Times of San Diego<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/dave-schwab.jpg\")
Dave Schwab<\/p>\n
SAN DIEGO \u2014 The Joan and Irwin Jacobs Performing Arts Center at Liberty Station was formally dedicated Friday with a ribbon-cutting full of celebratory spirit.<\/p>\n
Lisa Johnson, president and CEO of the NTC Foundation, summed it up in one word.<\/p>\n
\u201cWow is going to be our word of the day,\u201d she said during her opening remarks. \u201cI hope you say wow when you step inside this amazing facility.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arts District Liberty Station has 26 historic buildings that were once part of the Naval Training Center and continue to be re-purposed and dedicated to arts and culture. That\u2019s the case with historic Naval Building 178, now home to the new theater.<\/p>\n
Added Johnson, \u201cYou don\u2019t get wow without a vision \u2014 and a lot of support, and we\u2019ve had all of that in this seven-year journey. We could never have accomplished this without the support of our amazing and supportive team of philanthropists who believed in our vision.\u201d<\/p>\n
She credited Joan and Irwin Jacobs, \u201cDottie\u201d (Dorothea) Laub and The Conrad Prebys Foundation, saying \u201cYou made this happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria also paid homage to the late Joan Jacobs, saying he \u201cadmired her greatly.\u201d The Cygnet Theatre\u2018s new home will go by the nickname \u201cThe Joan\u201d in her honor.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer name on this building will forever be a reminder that a person\u2019s vision and determination can in fact shape the future of an entire city,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is also a testament to the immense power, and the impact, of public investment and philanthropy working together to get something done. It was Joan and Irwin Jacobs who stepped forward. Their leadership, and their passion, for the arts in this community turned possibility into reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mayor presented her husband, Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs, with a city proclamation declaring Sept. 5 as \u201cThe Joan\u201d Day in San Diego.<\/p>\n
The center, at 2880 Roosevelt Road, includes a 289-seat proscenium theatre and a 150-seat flexible studio space, as well as support spaces such as dressing rooms, two green rooms, a costume shop and dedicated rehearsal and orchestra spaces.<\/p>\n
Irwin Jacobs, who lost his wife in 2024, called it \u201ca very special day to be here, cut the ribbon, and look forward to the first performance next Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy only regret is that Joan could not be with us at this event. She was here, however, for the groundbreaking. So she did get an idea for how the building was progressing at that point, and what it was going to look like. And it gave her great pleasure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joan Jacobs\u2019 support for theater grew out of her youth in New York City, her husband said. She knew that Naval Building 178 would need a lot of work to achieve the \u201cwow\u201d factor seen at Friday\u2019s ceremony.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a thrill to see the building, and we did come and visit it in its original shape, after a lot of years of decay. We wondered how it might be able to be transformed,\u201d Irwin Jacobs said. \u201cThe results are spectacular. So we\u2019re very pleased and look forward to attending many performances here, and, hopefully, seeing many of you (in audience) here as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sean Murray, Cygnet\u2019s co-founder and artistic director, noted this is the third theater site he and his colleagues have been a part of creating in San Diego.<\/p>\n
\u201cI watched the artists, technicians and designers who worked hard to make this happen and occasionally I\u2019ll turn around and ask, \u2018Where are we?\u2019\u201d said Murray. \u201cThis is such a stunning facility, and I think back on 23 years ago when I started this company with a few close friends. We had no idea that it would grow like this.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis building will enable us to open up our hearts to the community,\u201d he concluded. \u201cWe\u2019re so proud to touch thousands and thousands of people.\u201d<\/p>\n
*
This article was republished from Times of San Diego\u00a0with which\u00a0San Diego Jewish World\u00a0shares articles under auspices of the San Diego Online News Association.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria presents a proclamation to Irwin Jacobs at the opening of \u2018The Joan,\u2019 named…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":207186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-207185","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-san-diego","12":"tag-sandiego","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115162117866503769","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Joan-Proclamation.webp.webp\")
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria presents a proclamation to Irwin Jacobs at the opening of \u2018The Joan,\u2019 named for Jacobs\u2019 late wife. (Photo: Dave Schwab)<\/p>\n