FESTIVAL FALLOUT FROM HIROSHIMA, NAGASAKI

The art of this exhibit is sometimes grim: drawings of atomic bomb survivors, death masks constructed from ashes and clay taken from Auschwitz and Hiroshima.

The message of this exhibit, though, is hopeful: that by examining past and present horrors, a future without those horrors might be envisioned.

That’s the stated aim of the “Imagine There’s a Future” arts festival, opening at eight area galleries today. The four-week festival will feature other events--including a theater evening at the Mark Taper and a young people’s festival at the Children’s Museum.

The effort of a number of Southern California political and religious organizations (co-sponsored by the Hollywood’s Women’s Coalition and the Interfaith Center to Reverse the Arms Race), the festival is timed with the 40th anniversary of the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

All in the hopes that there will be never be another atomic bombing to commemorate.

“One always has a hard time looking freshly at our horrifying and threatening day-to-day reality,” explained co-chairwoman Emily Levine. “This festival will help us look freshly at our world. And we will showcase good art. The shows themselves are great. Everything is designed to tease and stimulate.

“We wanted to do an arts festival and glorify the imagination. Most commemorations deal with the conscious and consciousness. But we wanted to introduce the concept of choice.”

The choice, according to Levine, is to allow people an opportunity to see a future free from nuclear threat. “The first step is to look at alternative images,” Levine said. “We want to paint the world in different terms so that there are alternatives--alternatives that enhance the lives of all of us.”

But how best to broadcast that message? The answer, Levine said, is to involve as many people as possible. So besides drawing up a sponsor and endorser list that includes 48 organizations, festival organizers decided that all but a few of the festival’s exhibits would be free.

Program information: (213) 653-3240.