Using a Sketch as a Draw : Group Launches Its 3rd Attempt to Build Arts Park

The businessmen and art patrons who call themselves the Cultural Foundation still do not have the money to build Arts Park L.A.--an envisioned complex of museums and theaters in the Sepulveda Basin.

But they have what they think is a good start, a full-color drawing of the complex.

At a Warner Center reception, the foundation unveiled an architect’s rendering of the $35-million arts park, with its museum, concert hall and open-air theater by a lake. Foundation leaders hope the sketch will lure financial contributors to the project, something the leaders themselves have not been able to do.

“We’re going to put up that picture and start raising money,” said Doris (Dodo) Meyer, the foundation’s chairman of the board. “If somebody said to me, ‘Would you like to put up the money to build an outdoor stage?’ I’d say, ‘Fine. Show me what you’re talking about.’

“I know that we can go out and get people who will put up the money to build this project,” Meyer predicted.

The sketch, done in earth-tone pastels, shows a cluster of six buildings bordering a meadow at the edge of a lake. The centerpiece is a 2,500-seat concert hall, flanked by a museum, art workshops and pavilions at the foot of grassy hills.

Third Plan

This is the foundation’s third plan for Arts Park L.A. The first one, drafted three years ago, was scrapped when the park’s site was changed. A second plan proposed construction over Bull Creek. That was deemed unworkable because it would have cost millions of dollars to reroute the creek.

Local government officials call the new plan an improvement. Yet, the arts park remains well out of the foundation’s reach.

In the seven years since the group was founded as the San Fernando Valley Cultural Foundation, it has banked less than 1% of the $72 million needed to build Arts Park L.A. and another cultural complex in Warner Center.

“I know it sounds like it has taken us a long time to get going,” Meyer said.

Meyer, a longtime administrative assistant to Mayor Tom Bradley, took over the foundation three months ago. She quickly predicted a turnaround for the troubled organization, saying a new era would begin with September’s exhibit by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo at the foundation’s ARTSPACE gallery in Warner Center.

As with earlier fund-raising efforts for the foundation, the exhibit fell short of expectations. The foundation had hoped to raise $75,000 from ticket sales, but ended up losing $10,000. ARTSPACE closed its doors a month and a half later.

Meanwhile, the Sierra Club vigorously protested construction in the basin, saying it would destroy valuable open space. The city’s Department of Recreation and Parks voted Nov. 13 to lease the land needed for the arts park--a vital step in its development.

A week before that, the Army Corps of Engineers had begun digging a lake, next to which the proposed complex would be built.

And on Tuesday night, the sketch’s unveiling brought hearty applause from a group of dark-suited men and fashionably-dressed women in attendance. Meyer smiled broadly as City Councilwoman Joy Picus spoke to the group.

The new plan and increased donations would impress the County Museum of Natural History, which has said it is considering building a satellite museum at the site, Meyer said. In addition, the plan has been submitted to the National Endowment for the Arts, which could offer the foundation a $100,000 grant to pay for final architectural plans.

Still, the plan has raised further questions about construction in the basin.

The Corps of Engineers, which oversees flood control there, said the sketch calls for several buildings to be erected in areas reserved for water overflow. In addition, there is a water garden and a sculpture podium that do not fit in with the basin’s environmental guidelines.

Foundation officials countered by saying the master plan will be revised to fit the Corps’ specifications.

“You have to look at this as a master plan in concept,” said Carol Plotkin, a field representative for Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Tarzana), who has worked closely with foundation officials. “It is going to flow and change.”

Meyer said the foundation will continue working toward its short-term goal of erecting an inexpensive temporary stage in Warner Park by next summer.