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View video of MOAH’s grand opening

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LANCASTER – Hundreds of residents came out this past weekend for the grand opening of Lancaster’s new Museum of Art and History (MOAH).

The nearly 20,000 square foot museum features five galleries, a store, and a unique rooftop patio offering a view of The BLVD.

MOAH’s grand opening was free and open to public. The event kicked off with an official ribbon cutting ceremony at 11 a.m., Saturday followed by tours of the museum, musical performances, and hands-on art activities for attendees of all ages.

The City of Lancaster produced a two-minute video, featuring highlights from MOAH’s opening weekend, and brief interviews with Ralph Bozigian, Curator Andi  Campognone, Lancaster Museum Public Art Foundation President Dan Venturoli, and Mayor R. Rex Parris. View the video above.

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Filed Under: Lancaster

24 comments for "View video of MOAH’s grand opening"

  1. You know what? Bakersfield has a “real” downtown, not just a single strip of street, and it’s completely dead at night. I stayed there a couple months ago, and it was literally DEAD at 8:15 p.m. on a Friday night. Not even the seedy liquor store was open at that time. But then, nobody’s calling it a cultural mecca.

  2. As a senior I found that on Wednesday’s Laemmle’s, which normaly charges very high prices, cuts it’s fees to five bucks. So my wife and I have seen some very good movies and some very bad movies. Every Wednesday we have so far found parking right in front of the theater. We have been the only customers at the Brooklyn Sandwich Shop across the street and we have never seen more than 3 couples in the theater. We are usually on the BLVD between 1 pm and 4 pm If they go ahead with the parking meters they will lose what little we now contribute.

    • Apparently, the parking situation has been an afterthought. If the whole BLVD thing was really as great as Parris and others say, people from Lancaster wouldn’t be complaining about it.

    • There is misunderstanding and lack of information about what is being proposed and everyone including council members are making statements that are based on limited to no knowledge of what is actually in the Parking Management Study.
      Google “parking management system” and see what is out there for managing parking in an urban area. There are dozens of wireless systems that are used to relay information back to a main computer so the public can use it to find available spots. They can all implement a toll based system, but that is not required and not necessarily the plan any time near with the BLVD.

      The goal of the BLVD businesses is to provide the public with a clear view of available parking so they can better take advantage of the BLVD. That can be accomplished without subjecting the public to toll based parking and as far as I’m concerned will be the direction we continue to take.

  3. One gets the feeling that Nicole works for the city. It is clear her talking points come directly from the mayor.
    BTW, I am downtown all the time for work, and The BLVD is always dead, except for when there is a city event, or at 2 am when the Bex Bar closes and all the drunks stumble onto the street.
    Ever wonder why Lancaster has so many DUI’s and drunk driving accidents? Because there are bars everywhere. Does Palmdale have bars? I can’t think of any off the top of my head unless you count the Moose lodge.

    • A few bars do not make a city bad or necessarily create a source of DUIs. That said, Palmdale ran out 10 West Bar & Grill and the Mexican place next to Steer ‘n Stein for criminal activity and alcohol violations. Is the sometime Schooners / Scooters / Duck & Dawg still going near 20 East & Palmdale Blvd? If so, there’s one. ONE bar.

      • Crave, Any/all of the restaurants surrounding the mall, the hotel bars, and a few dive bars peppered in…. ring any bells?

        Palmdale has bars. Are you sure there are more or less DUIs/accidents on one side or the other?

        • Restaurant bars, especially those at chain restaurants (with the exception of maybe BJ’s on a Friday night or Yardhouse), aren’t really “bars” in the same sense as sports bars like Coach’s or Schooners, which in turn are still not the same thing as dives like The Britisher. One thing that Palmdale doesn’t have is a real nightclub. Lancaster doesn’t either, except sort of now with Bex.

          • But Lancaster is much more progressive than Palmdale because they have The Back Door.

