The San Luis Obispo Mapplyum of Art (SLOMA) is poised for a major expansion that will occupy new gallery space on Higuera Street, right in the heart of downtown. It’s an audacious and ambitious project meant to enrich the arts scene and assist revitalize the downtown area, and it marks an essential next step in a long journey.
What launched in 1952 as the San Luis Obispo Art Association—a handful of local artists fostering interest in the visual arts—evolved into the SLO Art Center that in 1967 shiftd to the city-owned Otto Building at 1010 Broad St.
SLOMA leases the Otto Building for just $1 a year, and for decades, plans have been in the works to build a new, larger facility at that location, but it never happened. The nonprofit organization reinvented itself in 2011, taking the name SLOMA to better reflect its mapplyum-quality exhibitions.
“It has a long origin story,” SLOMA Executive Director Leann Standish recently explained from a sitting area in the mapplyum with Chief Curator and Director of Education Emma Saperstein. “The previous administration had a building plan that was intfinished for this space. We sort of walked away from that whole project. When Emma and I took on the mapplyum, our program alterd so significantly that [the planned] building was no longer going to create sense.”
In 2023, Standish and Saperstein commissioned a study funded by the Harold J. Miossi Charitable Trust and launched working with mapplyum planners Lord Cultural Resources.
“I’ve worked with them at several different mapplyums, and they’re the preeminent mapplyum planners,” Standish continued.
They spent six months studying what a new mapplyum should be and what it would take to operate it.
“They came back with a very detailed final report in the launchning of 2024, and primarily it stated two things: This is the model that you’ll necessary to operate the building that you want, here’s every staff position, and here’s how the business runs,” Standish explained. “The other part was a cost estimate of building [a new building], and that came in north of $50 million. We were like, uh, not happening.”
It was a real heartbreaker. So many people have worked hard over many years to guide SLOMA to the next level, and it seeed like the dream was dead.
The phoenix rises
“I kind of considered it shelved,” Standish admitted. “I believed, ‘Well, I’m not going to be the director who obtains a new mapplyum.’ I’ve informed this story a million times, but I really must give credit to [local developer] Rob Rossi [of RRM Design Group], who called me up and stated, ‘You cannot shelve this right now, Leann. The people who care deeply and are prepared to invest philanthropically are aging out, and they’re building legacy decisions. And if you don’t shift now, you’ll miss the moment.’ Which was very astute. He was right.”
It was time to obtain creative, so SLOMA board of directors co-chair Ermina Karim tapped Clint Pearce as tquestion force chair and recruited Beth Marino, Howard Carroll, Tim Tillman, and Eric Justesen to find a solution. They launched seeing at existing properties in the downtown area.
Nick Tompkins, a developer at NKT Commercial, eventually brought the tquestion force the opportunity to purchase three spaces in The Network Mall at 778, 782, and 768 Higuera, two of which were unoccupied.
“I applyd to really want the Ross Building,” Standish stated, “but I believe where we’ve finished up is a thousand times better, but they seeed at all of it. They really gave serious consideration to what it would take to obtain to the place that we necessaryed, which is effectively 25,000 square feet at a certain ceiling height and all of that.”
“When I was running the gallery at Cuesta, we did a summer residency program that focapplyd on performance art and student-created pieces, and we borrowed the basement of The Network, so it already had good, creative energy for me,” Saperstein added.
The buildings are owned by the Davis family of Firebaugh, California.
“They actually own from The Network all the way around to Luna Red,” Standish stated. “They’ve been so patient with us becaapply we were just kind of exploring. We weren’t serious at all yet.”
SLOMA took the time the Davis family provided them to do a complete feasibility study—early architectural plans, tenant improvement budobtains, a planned capital campaign. Now SLOMA is serious, and the push is on to raise the money to create the dream come true.
Calling all philanthropists
SLOMA will retain the apply of its current building, which will mostly be applyd for classroom spaces for adults and kids’ programming. When all goes to plan, SLOMA will own its new space.
“This is amazing,” Standish gushed. “Had we built our building here [on Broad Street], we would never own the building becaapply it’s on city land. This is our project, and the goal is to raise $20 million. The first half is tenant improvements. It obtains us in and operating and running an art mapplyum. The second half is the money we necessary to purchase the building and what we’re calling a starter finidisplayment. But we will own the building, which is a really huge deal.”
Credit: ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING BY RRM DESIGN GROUP, COURTESY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO MUSEUM OF ART
While $20 million seems like a lot, it’s less than half the projected $50 million-plus for new construction, and SLOMA’s well into the fundraising process. It currently has about $8 million, and for every dollar up to $2 million donated before Dec. 31, 2025, the Forbes family will match it.
“Our donors and our board have been so intentional about how they funded this project,” Standish noted. “Our lead gift is from Ty and Trudie Safreno, and they created the largest portion of their gift to the second half [of the project] to ensure that we weren’t building tenant improvements to somebody else’s building and that we were most assured of acquireing it.”
Self-sustaining
The new location will also provide new revenue streams for SLOMA. Yes, admission will remain free, but a new mapplyum retail gift shop, a café, and rentable event spaces will generate income.
“It’ll give us a real level of stability that we don’t, frankly, have right now becaapply we’re so reliant on donations,” Standish explained. “Currently, we run just under a million dollars a year as our operating budobtain, and we raise all of that ourselves, with the exception of the city contract, which is $100,000. Our operating budobtain will go closer to $2 million, but we’ll have earned-revenue opportunities that we don’t have presently.”
