Hoffman Center Blog

A week or so after my friend Myrtle Hoffman died in 2004, I got a call from Walt Pendergrass. Walt, an attorney, told me that he was Myrtle and Lloyd’s trustee and they had left their home and assets to the community for “a center to support the arts, education and the library.”

He asked if I would like to get involved in making that happen.

It instantly occurred to me that this was a great idea. Manzanita could really use something like this. We were a community filled with artists and people who appreciate all kinds of arts, yet we had no central location to gather and show this support.

Not realizing the amount of work that would be involved, or anticipating the amount of passion it would engender in me, I told Walt to count me in. It’s been a labor, but a labor toward a vision.

With the Hoffmans’ gift to the community they loved, we can have an appropriate facility to nurture all kinds of artistic endeavors – creating, performing and appreciating.

The future is going to be rosy for the Hoffman Center, but we will all need to work toward that end. It’s not just the members of our board, or our already involved corps of volunteers, who are going to build the Hoffman Center. The community is going to build the Hoffman Center.

Cast members from “Cassie the Crab and Rosita the Island Girl” pose for a photo on stage at the Hoffman Center in Manzanita.

Students from the Hoffman Center Summer Drama and Performing Arts Camp topped off their three-week experience by putting on three performances of “Cassie the Crab and Rosita the Island Girl” to appreciative audiences. Center board member Annie Narañjo-Rivera led the camp and directed the play.

Throughout the camp, the kids, ages 4 to 26, learned acting techniques, auditioned for roles and rehearsed their parts.

“Cassie” tells the story of the birth of the Caribbean Islands, with mystical sea creatures, fantastic adventures, and Caribbean and Latin music.

It might have been cloudy outside, but things were very bright in the Hoffman Center during the week of August 3rd.

Local artist Nicole Poole teamed with Skye Archer, home on vacation from art school in Chicago, to teach a combined Painting Exploration and Art of the Book camp. At the same time, Lynn Thomas, local music teacher, led an Art and Music Exploration class.

The week ended with a Saturday evening show and concert by the combined students. Art works were displayed all over the walls, and the music student played three works they had rehearsed.

Their parents and friends showed a lot of pride in the kids’ accomplishments.