For all the colossal renovation that’s taken place — and for all the rebuilding to come — a big part of the public mind can’t quite wrap itself around Point Loma’s Liberty Station as an art and culture destination. The few buildings visible from the street look very much the same, and after all, the venue was home to one of the largest Navy training centers in the universe, with tens of thousands of cadets doing what they do best there for 74 years before the base was decommissioned in 1997. To be sure, a place that old and storied harbors its share of hidden lore. That’s why Alan Ziter, NTC Foundation’s executive director, is so fond of the word “demystify” when he talks about the campus. Everybody’s hard at work lifting the veil, he said, through the advocacy of the local cultural experience. One exemplary program, he said, is vital to that end — never mind that it doesn’t cost a penny to get in. Since Friday Night Liberty began in October, as many as 8,000 patrons have sampled Liberty Station’s wares, with everything from quiltwork to dance rehearsals to a traditional and contemporary art exhibits. Nothing particularly sexy about all that on the surface — but last month, at least one reporter was intrigued by the scenes behind the scenes. “That’s our brand,” Ziter said, “innovative experiences. As one of our board members said many years ago, we want to create a destination where you don’t walk around with your hands in your pockets. It’s not like some other destinations, where you see the finished production stage or you see the finished artwork on the wall. This is an opportunity where you can see the rehearsal process under way and demystify it. In retrospect, rehearsal is 95 percent of the process.” A look inside the Recreational Music Center yielded a performance by a Brazilian dance troupe eager to teach patrons the rules of the game. A block away, the San Diego Watercolor Society lined up its fare next to the artists themselves, happy to talk about their inspirations and the tools from which those inspirations materialized. Dance Place San Diego was the site of an extremely informal ballet recital, one of many enterprises conceived with the casual shopper in mind. “We designed our buildings such that as you walk through the buildings you can look into the venues and see the rehearsals under way,” Ziter said. “You can see the artists painting. In retrospect, rehearsal is 95 percent of the process. People want to have the NTC experience demystified, so that’s what we try to do at Friday Night Liberty.” The renovation phase of the Liberty Station project is expected to take eight more years (only seven of the project’s target 26 buildings are rebuilt). The estimated cost of the entire project, begun in earnest in 2004, is $100 million. Those figures seem more suited to fix-ups at Balboa Park, which invites comparisons with Liberty Station amid the former’s large concentration of museums and sprawling acreage. Ziter said, however, that such parallels yield only part of the story. “Balboa Park has big buildings,” Ziter said. “That makes this campus ideal for a lot of the mid-size and smaller organizations that right now can’t find a home in Balboa Park. There’s no dedicated building for dance, for example, in Balboa Park.” And still, there’s all that accessibility that marks Friday Night Liberty. “Look at sports coverage today,” Ziter said. “Look at how the reporters get to go into the locker room. When’s the last time a reporter got to go into a rehearsal hall?” This month’s showcases begin at 5 p.m. on Friday, June 4. They’ll include Bravo School of Art demonstrations and a summer camp sign-up; a rock band video game at the Recreational Music Center guaranteed to make one’s child a star; and ballet demonstrations at dance Place San Diego. There’s no admission cost. For further information, call (619) 573-9260, or visit www.ntcpromenade.com and click “What’s Happening.”