Public Art

Julita Jones I just can't let this editorial go unanswered ("Taking the art out of public places," Coastline Pilot, Oct. 15). Heaven forbid we should have too much public art. Have you been to any European cities recently? Art should be in as many places as possible. If it becomes "ordinary," that's wonderful. Art should become part of the fabric of our lives, and what better way to do this than public art. It doesn't all have to stand out as something special.

Two locals have been tapped to produce a video documenting the city’s public art collection and the artists who created it. The City Council approved at the Aug. 5 meeting a recommendation of the Arts Commission to award a contract to Aperture Films to film the documentary, starting this summer. The commission expects the project to be an continuing celebration of the arts community, an audio/visual record of the city’s artistic history to which new artists and their works will be added.

For a city as passionate about art as Laguna Beach, it’s embarrassing when public art projects go awry. That’s what has happened with the ill-fated public art competition for the senior/community center. Nobody seems to know why Jon Seeman’s set of sculptures, which the Arts Commission so enthusiastically endorsed, proved in the end to be considered either too large for the site or too distracting from the already-approved landscaping for the project. While we think that landscaping can and should take a back seat to art, others felt differently and “obstructing the landscaping” became one of the reasons the council jettisoned the site-specific works from their intended locations.

Public art is a joy in Laguna, but it can also be controversial. Take the case of "The People's Council," the newest ? and most costly ? public art piece in the city. The $80,000 sculpture sits in front of City Hall, and even members of the arts commission, which approved it, have disagreed on its merits. Sculptor Linda Brunker ? not a local ? beat out a dozen other artists to win the right to have her work grace the area in front of City Hall where a fountain had foundered and been removed.

Twelve years after its inception, Laguna's Community Art Project is still going strong, with several future projects in the works and a slew of achievements under its belt. But the non-profit group has decided to pause and revisit an old favorite, "Speakeasy: A Night at the Bank," on Feb. 24. The Jazz Age fundraiser, first held in 2005, will feature more than 70 artworks up for auction, martini and wine bars, live music and gourmet food, all within the gracious ambience of the Wells Fargo Bank on Ocean Ave. Despite a common belief that the Arts Commission is responsible for all of the city's publicly viewable art, the commission is only directly responsible for art installed on public land, CAP board vice president Rebecca Meekma said.

Public art is becoming a ?hot topic? both here in Laguna and in Pasadena where last week the art issue became so heated that an arts commissioner resigned over ?inappropriate council interference? in artistic decisions. Yet the real problem in both communities where we reside is a lack of public participation in the selection process. If we expect art that is valued by local citizens, then they need to be involved. So in Pasadena, even after the expenditure of $150,000, the council has required the Arts Commission to hold a series of public meetings where the commission and the public will review the existing Public Art guidelines and come to agreement on new ones.

Enough already with the finger-pointing and blame game. With lots of confusion, hurt feelings, out-of-pocket artist time and expenses, etc., the biggest city-funded public art project is done. Fault, at least by omission, falls on both the City Council and the Arts Commission. Questions weren?t known or asked, information and specific landscape and architectural design elements weren?t considered, or included, etc. This is, I firmly believe, part of our city?s cultural ?

The City Council and the Arts Commission faced off Tuesday, confronting head-on the dissatisfaction on both sides that has been simmering since last year. Commissioners, used to having their recommendations rubber stamped, were shocked and not a little miffed when the council declined to accept unanimous commission support for the public art to be installed at the Community/Senior Center. The council is expected to make a decision on the proposal at the Feb. 17 meeting. “This year we had some miscommunications in public art,” Commissioner Suzi Chauvel said.

Sculptor Andrew Myers has told the city that the changes made to his submission in the Brooks Street art competition are unacceptable and he is withdrawing his winning entry. The city was waiting for Myers' written withdrawal before taking further action on its obligation to provide a piece of public art for its Brooks Street access renovation or pay into the art-in-lieu fund. The letter arrived Thursday morning. "To do anything different from the council's previous action would take subsequent council action," Assistant City Manager John Pietig said.

In the 1980s, a then-mysterious virus began taking a toll on Laguna Beach. On World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, the community will remember its losses, cherish the strides made in the testing and treatment of the disease, and promote awareness of the danger of complacency. Black ribbons will drape 15 prominent pieces of Laguna's public art in remembrance of the Laguna residents who have died from AIDS. The city's HIV Advisory Committee will host a health and awareness exposition at 3 p.m. at Main Beach, followed by a candlelight vigil.