    • Why does my employment matter? My opinion is my own and is not influenced by the mayor and any city leaders. Why is it that when someone agrees with and endorses the direction that Lancaster is moving in, that person is accused of being paid off? Do you think Mr. Parris PAID for 76% of the votes in the last election? No he did not!
      76.5% of the voters appreciate what Mr. Parris is doing to make this a great city. I happen to be one of that 76.5%, that why I voted for him. Appreciating how hard the city staff works to advance this city while faced with constant criticism from thankless naysayers does not make me a city employee. It makes me a grateful Lancaster resident!!

        • That’s right 43,000 registered voters don’t know rex’s name. Except as an ambulance chaser.

          • So which is it Nicole, do you work directly for the mayor, or for the city?
            Employment matters when you’re being an apologist. You’re either genuinely an apologist, or you’re getting paid to be one.. it matters.
            Wasn’t hard for Rex to get 76% of the vote this time around, he only had buffoons running against him. I’m sure he loves the fact that he was the least objectionable buffoon.

  4. The MOAH is not the only thing that makes Lancaster a cultural mecca. We have MOAH, we have The BLVD transformation and we have a melting pot of races that now reside in our great city. We are also on track to becoming the solar energy capital of the world! Regardless of the naysayers, Lancaster’s leadership is forging ahead and creating a great city that I am very proud to be a part of!

    • Oh,Nicole. I had lunch at Katz n Jammer’s today, Thursday. I have a friend who works off the BLVD. So, I walked down the BLVD from Beech to the Brooklyn Deli which was only half full at noon. The wine place was completely empty as was the coffee place in front of Bex which was less than half full as were other eating places.

      It was warm but there was a nice breeze and there was only 1 outdoor table in the whole walk that had people at LUNCHTIME. Did I say lunchtime?

      Even Katz n Jammers wasn’t full at lunchtime like it used to be before the BlVD remodel.

      The MOAH wasn’t busy and I didn’t pay $5 to get in and I suppose that once people have seen it, there’s no need to go back.

      I went to the BLVD a couple of Saturday’s ago in the afternoon and it was just as deserted. And, people made all kinds of excuses for that saying that it’s busy during ‘happy hour’ or whatever.

      You shoulda read the ‘Have Your Say’ comments in the AV Press re: parking meters on the BLVD. Many people from all over the AV gave Parris and his bunch an earful and not only about parking meters, just the whole BLVD fiasco as they were implying.

      If it wasn’t for the music coming out of the loudspeakers, the BLVD was lifeless except for a few pedestrians.

      So, the naysayers are naysaying the pretentious over-hyping of the BLVD like you, Parris and others have been doing. It is what it is and it ain’t a cultural mecca. Like people are going to come from all over the planet to look at solar panels in the middle of nowhere. Maybe Parris should work on getting a McDonald’s and a Burger King on the BLVD as they are generally busy. Or a Walmart.

      • Don’t put much weight in the comments in the AV Press Have your Say. Check the names of the people, they are all the same individuals who couldn’t say anything positive about any aspect of Lancaster let alone the BLVD even if they were paid to. The same individuals who also visit every online media source (and council meetings) to share their uninformed opinions, but just fail to see the whole picture.

        Short of posting my sales numbers I can assure you that you are just not on or around the BLVD when it is in fact busy. By no means are we talking Mall busy, but there is enough traffic to keep the businesses profitable. We’ll be expanding to over 4 times our current space in the near future and it wouldn’t be possible if we didn’t have the customer traffic to support it. I speak to a lot of the businesses and for the most part they are all seeing higher traffic and the resulting increased business.

        Making blanket statements about this kind of stuff with discrete information is baseless. When you are around the BLVD for 12-16 hours a day you quickly see that it is in fact busy in waves. Like you mentioned, I pointed out that had you been on the BLVD 1 hour later you would have see it to be very busy. Suggesting it is dead because you didn’t see anyone for the times you are on the BLVD is valid, but suggesting you can extrapolate that to any time you are not there is incorrect.
        There are currently 2 waves of distinct traffic (reflected in sales numbers) on the BLVD and they are after lunch when school lets out and again after 6 PM. Over the last few weeks there has even been a steady stream of traffic up to 8 PM.

