Arts plaza to get new sponsor sign

By Nancy Needham  nancy@theacorn.com

Countrywide Performing Arts Center at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza is getting a new name.

And that new name—Bank of America Performing Arts Center—will be visible from the 101 Freeway on a sign scheduled to go up by the end of April.

In 2003, then-financially strong Countrywide paid $4.25 million to the Alliance for the Arts for naming rights. But last July Countrywide was purchased by Bank of America for $4 billion.

Since then, the Countrywide signs hanging on the outside of buildings throughout the area have been replaced by Bank of America signage.

Bank of America announced in January 2008 it would acquire Calabasas-based Countrywide, which operated more than 1,000 field offices nationwide, with a work force of more than 50,000. Countrywide buildings dotted the local landscape with offices in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Westlake Village, Oak Park, Calabasas, Moorpark, Agoura Hills and Camarillo that housed about 7,800 employees.

A massive Countrywide sign placed on the side of the Civic Arts Plaza in September 2003 became obsolete when the troubled mortgage company was gobbled up by Bank of America. Although Countrywide's right to have its name on the building continues as long as the building is standing, the bank took over the naming rights for the cost of the sign.

"Bank of America is paying to have the sign changed," 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.