A red British telephone booth in downtown Laguna Beach is past its heyday. It's time for a makeover. Tuesday evening, the City Council voted unanimously in favor of just that, in the form of an Arts Commission-led temporary sculpture exhibition project. By approving the item on the meeting's consent calendar, the council backed the competition guidelines for the installation of rotating artwork on Forest Avenue. The K6-style telephone kiosk, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in 1935, once housed a public telephone, but it was unplugged in the face of ubiquitous cell-phone coverage.

The Laguna Beach Arts Commission has plans that will not only add to the city's reputation as an artists colony, but also to the city's revenue. A report on the cultural and financial value of the arts to the community was presented by the commission at a joint meeting with the City Council Sept. 18. "We talked a lot about the things we have been able to accomplish as an arts community," said Councilwoman Elizabeth Pearson. "We are a tourist-based economy and we are an economy based quite a bit on what the arts provide to draw tourism to town.

Art is a component of the Broadway Street improvements designed to beautify the portal that connects the city to the canyon. The $700,000 project includes renovated sidewalks, landscaping and irrigation, and is partially funded by a $480,000 grant. Sculptures by Cheryl Ekstrom and Marsh Scott will beautify it, if the City Council approves the Arts Commission's recommendations at the July 17 meeting. "This is the first time I have ever won," Ekstrom said. "I felt like Susan Lucci.

The mother of the late Steven Harmon has about two more months to raise the funds to repair the sculpture he created and donated to the city. "Cathexis" was removed from the entrance to Riddle Field when city officials determined it posed a danger to the public. It now sits in the Laguna Canyon studio waiting to be repaired - if Alice Harmon can raise $8,000 for repairs by June 27. "The sculpture has to be sandblasted, the damaged panels repaired, dipped in acid, galvanized and painted," Alice Harmon said.

Between May 2011 and January 2012, Robert Hayden III wore four hats at the Laguna Art Museum. During that seven-month stretch before Malcolm Warner settled in at LAM's helm, Hayden served as its interim director, its interim director of development and head of the search committee for a new executive director. While he juggled those challenges, Hayden said he continued in his normal role of presiding over the museum's Board of Trustees. And he even managed to moonlight in the evenings in his regular job as chief financial officer for his family-run firm, Placentia-based Industrial Metal Finishing Inc. All that work culminated in his being honored with the Arts Leadership award at Sunday's Art Star Awards in Laguna Beach, presented by the Laguna Beach Alliance for the Arts and hosted by [seven-degrees]

Billy Fried has had two epiphanies: One in 2002, when he decided to share his love of kayaking with paying customers, and another in 2010, when he was inspired to create safe and eco-friendly bicycle routes through town. Now, his bike map is a reality. Drawn by local artist Jesse Miller, the map includes bike routes but also highlights historic architecture, community gardens and examples of public art. Fried vetted the highlights and conceptualized routes that would show off the natural and man-made glories of Laguna as well as encourage folks to get out of four-wheel vehicles and onto bicycles.

In the 1980s, a then-mysterious virus began taking a toll on Laguna Beach. On World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, the community will remember its losses, cherish the strides made in the testing and treatment of the disease, and promote awareness of the danger of complacency. Black ribbons will drape 15 prominent pieces of Laguna's public art in remembrance of the Laguna residents who have died from AIDS. The city's HIV Advisory Committee will host a health and awareness exposition at 3 p.m. at Main Beach, followed by a candlelight vigil.

It's not often in life that we can start with a blank slate, but that's exactly what students at the Laguna College of Art & Design will do this fall when they paint the now famous 80-foot gray wall on Laguna Canyon Road. But will that wall become another safe Laguna Beach mural, all happy and shiny and so innocuous that it will fade from your memory before you reach El Toro Road? As you may recall, the wall's prior mural — called the largest in Orange County — was inexplicably painted over in February by the co-owner of the Laguna Canyon Winery, Marlowe Huber, who apologized and is helping fund a new mural.

The people who make the trek to Main Beach will now be immortalized in a mural just a few blocks away. The Community Art Project (CAP), a local nonprofit dedicated to public art, commissioned Laguna Beach artist Sandra Jones Campbell for the mural at 248 N. Coast Hwy. Known for her whimsical acrylic paintings of cowboys, dinner guests and others, Campbell was excited to take on her first exterior mural. In her distinctive style, the mural chronicles the diverse people who create downtown's unique environment as they make their way to the beach.

City manager's message •The Police Department will conduct drunk driver saturation patrols Thursday thanks to funds from the California Office of Traffic Safety, according to City Manager John Pietig's Friday Update of April 22. •About 50 children between the ages of 4 and 14 participated in the Laguna Beach Youth Invitational Track Meet at Laguna Beach High School on April 8, Pietig wrote. The top three boys and girls in each age division and event will represent the city at the Orange County track meet in May. •The city website now has RSS feeds for City Council, Planning Commission and Design Review Board agendas, according to Pietig's update.