An iconic performing arts venue is back open. Can Oakland keep it alive?

OAKLAND — It was crunch time before one of the East Bay’s most iconic landmarks, the Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts, was set to open its doors once more, a century after its construction and two decades after the venue was shuttered.

Within the building’s awe-inspiring 19th-century French-style architecture, in a makeshift backroom office space, a small group of weary-eyed workers hunched over laptops on shared desks, preparing for the public presentation of its new look.

• A...