Tour of Venice Studios to Benefit Clinic

More than 40 artists will open their studios to the public for next Sunday’s ninth annual Venice Art Walk.

The event, scheduled from noon to 5 p.m., benefits the Venice Family Clinic, a free health care facility. Last year it drew 5,500 walkers and raised more than $500,000.

By bus and on foot, Art Walk ’88 participants may visit with such artists as Joe Goode, John Okulick, Ruth Weisberg, Laddie John Dill, Peter Alexander, Martha Alf, Robbie Conal and Michele Roberts, who designed this year’s Art Walk T-shirts.

About 500 volunteers, stationed along the Art Walk route to help walkers find their way, will be wearing the T-shirts.

“The T-shirt image is four men that are sort of smiling, laughing and creeping along and the words above their heads are ‘heh heh heh,’ ” says Roberts, Santa Monica-born and based. “They are kind of funny and very amusing. They remind me of (comedian) Steve Martin when he goes into his antics of being a wild and crazy guy.”

A jury composed of Joy Silverman, director of Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, James Corcoran, director of the gallery that bears his name, and Josine Ianco-Starrels, director of the Long Beach Museum, selected Roberts to create this year’s T-shirt motif. She has been represented by the County Museum of Art Rental Gallery and this year the museum purchased one of her prints for its permanent collections.

Roberts said she took the idea for the motif from one of her paintings. It was inspired by a story she had read about hunters thought to have lost their souls, destined to roam the South American jungle forever.

Loosely relating the idea to Art Walk, Roberts said, “the image sort of reminded me of what the Art Walk experience is--people getting together, going along as a group, and then kind of having an amusing experience.”

This year, Art Walk organizers have tried to make the experience more amusing--and less frustrating--by advising participants to buy their tickets in advance.

“Basically, parking is everyone’s first complaint,” said spokeswoman Laura Maslon. So, to prevent the gridlock that results from 5,000 people trying to park in one lot, a map with three satellite parking areas has been printed on the back of the tickets.

As usual, guided tours led by docents will be part of the Art Walk, as will a silent auction. New this year is a tour of Santa Monica’s many new galleries.

Art Walk activities and registration begin at Westminster School, 1010 Washington Blvd., Venice. Tickets cost $35 and $75 for docent tours. Tickets may be ordered from the Venice Family Clinic, 604 Rose Ave., Venice, (213) 392-8630.

PEOPLE: Amy Meyers has been named associate curator of American art at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, effective Oct. 1. Meyers, who received a doctoral degree in American Studies, majoring in art history, from Yale, is currently assistant curator at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington and guest curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Nineteen outstanding scholars have been awarded this year’s J. Paul Getty Postdoctoral Fellowships in the History of Art and the Humanities. Each scholar will be awarded $23,000 for a year of research and writing. Their research plans must “promise to offer a substantial and original contribution to the history of the visual arts.” The fellowship recipients and their affiliations are: Bettina Bergman, Mount Holyoke College; Elizabeth del Alamo, Vassar College; David Gillerman, an independent scholar living in Italy; Wolfgang Kersten, Paul-Klee-Stiftung Kunstmuseum Bern; Kristen Lippincott, Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies; William Mathers, an independent scholar living in England; Neil McWilliam, University of East Anglia; Molly Nesbit, Barnard College; Elizabeth Sears, Princeton University; John Seyller, University of Vermont; Celia Chazelle, an independent scholar living in New Jersey; Philip Lindley, Cambridge University; Andrew McClellan, Tufts University; Iolna Skupinfka-Lozat, Warsaw University; Selma Al-radi, Yemen Arab Republic; Anthony Green, Cambridge University; Janet C. Smith, Bryn Mawr College; Diana Strazdes, Carnegie Museum of Art; Natasha Staller, University of Pennsylvania.

OPEN MEETING: The first community meeting for the International Festival of Masks 1988 will be held May 23, 7:30 p.m. at the theater in Barnsdall Park, 4800 Hollywood Blvd. The meeting is open to all performers, artists, vendors, exhibitors and volunteers who would like to be involved in this year’s festival, scheduled for Oct. 29 and 30 in Hancock Park. Information: (213) 934-8527 or (213) 931-1255.