For 33 years, Leucadia resident Erika Torri managed the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library and oversaw significant improvements to the La Jolla institution founded in 1899.
“There wasn’t anything of great significance that could be offered at the Athenaeum when I first arrived,” Torri said in a written response to emailed questions.
“We inhabited only a small one-room space. I could not really work that way. It was very important to me to have and to work in a larger space.
“I worked, just little by little, to make changes and to create programs. We were a very tiny thing and we just grew and grew over time. I knew it could be a bigger institution and everything evolved over time.”
For her contributions, Torri will be the Athenaeum’s first honoree at its annual fundraising gala scheduled May 10. The celebration, titled “The Talk of the Town: Casablanca” will occur at the library, 1008 Wall St., La Jolla.
Detailed information on the event and registration can be seen at ljathenaeum.org in the events section.
“Erika is responsible for what (the Athenaeum) is today,” said Dave Eassa, the Athenaeum’s director of philanthropy and engagement. “She really pushed it above its weight class.
“I think it’s an important time to honor what Erika has done …. It’s the celebration’s 25th year. None of this would have happened without her and her team.”
Athenaeum Executive Director Christie Mitchell, who replaced Torri, said her predecessor made the Athenaeum what it has come to be today, a fount of arts and music events and education, including its Athenaeum Art Center, 1955 Julian Avenue, in San Diego’s Barrio Logan community.
“We wanted to make sure we took a moment to celebrate everything she accomplished here at the Athenaeum through this event because she really laid the foundation for everything we do now and will continue to do in the long run,” Mitchell said.
Moreover, Mitchell credited Torri with reuniting former spaces that had belonged to the library and forging them into the area it now occupies.
“Under her leadership, the Athenaeum was able to kind of reclaim those spaces in a campaign called the Campaign to Reclaim, to take back our historical building, which is the William Templeton Johnson Building from 1921 and also to renovate those spaces to better suit our programming and our needs,” Mitchell said.
“In addition, she grew our hip, grew our programming, initiated multiple concert series, continued other concert series, and started many of our ongoing … lecture series.
“She really just grew programming maybe tenfold, maybe more, to meet the needs and desires of our community, really creating this incredible thriving arts community.”
The library launched 126 years ago when a frequent La Jolla visitor, Florence Sawyer, donated a cottage at Wall Street and Gerard Avenue plus $1,000 worth of books and a piano to the La Jolla Reading Club.
The club incorporated as the Library Association of La Jolla and philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps became its first president.
In 1955, the San Diego Public Library took over much of the La Jolla collection while leaving the association with its music and arts materials, at which time the association adopted the name Athenaeum Music & Arts Library.
In subsequent years, the facility moved around to various spaces and experienced alterations but remained a compact operation when Torri arrived in 1989 as a part-time employee, two years before being named its director.
Torri had been a librarian at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art when the director suggested she should apply for a part-time job at the Athenaeum, which was no longer located at its original location.
Torri said she quickly realized the possibilities and applied to be executive director, a job that was initially part time.
“Within two years of ing the Athenaeum, I was able to move the Athenaeum back into the original 1921 William Templeton Johnson building, so that by 1991 we for the first time occupied both buildings — the 1921 Templeton Johnson building and the 1957 Williams Lumpkins building,” Torri said.
“I worked very hard to get us back into that original library space and it was quite an accomplishment to do all of that in just two years of working there part time.”
Expanding the Athenaeum’s space, Torri said, enabled the library and museum to offer more programs, collections and events, including its arts education program and jazz and classical concerts by some of the world’s leading musicians.
The Athenaeum encomes nearly 10,000 square feet at its La Jolla site and another 1,600 square feet at its art school. It has a circulation of 60,000 items and circulates about its 3,000 of those items annually. It has a hip of about 1,700 households.
When Torri was asked of which accomplishment she is most proud, she said, “Everything, because there wasn’t anything of great significance that could be offered at the Athenaeum when I first arrived.
“We inhabited only a one-room space. I could not really work that way. It was very important to me to have and to work in a larger space. I worked, just little by little to make changes and to create programs. We were a very tiny thing and we just grew and grew over time. I knew it could be a bigger institution and everything evolved over time.”
A native of Bremen, , Torri said she was reluctant to move to this region. Her husband, however, wanted to experience California’s West Coast, so they decided to live temporarily in the San Diego area.
“I agreed to live there for one year with the plan that we would then move back to Bremen. And here we are now 53 years later and we are still living in the same house in Leucadia!”