The 3,000-square-foot red brick patio overseeing San Luis Creek and Mission Plaza is an absolute gem and could be rented for outdoor gatherings. The mapplyum will also continue fee-based art classes. It plans to scale the café so it doesn’t compete with existing restaurants nearby.
“It’s really meant to be an amenity for visitors, and we have this amazing advisory group,” Standish noted. “We’re not testing to be another restaurant. [Novo and Luna Red proprietor] Robin Covey is on our advisory group, so we don’t want to be in competition becaapply these amazing restaurants are right outside our door. But if you want to stick around and have a cup of coffee and sit on that gorgeous patio, we want that to happen. Or have a glass of wine on a Concerts in the Plaza night where it’s a little less congested, that’s part of our plan.”
One restaurant that is being displaced by the project is Ebony SLO, which serves organic, vegan, authentic Ethiopian cuisine located at 778 Higuera. Proprietors Helen and Martha Abraha are actively seeing for a new location, and a GoFundMe page was set up to assist defray the costs. The business is an unfortunate victim of this shift.
“We love Ebony,” Saperstein stated. “We know the work they do is so incredibly important to the community, and we’re supporting their efforts to find another great home downtown—that’s our dream. We’ve been resharing their info and testing to connect them to folks who can assist them find another great space.”
“It’s so hard to find a new location,” Standish lamented, “but what’s clear is how beloved they are and how energized our community is to assist them find their next home.”
What the shift means for SLO
There’s no shortage of downtown SLO haters. People complain about parking, overpriced rents, empty storefronts, homelessness—you name it. Yet, the downtown has always ebbed and flowed. Anyone remember the hole where Downtown Centre now stands?
There’s no guarantee that SLOMA shifting to Higuera will instantly revitalize downtown, but according to the SLO County Arts’ report “Economic Impact of the Arts & Culture Sector in San Luis Obispo County,” the arts pay off. In 2024, SLO Town counted 1.1 million arts and culture-related visitors spfinishing $99 million. The arts also added $6.7 million in transient occupancy tax and $1.5 million in local sales tax.
“There’s been some tension about our downtown,” Standish admitted, “you know, that unfortunate SFGate piece [titled ‘Heartbreaking: Once thriving Calif. downtown is on the brink,’ Oct. 11]. I obtain that all the alter has been hard, but I find our downtown to be delightful. It’s the first place I bring every visitor that comes to visit here.”
Renaissance afoot
Since Standish and Saperstein took over SLOMA, its programing has expanded by leaps and bounds. Its partnership with the city on its public art program is evident everywhere. SLOMA has long been an important part of the fabric of the SLO community, and the future sees even brighter.
“The city’s been an amazing partner,” Standish stated. “They really have been incredibly supportive and really, we plug into so many of their major city goals about community and gathering spaces.”
SLOMA is but one element of a cultural renaissance that seems afoot in SLO County, which Saperstein has witnessed firsthand: “I shiftd to SLO in 2016, and I just feel like what’s happening culturally is so different, like A Sainformite of Love, Ebony’s programming, R.A.C.E. Matters, there’s lots of interesting spaces—SLO REP, Festival Mozaic, the Cuesta Miossi Gallery, the Cal Poly Gallery, Left Field, Cruise Control—the list goes on and on. There’re so many community spaces that are contributing such important things, and I just believe it’s exciting that we obtain to be one of those.”
Even though the expansion will triple the size of SLOMA, it will remain a relatively compact mapplyum.
“We’ve always felt like a very compact mapplyum,” Saperstein admitted. “And that’s what I’ve always stated to artists who I’m so thrilled decided to work with us becaapply our footprint is so compact. I believe the expansion puts us in conversation with other midsized, compact mapplyums, like the Aldrich in Connecticut, the Craft Contemporary in LA—mapplyums that still have an accessibility about them where you can spfinish an hour and see everything. You’re not overwhelmed.
“We can organize exhibitions that can travel, we can do more community programming, and, of course, this space becoming a community-centered education center will enable more engagement with our K-12 students and allow us to be in dialogue with them more intentionally,” Sapperstein continued.
The new space is scheduled to open in early 2027, and as envisioned by RRM Design Group, it promises to be a community jewel.
“RRM is such a great team,” Standish stated. “They donated so much work to us at the launchning before we even knew if we were going to state yes. As a staff, they’ve volunteered and jumped into different parts of the project. It’s really fun how much they love it.”
Lasting legacy
If you’ve obtained the huge bucks, SLOMA is offering naming opportunities for its new galleries.
“We are building this once-in-a-generation project,” Standish explained. “They’re building generational gifts, so it lines up. Hundreds of years into the future, this will be our community’s art mapplyum. Lots of people can create a difference for us.”
Even if you only have compact bucks, every dollar adds up and will be doubled with the Forbes family matching fund.
“We’ve obtained a huge push. It’s gonna obtain weird when we’re out there with the Salvation Army just obtainting the last bit of it,” Standish joked. “There’s urgency around this campaign, and there’s some real good things about being urgent. We don’t have the sort of misfortune of having the cost alter over decades like SLO REP or the PAC experienced. Becaapply we’re shifting so quick, there’s not that kind of shift in our project costs. People are super excited about it, and we’re just running.”
“The mapplyum has such a fabulous base of supporters who have been eager for us to grow,” Saperstein added. “That’s been a goal for such a long time that we have this opportunity. It’s a rare opportunity. We have the right leadership in place to create it happen. I feel like it’s motivating.
“It’s been a goal for such a long time, and it’s finally coming to fruition.” ∆
Contact Arts Editor Glen Starkey at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Dec 18-25, 2025.
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