[Los Angeles] Funded by both American and Middle Eastern patrons of the arts, the new Levantine Cultural Center celebrated Saturday with a star-studded grand opening, as thousands milled throughout this new cultural arts complex dedicated to the Middle East and North Africa. "I never imagined anything so beautiful here in Los Angeles," said actor-director George Clooney, who has appeared in several films with Middle East themes, including "Three Kings" and "Syriana."

Sean Penn, who famously visited Iraq and later Iran, writing a series of articles on his travels in an effort to promote peace between the Arab/Muslim world and the United States, said, "The architecture here is stunning and yet you feel absolutely transported into another world." Penn was accompanied by "Monk" star Tony Shalhoub and his wife, actor Brooke Adams.

The new arts complex is an oasis of peace, with its lavish gardens, Moroccan-styled water fountains and Persian and Turkish tile, inlaid with Islamic geometric patterns reminiscent of the Alhambra palace in Granada and Istanbul's Blue Mosque. The center seamlessly combines the latest in architectural design with classic Islamic motifs, including mudejar ceilings, arched doorways and a minaret actually called the Ivory Tower, which contains 25 small studios where artists and writers are invited to work and dream.

An estimated 3,000 people turned out for this red carpet extravaganza, milling through the center's two auditoriums, vast library, conference rooms, classrooms, a bookstore boasting the largest selection of Middle Eastern titles in the Southland, and the outdoor café-garden, where the Armenian Navy Band performed genre-bending folk-jazz music.

There is also a traditional Moroccan-style hammam, or ritual bathhouse, right next door to the center. Independently owned and operated, the hammam is open 24 hours and offers a range of spa treatments, organic teas and every conceivable luxury for both women and men seeking a refuge from the grind of the work week.

Perhaps what makes Levantine Cultural Center so unique is its pan-cultural inclusion of the many majority and minority cultures spanning the region. The center has provided subsidized office space to two dozen small arts organizations without facilities of their own. There are non-profit groups representing Palestinian, Israeli, Armenian, Turkish, Kurdish, Berber, Iranian, Lebanese, Egyptian, Moroccan, Tunisian, Afghani and Pakistani cultures. A Sephardic arts group presenting Jewish cultures of the Middle East and North Africa is right next door to the Salaam-Shalom Educational Foundation, which works to build bridges between Palestinian and Israeli cultures. The Armenian Arts Association has its office across the hall from the Turkish American Association of Southern California.

"And not only do we all get along," said the center's founder and artistic director, Jordan Elgrably, "but we have all bonded across former barriers of history and religion, realizing that we have an amazing opportunity here to create an example of true coexistence. We meet daily in the café to brainstorm. This has become a phenomenal hub, an incubation experiment that produces results. By giving voice to our contemporary artists and writers-who are not bound by nationalistic rhetoric or special interests that thrive on a culture of war-we are leading the way, and indeed, setting an example for what is possible in the Middle East."

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Whether you found this news story a stretch of the imagination or a visionary glimpse of what is possible for Los Angeles, you can't deny the incredible possibilities that Levantine Cultural Center offers.

I wanted to share this vision with you, not only because it recently visited me in a vivid dream, but because this is what motivates me, day in and day out. I love what I do. I live and breathe peace through an artistic vision of coexistence for the Middle East/North Africa and our communities in diaspora.

—Jordan Elgrably, Founding Director, Levantine Cultural Center