        Ironically I did lunch at Texas Cattle Co and it was dead at 1:30 today too.. does that mean they are going out of business? No I just missed the lunch rush.

        Come back to the BLVD tonight (right now 4:30 PM) you’ll see how busy it can be even for our down time, but understand that Thursday is different as the farmers market brings more people to the BLVD. The point is it’s not the mall, but it is busheling with people who do enjoy the atmosphere and unique offerings that can only be found on the BLVD.

        For the record: People do come from all over the world to the valley for the aviation industry and I interact with these people day in and day out. (my 9-5 is in flight test support) I have yet to hear any major complaints about the BLVD and in fact it’s almost always overwhelming amazement that we even has such a great place to be a community.

        I guess the way you see it, if you continue to knock it and not patronize what has been offered your Self-fulfilling prophecy will be complete. Not that is really true though as you did go to Katz n Jammer’s which is in fact a BLVD business.

        • My points about the BLVD have generally been directed at the hype. The ‘heart of the Valley’ is only busy a few hours a day and not at noon, lunchtime, almuerzo, dejeuner, etc., on the many occasions I’ve been there at noontime. Please.

          You mean people come from all over the world SINCE the BLVD was redone? I love how you spin everything to make it sound much better than it really is.

          As for the Mall, I ate there Tuesday in the afternoon and each restaurant was busier than all of the restaurants on the BLVD put together. The wine place is really nice but to be completely empty at noon is weird. I even went up to the upstairs patio and nobody was there either and it too was nice. There is something odd about the BLVD. It has taken on the personality of the mayor, it seems. All flash and little else.

        • You wrote>

          “Ironically I did lunch at Texas Cattle Co and it was dead at 1:30 today too.. does that mean they are going out of business? No I just missed the lunch rush.”

          So, while I’m actually on the BLVD between 12 and 12:30 PM and it’s dead, you missed the ‘lunch rush’ at Texas Cattle Co. at 1:30PM. Why wasn’t there a ‘lunch rush’ on the BLVD or even Katz n Jammer’s at LUNCHTIME like there was at the TCC?

          When I read you comments, you draw conclusions that are inconsistent with your own premises and fault me for ‘extrapolating’ from my own visits. I’ve been to the BLVD many times since its inception, at lunch, dinner, mid-afternoon and rarely saw a busy, vibrant ‘ramblas’. I don’t go in the later evening cause I don’t do the bars or the events just dining. But, other similar places have a lot more going on throughout the day without counting on events or ‘happy hour’ attractions.

          I wandered through the theater’s overpriced gift store and it was deserted and seemed out of place in Lancaster. Teens hanging out and mothers pushing strollers aren’t the demographic for shopping at the gift store. It tries to be an upscale urban spot but the people going there seem to be Walmart transplants. It’s a mis-match.

          For serving a valley of 500,000, the BLVD isn’t that that busy. It has the feel of of town of 30,000 without any surrounding population. Which would be fine, in that case. But, it’s not the ‘world class city’ that Parris pretends.

          I’ve given it many chances and have been underwhelmed most times. I thought BeX had great food at first, despite the awkward ordering process, but then it had a ‘B’ grad from the health department after only being open a short time. What’s that all about? I went to the wine place a couple of months ago on a Tuesday and found out it was only open Wednesday thru Sunday. What the heck? Lemon Leaf was closed on a Sunday at dinner time as was the Broolyn Deli.

          Somethings not right and why do you keep pretending it’s fine?

          • William, what you say is soooo true. I wish it wasn’t, but it is. I too, have gone to several places on the Blvd only to find them either closed or totally empty. Seems like the only time anything is going on is when there is some type of city function.

          • I know. Either it’s been exteme coincidences that we missed the ‘vibrant heart of the Valley’ activity or Parris is full of it.

            It’s like saying the fairgrounds are the ‘heart of the Valley’ because 1 week out of the whole year, they’re really crowded.

  5. Looks like a good time was had by all. What a magnificent structure we have right here in Lancaster. Times are changing and Lancaster is poised to become a cultural mecca!! It is a really exciting time for our city right now, and I am happy to be a part of it!!!