‘UK/LA’: Participants’ Reaction

Organizers of “UK/LA: ‘88--A Celebration of British Arts,” which ended Sunday, say their festival was a success. But some prominent local participants aren’t so sure.

“Our purpose was to do a collaboration between L.A. and the United Kingdom, and to heighten the profile of British arts and culture in the Southland,” said festival coordinator Bruce Joseph. “That was achieved very admirably.”

“Some people still think of Britain in terms of thatched cottages and beefeaters,” said John Houlton, festival administrator and vice consul of the British consul general in Los Angeles, the UK/LA organizer. “We think we showed that we have tradition, but that we also have the Concord , micro chips and Phil Collins.”

Plans to stage another UK/LA, conceived as a one-time-only affair, are not under consideration, but Joseph said some British and American arts organizations are “discussing future programming” for their own collaborations.

The three-month affair, which began Feb. 4, consisted of more than 70 events from classical and pop music to art and contemporary design, as well as opera, dance, theater, film, television and radio.

Fifty-five Los Angeles organizations and 29 British companies took part in the festival, conceived by British Consul General Donald Ballentyne.

No totals for festival attendance or ticket sales--handled by each participant--are available yet, Joseph said.

However, Joseph said some of the best-attended events were: David Hockney’s 11-week retrospective, which, with more than 200,000 visitors, broke the County Museum of Art’s attendance record for exhibits of contemporary artists; a free reggae concert in Watts that attracted “several thousands”; and the five sold-out Ambassador Auditorium concerts of Neville Marriner’s Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

Joseph stressed that while UK/LA benefited the U.K., Los Angeles audiences and art organizations came away winners, too. “I can’t think of any event that didn’t get significantly more of an audience” than if it had been presented independently of UK/LA, he said.

The new awareness of British culture as well as the increase in local audiences were largely the result of UK/LA’s TV, print media and outdoor banner promotional campaign, Joseph said. In addition, news organizations worldwide covered February’s first official United States visit of the Duke and Duchess of York (Prince Andrew and the former Sarah Ferguson).

Ernest Fleischmann, executive director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and UK/LA Organizing Committee member, said, “I think (UK/LA) served its purpose from a publicity point of view,” but that “it was not in any way representative of British achievement in the arts.

“Contemporary British music was shamefully overlooked,” Fleischmann said, as was contemporary British theater (with about six events, according to Joseph).

And Pebbles Wadsworth, director of UCLA’s Center for Performing Arts and festival Organizing Committee member, said there was too little dance--only one program--in the festival.

Gordon Davidson, artistic director of the Mark Taper Forum, said he wished there had been more creative collaboration among British and American artists. The Taper presented two UK/LA theater events.

“It tended to be more American artists doing British things,” he said, rather than works co-written by artists from both nations, for instance.

Other observers noted the festival’s few pop music events, which totaled about three.

Responding to these charges, Joseph acknowledged that “it would have been nice to have a few more offerings in certain areas,” including contemporary music, drama and dance. He added that more preparation time--organizers had about two years--would have helped them book more attractions.

“But where the Los Angeles Festival was very contemporary and rich in drama and dance, as a contrast, UK/LA had incredible offerings in the visual arts--more than 30 offerings--and great depth in classical music, in film, television, video offerings and a strong design element and lecture series,” he said.

The Los Angeles Festival, held last Sept. 3-27, had two art exhibits, and no film, television, video, design events or lectures. Among UK/LA’s media offerings was a six-week festival of recent British film, video and television presented by the American Film Institute.

Other observers charged that several UK/LA events would have occurred here at the same time regardless of the festival. Joseph said that about 20 out of about 73 offerings were pre-scheduled.

To complaints that the three-month festival was too long, Joseph said, “I don’t think it went on too long, but if we were doing it again, I’m sure it would be shorter.”

The bulk of the UK/LA $7.2 million-budget was borne by presenting Los Angeles organizations that kept any profits they may have made. However, Joseph said that some surplus may result from a $500-per-person gala dinner for the Duke and Duchess, sponsored by UK/LA organizers. That surplus, he said, will be divided equally between the Save the Books campaign to raise money for repair of damage from the 1986 Los Angeles Public Library fire, and UK/LA ’88 Inc., the organizers’ nonprofit corporation.