Every community has places that bring people together through shared experiences, and a cinema can be one of them. Solvang Cinema Arts, a mission driven nonprofit and community-rooted organization, has proved that the Santa Ynez Valley has a strong desire to see film, and is working to bring a permanent community-owned film center back to the Santa Ynez Valley.
Since the Park Plaza Theater closed in 2020, leaving more than 20,000 residents and hundreds of thousands of guests who visit to enjoy the Valley’s wine and culture scene without a local theater, the 35-mile drive each direction just for a night at the movies, there has been a void in the valley.
Solvang Cinema Arts was founded to close that gap by striving to echo the kind of nonprofit that has become the country’s proven model for sustaining movie experiences in small markets, from the success of Healdsburg’s True West theater to Tucson’s The Loft Cinema.
After finding success with popup events, Solvang Cinema Arts announced the addition of Esther Jacobsen Bates and Ryland Aldrich to its board of directors, standing alongside founding directors Brooke Christian, Elizabeth “Liz” Orona, Geoff Yarema, and youth advisor Ryland Schadder, as the organization builds out a leadership team behind its path to a permanent film center.
The most recent popup event, held on October 2, was The Nightmare Before Christmas, which screened in Solvang Park. “The community responded massively and came out, bringing their families, neighbors, and friends,” said Orona. “The demand is there. The valley’s not asking whether they want a cinema. They’re telling us they’ve been waiting for one.”
Each of Solvang Cinema Arts’ screenings draws in a bigger, warmer crowd making the message from the community clear: movies are in high demand and people want more chances to gather. This is at the heart of their mission, working to make film a lasting part of life in the Valley and building a permanent gathering place that everyone can count on.
“Ninety-two percent of our survey respondents have told us that they don’t go to the movies anymore because of the 35-to-40-mile trip to Goleta or Santa Maria,” Orona said. “They’ve told us that if we were to open a theater here, they would go two to three times a month or more frequently, suggesting that distance has been a barrier.”
Christian, co-founder and board director of Solvang Cinema Arts, isn’t a stranger to the film industry having founded and directed the Key West Film Festival, now in its 15th year. His successful career in collaborating with programmers, setting up event sites, and managing pop-up events, has prepared him with the experience for an organization like this.
“I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn and grow over the past 15 years. I’m grateful for the experiences I’ve gained and look forward to contributing to this project,” he said.
With successes from past events and the mission to build a permanent, community-owned film center in the Santa Ynez Valley, Solvang Cinema Arts has the trajectory to launch a permanent multi screen space in 2027. “We’re on an active site search right now and we will be until we secure a space that is suitable for multiscreen and to deliver the vision that we have,” said Orona.
“Our community is very rich from a cultural perspective, as rich as what we offer for food and wine, and we think that the art form of film can tie into all of that,” she said. “The biggest driver is to make sure that we create something that becomes a real civic and communal ritual for our community.”
Looking to the future, the type of films they plan to show fall into three groups: commercially successful films that are more popular and on a larger scale basis, cinematic excellence that includes Oscar contenders and independent films, and films that emphasize community and cultural connections.
“We want to showcase, if not local talent, talent in the state and in the area,” Christian said. “We want to tell stories that originate from here and have local flavor to them.”
Solvang Cinema Arts is deeply rooted in the community and is working to restore a shared cultural gathering space that the Valley has been without since its last local cinema closed in 2020.
To learn more about future screenings, membership, and how to support Solvang Cinema Arts, visit solvangcinemaarts.org.
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