Performing arts center may get a new name

Countrywide Performing Arts Center at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza may soon get a new name.

Countrywide paid $4.25 million for naming rights in 2003, but Bank of America purchased the lender for $4 billion in July and changed the Countrywide name to Bank of America.

When Bank of America announced in January it would acquire Countrywide, the Calabasasbased company operated more than 1,000 field offices nationwide, with a work force of more than 50,000. Countrywide buildings dotted the local landscape with sites in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Westlake Village, Oak Park, Calabasas, Moorpark, Agoura Hills and Camarillo that housed about 7,800 employees.

Drivers on the 101 Freeway were the first to notice the performing arts center's new name when a massive Countrywide sign was stuck on the side of the Civic Arts Plaza in September 2003.

Now that the troubled mortgage company has been gobbled up by the bank, that sign seems obsolete.

"We've had no official discussions yet regarding this matter but plan to in the next 30 days," said Patricia Jones, president and executive director of Alliance for the Arts.

Alliance for the Arts is the official nonprofit fundraising arm of the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. Each year, the alliance supports the Fred Kavli and Scherr Forum theater operations, including the arts center's marketing and programming efforts. Money raised by the group helps keep ticket prices down and provides funds for 40 local nonprofit performing arts groups to appear at the Civic Arts Plaza.

The alliance also helps bring in big-name entertainers, Jones said, and provides free bus transportation and tickets to the theater for children and families who otherwise couldn't afford to attend.

This is not the first time the group has had to face the problem of a name change, she noted.

Another bank that paid $50,000 to name one of the dressing rooms later changed names three times, Jones said.

Of course, the idea is for groups or individuals to purchase the rights for a name that will remain the same in perpetuity. Apparently, forever doesn't last as long as it used to.