LAZAR BEAMS ON NEW ARTISTS

Curator Julie Lazar is big on new faces. New art. Inter-organization support. Community support. It’s a spirit that she feels has its place in Los Angeles--in fact, she’s counting on it.

On Thursday, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) and Pipeline Inc. will unveil “Angel’s Flight,” an eight-week performance series (composed of four different programs and 27 artists) in the museum’s Ahmanson Theatre.

“I came to Los Angeles about the same time as Scott Kelman (who, with Alex Wright, represents Pipeline), and he’d call me up periodically and tell me to come down and see these things at his space (the former Factory Place Theatre).

“Well, that was part of my job,” said MOCA’s curator of media and performing arts, “to see what artists in L.A. were doing. Although I enjoy the visual arts, a lot of what I produce is moving (art): film, theater, dance, radio. So I went down to his theater, and the first thing I saw was awful . But I kept running into him on the street, in restaurants--and he said, ‘Someday, we’re going to work together.’ ”

By 1985, Lazar had seen enough good work and was ready to take a chance. “Scott came to me and said, ‘Look, we’ll just plan it out so it pays for itself.’ I said, ‘I don’t believe you. Anyway, there’s no money.’ But we sat down, worked out a budget, came up with ideas about people. Then we came back to the museum and essentially said, ‘Give us a loan.’ ”

The loan was approved, she noted with a laugh, “mostly because it wasn’t that much money. So we brought in the money, they brought the crew, the space, and it worked. We sold out every night, earned back all of our money, and paid more to the artists.”

This time, the premise--to spotlight mostly unproven, homegrown talents--remains the same. The roster includes Jan Munroe, Kedric Robin Wolfe, Peter Bergman, Paul Krassner, Harry Shearer, John Fleck, Tina Preston, Brian Brophy, Martin Kersels, Pons Maar, Deborah Oliver, Robin Ryan and Tim Robbins and the Actors Gang.

“I’ve got nothing against famous people,” emphasized the 36-year-old Detroit native. “I worked with Peter Sellars (on last fall’s MOCA staging of ‘Zangezi’); he’s a very inspiring character. We asked Frank Zappa to do a radio show with us. I worked with Eric Bogosian before he got all famous, and we had Whoopi Goldberg as the host of several radio series before she went to New York and got famous. But when we were putting together our ‘Explorations’ series and people suggested getting Laurie Anderson or Philip Glass, I told them, ‘Forget it. Those people already have their audiences.’ ”

Lazar, who received master’s degrees in art history and business administration from Columbia, would rather put her money on fresh talent.

“Part of this has to do with our own community. But I’m also interested in the larger picture. I like to see some of these people tour the country because I have a lot of faith in them. Still, I don’t think they’re going to do perfect performances.” She laughed. “Audiences should know it’s going to be very comfortable to come to MOCA and sit in the cushy little seats. But the shows are going to be raw. I hope people will value these artists, the fact that they’re trying, and allow themselves to like it or not like it.”

On a sponsorship level, Lazar feels that that same openness separates MOCA from other arts institutions. “In this country, there aren’t that many (museums dealing with multimedia art), so it is a little unusual. The Whitney used to do it, the Guggenheim used to, MOMA does sometimes, Newport/Harbor does occasionally. So the disadvantage is that sometimes this can start to feel like a little pocket of activity that doesn’t quite fit. At the same time, where else would you find an intermedia piece? Where’s the place for an artist who makes radio or audio art?”

Doesn’t the variety of possibilities sometimes overwhelm her?

“Not really,” Lazar said cheerfully. “I’m the worst case of eclecticism, what they used to call ‘jack-of-all-trades, master of none.’ I love a lot of this stuff, and I like it when it comes together. I also like it when something stands purely as dance, or purely as theater. So when I get involved as a collaborator, we try to widen each others’ visions; it’s not who can beat their breast the hardest. Collaboration is a constant process of learning.”

She hopes that local arts lovers will be equally flexible.

“That’s one of the things that’s so frustrating about MOCA: There’s nothing familiar. Once people allow themselves to break down the formality, say, ‘The thing I know about MOCA is that it’s going to change’--then it can be a journey. People can walk in and say ‘Oh, there’s more conservative art. Now there’s conceptual art. Now there’s performance art. Now there’s audio art.’ That’s the whole point of a conceptual arts organization. Some of the ideas you’ll agree with and like, others you won’t. How can you possibly like everything?”

As for herself, “I don’t like it all,” Lazar acknowledged. “I make choices, a lot of choices. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a product of the television generation--where you could see a lot of variety by just switching stations--or if I’m just curious. When I was growing up (in New York), I was never trained to isolate myself to just one art. And I moved around a lot, so I constantly saw lots of kinds of people and environments. All of it informed me. I’m still enriched by the different aspects of those disciplines; when they merge together and succeed, it’s a wonderful thing. When they don’t . . . it’s a mess.”

Where will “Angel’s Flight” fall in all of this?

“It will either help people to understand why it’s good to have performance/live activity in an organization of static arts, or it’ll nail the lid on the coffin.” She grinned. “But I don’t think it will.”