douglas, both of whom are members of the center's advisory board.
In celebration of the Pollocks' gift, the center's public theater will be named in their honor.
The recent gift is the culmination of more than a decade of support for the arts at UCSB by the Pollock family of Santa Barbara. Helene Pollock is an artist and owner of the H. Pollock Fine Art Gallery in Montecito. Joseph Pollock, a retired physician and former president of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, is a trustee of the UCSB Foundation and also a member of the center's advisory board. Their son, Tom Pollock, a UCSB adjunct professor of film studies, is on the center's advisory board, and is a partner in the Montecito Picture Company.
"We are proud to have the Pollock family associated with UCSB in this meaningful way," said Chancellor Henry T. Yang. "The Pollock Theater will enhance undergraduate and graduate education and provide year-round cultural programming for the community. Joe Pollock has been the inspiration behind building a film theater at UCSB. Joe and Helene's visionary commitment to the campus is simply extraordinary."
The privately financed Center for Film, Television, and New Media will be part of a new state-funded academic building complex. The Pollock Theater will be the heart of the center, serving as a classroom by day and a public theater at night.
"Our family's interest in film education at UCSB has been ongoing," said Joseph Pollock, who has championed the creation of a public film theater at UCSB for more than 10 years. "My goal of having a public film theater on campus that would enhance teaching and public viewing of new and archival films will finally be realized. I am excited to see it reach fruition."
Constance Penley, director of the new center, said she "looks forward to the new opportunities afforded by the Pollock Theater to collaborate with both the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and UCSB Arts and Lectures to provide the kind of world class film programming that the campus and community need and deserve. It is a great gift to us all."
In addition to the theater, the center will contain a state-of-the-art production suite, instructional and research laboratories, and climate-controlled film and television archival space.
The new UCSB center will bring together students and scholars from the campus's departments of film studies and communication, as well as 15 other departments that study film, video, television, and emerging media.