Lompoc Theatre Project Receives $6 Million Gift From Cheryl Goldberg

For 14 years, the Lompoc Theatre Project has measured progress in increments: back taxes paid, asbestos cleared, a marquee relit, and a roof replaced. Last week, the math changed all at once when Santa Barbara philanthropist and arts champion Cheryl Goldberg gave the theater a historic $6 million gift — the largest private contribution in the organization’s history and her first major commitment to a North County arts institution. 

The gift brings the $18.9 million Centennial Renovation to the threshold of full funding, a defining milestone in the effort to restore the treasured historic cultural landmark in Old Town Lompoc. Five million dollars goes directly into the restoration and the remaining $1 million establishes the Cheryl Goldberg Santa Barbara Performing Arts Fund, a multi-year resource to bring South County performing arts organizations to Lompoc for annual performances and educational programming. 

Goldberg credits a walkthrough of the building with Executive Director Mark Herrier and TheatreDNA’s Benton Delinger for sealing her decision. “I was amazed by all the uses and configurations they had planned for it,” she said. “Their plan for incorporating other Santa Barbara County arts organizations into their performance offerings seemed like a win-win collaboration for both the Lompoc and greater Santa Barbara County communities. I knew then that I wanted to be a part of making this theater happen.”

Herrier, who has long described the project as pushing a boulder uphill, declared the metaphor retired. “I no longer feel like Sisyphus. Cheryl has finally kicked that boulder over the hill,” he said. “We can, for the first time, see the finish line.”

He was quick to widen the frame beyond the stage itself, pointing to an estimated 10,000 new jobs coming to Vandenberg Space Force Base by 2030 — and the recruiting obstacle that there’s “nothing to do” in Lompoc. “The Lompoc Theatre, education center, event space, courtyard, STEM room, and arts complex will end that perception overnight,” Herrier said. “It will create a renaissance of talent, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit that will be drawn to Lompoc, completely independent of the arts.”

The timeline is now concrete. Phase II — targeted for completion by spring 2027, in time for the theater’s 100th birthday celebration that May — delivers a fully renovated stage hosting 80-seat performances in a cabaret configuration, a climate-controlled courtyard with a 30-foot bar, a paseo connecting H Street to the courtyard, new parking, and the restored Land Office, one of California’s oldest surviving commercial wooden buildings. 

In partnership with Lompoc Unified School District, the Land Office will operate as a STEM classroom for 5th and 6th graders by day and a 35-seat “Cinema Boutique” screening room by night. Goldberg’s gift lets Phase III — the full 450-seat auditorium — begin immediately after, with the complete complex opening in late spring 2028.

For Delinger, the gift moves the project from probable to certain. “After years of planning, design, and community engagement, this feels like the moment when the vision truly becomes inevitable,” he said. “It sends a powerful message that the arts matter, that historic preservation matters, and that investing in a community’s future can have a lasting impact for generations to come.”

With just five million left to raise, the community can start counting down to opening night.

To support the Lompoc Theatre Project, visit lompoctheatre.org.