DOWNTOWN SAN MARCOS
Price Center & Garden
Within the historic walls of a colonial-style building in downtown San Marcos, one can find framed artwork dotting the walls, squeaky hardwood devising the well-traveled floors and brightly lighted parlors patiently waiting to be filled with deep laughter and warm smiles.
Within this same building, one will also find the man who places the artwork on the walls, frequently travels the hardwood floors and nurtures the bright parlors.
From the outside looking in, the Price Center & Garden may only appear as a well-kept building sporting the identity as a community center, but the building’s true impact is rooted much deeper than the flowers you see planted at the sidewalk’s entrance.
Clay DeStefano has been executive director of the Price Center & Garden for the past ten years, and to him, the center’s influence far surpasses its dictionary definition.
“In short, we expand hearts, minds and life spans on a daily basis,” DeStefano said. “Through classes, through activities, through opportunities to gather, we bring people together as a non-profit community center that focuses on the arts and culture.”
Typically, the term “community center” is associated with promoting the welfare of the elderly, but DeStefano doesn’t limit the center’s outreach to only that demographic.
“We’re under the nonprofit organization called the Greater San Marcos Area Seniors Association, so although we skew towards seniors, our mission is to bring all the generations together,” DeStefano said. “We try to mix up age and culture. It’s not just one particular group.”
This mission hasn’t always been one at the forefront of the center’s plans and is a task DeStefano had to personally adopt and enforce when he came on board at the center a decade ago.
Community centers for the elderly age bracket are more common in San Marcos, but centers that actively strive to connect generations through its activities are in the minority.
Such a task requires profit of some sort.
“When I first arrived here, it was really more focused on the immediate elderly community, and it was pretty limited on what it did,” DeStefano said. “When I came on board, I was brought on to turn it into a profitable center – that’s when we geared up the venue side of things and started also ramping up programming to get people in the door. I did so by broadening who we served and making a bigger statement about everyone’s welcome here.”
Through being a profitable organization, Price Center & Garden is then able to give back to their visitors through new and improved amenities.
Many of the employees are volunteers, which help cut down on costs.
Dave Nicosia is one of these volunteers who specifically helps in the technical side of hosting live events at the center.
“The Price Center was designed to be a meeting space and a venue that was supposed to reach a pretty broad demographic – to bridge the gap between the older population and the younger people in San Marcos,” Nicosia said. “Through this goal, we end up with people that are way more competent or way more qualified than we’d be able to hire because they’re volunteers and want to help.”
Although bridging that gap is something DeStefano and Nicosia are actively aware of, it’s likely not something the visitors notice.
“They don’t really realize they’re getting something from it other than they’re enjoying themselves, and you don’t have to be older to benefit from that,” DeStefano said. “The social connection is what makes us human, and we do that through making people feel welcome, giving people a space, giving people a voice, giving people a place to hang their artwork.”
The offered activities at the Price Center & Garden aren’t something that can be condensed into a list, and that’s something the center prides themselves on.
“We’re an ongoing community art gallery, an ongoing performance venue, and that means everything from dance to poetry to theater to films to live music happens here,” DeStefano said. “All of it is designed to bring people together and build community through this conduit of arts and culture – the common language that we all speak.”
Promoting a common language requires devotion, day in and day out.
“Clay [DeStefano] is really diligent about trying to make sure that all the programming fits the mission of the place,” Nicosia said. “He’s not afraid to say, ‘I don’t think we should do that,’ if it doesn’t fit that mission.”
This operation isn’t just something the leaders and volunteers of the organization see – it’s something people at large witness and want to be a part of.
Susan Gibson has been a musician since 1996 and single-handedly wrote the world-renowned hit “Wide Open Spaces” by The Chicks at around age 22.
Despite her career success and ability to play wherever she wants, places like the center are places she can’t help but return to.
“This place is so community- based,” Gibson said. “It’s completely different from playing somewhere where you’re background music, and I’ve done that a lot. But when you’re just putting it all out and not getting anything back, that is really hard work. All that work that you put into trying to get that song right matters here – it matters in a room like this. As a performer, I really need that connection. That’s my mission statement as a musician and an entertainer, and it’s more than the paycheck.”
Even if playing at the Price Center & Garden comes at the expense of fewer crowds, it’s one she will always value based on that authenticity alone.
“Even if there are five people here tonight, it’s absolutely a completely different thing than playing in a room of 100 people where five people are listening,” Gibson said. “For me, it’s all about that energy exchange. They give it right back to you, and you get done, and you’re just exhilarated.”
Running a community center is fragile. Relying on income from grants and the booking of the venue isn’t the steadiest source to rely on, but that very energy of the place is what keeps DeStefano, Nicosia and other volunteers fighting for it.
“You’ll see people that come to some of the programming during the day, like the yoga classes or some of the exercise classes, and then you’ll see them again at night at certain events,” Nicosia said. “And it’s such a broad array of people that practice together – it’s a little community like that.”
The reason as to why Price Center & Garden members come back time and time again differs from person to person, but the connections and impact made stretch beyond all possible initial reasons for joining.
“We have a dancer who’s 103 years old… We also have a dancer that’s 86, and she comes to five different dance classes a week. She just danced a jazz and ballet number for an art reception here,” DeStefano said. “One woman, a young woman in her 30s, also comes to our dance classes. She was a victim of horrific abuse from a partner. She had to relearn to walk and trust people, and she credits the Price Center with helping her overcome that trauma.”
Overcoming personal battles, no matter how big or small, through the support of others is one the Price Center & Garden will always cherish.
“I think today more than ever, we’re a very divided country, and I think that there tends to be a generational divide very often,” DeStefano said. “But when you bring people together through a common interest – whether it’s film, dance, music, art or the garden and any other thing that we might be doing here – they meet in the middle and they meet through that connection. It breaks those barriers and serves the whole community – not just a portion of it.”
From its director, to its volunteers and even its musicians, the number of connections made at the Price Center & Garden simply are innumerable.
