Public Art

Suzie Harrison The Arts Commission is steps away from establishing a policy that will help the city purchase, loan, donate and permanently remove works of art from its collection. The effort to draft a policy began more than four years ago, Arts Commissioner Chairwoman Jan Sattler said. There is no city criteria for the acceptance or denial for loans or donations. There is also no guideline regarding the permanent removal of art from the city's collection.

Artist, filmmaker and El Morro resident Ron Pastucha is filming a documentary, "The End of Summer: Last Days of El Morro," and looking for past and present residents of El Morro Village at Crystal Cove to share their accounts of living in the soon-to-be-disbanded coastal community. The residents are in the process of leaving the trailer park, which is located on state park land. "One day I looked around and realized I was living in a setting that is it's own character, a kind of 'back lot' that tells a story," Pastucha said.

Laguna Beach hotels and motels will continue for at least another fiscal year to underwrite arts organizations that help fill their rooms. The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to extend until June 30, 2010, the Laguna Beach Business Improvement District agreement, a 2% assessment levied on all Laguna Beach lodging establishments, commonly referred to as the BID. The assessment is levied in addition to the bed taxes paid to the city by...

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.

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.

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]

OsCene opens at art museum Laguna Art Museum's "The OsCene: Contemporary Art and Culture in Orange County," will open Sunday and run through Feb. 27. The exhibit includes paintings, drawings, sculptures, photography, multi-media installations, video/film, sound/music, architecture, fashion and tattoo art. The museum will host a reception at 1 p.m. Sunday "Sex Behind the Curtain: Eroticism in the art of The OsCene."...

The proposed senior/community center on Third Street passed a key hurdle Wednesday night when the Planning Commission recommended City Council approval of the revised design. "We are very pleased," said Ann Quilter, chair of the Laguna Beach Seniors Inc. capital campaign to raise funds for the center construction. "I am optimistic that we are on track for groundbreaking in April. The plan is wonderful." Construction of the center requires the removal or demolition of the six buildings now on the site, which is composed of five parcels purchased by the city.

The City Council affirmed its confidence in its appointed commissions Tuesday night by reappointing four incumbents to the Arts Commission and three to the Planning Commission. Jan Sattler, Mike Taulber and Les Thomas will serve two-year terms on the Arts Commission. All three got five council votes. Dora Wexall was appointed to a one-year term as alternate. She got four votes. Anne Johnson and Robert Zur Schmiede were reappointed to the Planning Commission with five council votes each.

The City Council approved Tuesday recommendations from the Arts Commission that would establish a policy on acquiring art and a method of removing art from city ownership, a process called de-accession. "We do want a policy to de-access art that we -- how can I say this nicely -- don't want any more," Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman said. "But I would like this rewritten by the city attorney and ask him to draft a series of sample contracts." Kinsman also wanted staff and council to be able to make recommendations, a prerogative she said is not clearly enough defined for her in the commission draft.