Praise, Criticism Meet Mayor’s Selections for Arts Commission

Eschewing working artists in favor of experienced arts patrons and public-service volunteers, San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor on Wednesday announced her selections for membership on the new city Commission for Arts and Culture.

The 15-member panel, assigned to create and implement a city arts plan and advise the mayor and City Council on arts matters, also is responsible for recommending how the council will distribute the city’s annual arts subsidy, which amounted to nearly $5 million this year.

In picking the commissioners, the mayor looked for “people who knew arts and have served on the boards of directors of institutions,” said Paul Downey, O’Connor’s press secretary. O’Connor previously had picked attorney Milton (Mickey) Fredman to chair the arts council.

Favorable Reaction

Reaction to the panel in the arts community was favorable, although many of those interviewed conceded that they did not recognize all the names of the commissioners.

“It sounds like a pretty august and well-qualified group,” said Ed McKellar, executive director of the San Diego Aerospace Museum. “Although I’m not personally acquainted with the group, I think they are eminently qualified to address challenges (facing) the new arts commission.”

Hal Mahan, executive director of the San Diego Natural History Museum, said the commission’s makeup indicates that culture includes science-oriented museums as well as visual-art institutions.

“I’m very happy they have someone like Roger Revelle, who is a scientist,” Mahan said. “One of the things we fall short on in this community is defining culture. This museum attracts just as many people as art museums.”

Jennifer Spencer, a visual artist and arts advocate, called the new commission a “well-connected, financially powerful group who will ensure the success of the mayor’s Russian arts festival.”

Some Criticism, Too

Despite that, the commission’s makeup came in for criticism. Individual artists and small-sized arts groups are not as well represented on the panel as the larger arts organizations. Although an effort was made to find representatives in all the arts, dance and architecture are not represented at all.

Tom Corcoran, executive director of the San Diego Area Dance Alliance, said the panel is inherently flawed because it does not include more artists.

“Any arts commission needs a balance between acting artists and community leaders so a coalition is established at that level . . . and then it trickles down to everyone,” he said.

Although praising the commission’s ethnic representation and the “knowledge and credentials” of the members, Corcoran called the council “awfully weighted with those who have experience in larger organizations. It does not respond to the exploding small and medium-sized groups and multicultural groups and independent artists.”

Responding to the critics, Downey said the mayor wanted the commission to include effective community leaders with clout.

“We were looking for people who knew how to get things going, who could hit the ground running and have instant credibility,” Downey said.

He said all of the prospective commissioners were interviewed and asked if they would be “open to all of the disciplines. They assured us they would,” he said.

The new commission will have a four-member city staff headed by commission executive director Victoria Hamilton. The commission must evaluate the annual requests for funding from dozens of arts groups and recommend how to disburse about $5 million generated through hotel tax revenues. In the past, the city manager’s office, the City Council and COMBO administered the city’s arts budget.

With about 200 names submitted, the arts commission attracted “four or five times” more resumes than the average city committee or commission, a mayoral assistant said.

Confirmation Vote Set

City Council members submitted nominations from which O’Connor selected eight along with her own choices. The commission is expected to be confirmed Monday by the City Council.

It is uncertain how much the arts commission will be involved with O’Connor’s proposed festival of Soviet arts, planned for the fall of 1989. On Tuesday, the City Council is expected to vote on the festival agreement that O’Connor and Soviet officials signed last month.

Members of the volunteer commission, to be appointed to three-year terms, include representatives from the business, scientific, legal and arts communities. They are:

- Kate Adams. She has served as COMBO’s vice president and chairwoman of its allocations committee. She has been a fund-raiser for several San Diego arts groups.

- Carol Randolph Caplan. She was on the city’s Cultural Arts Task Force and the board of the Centre City Development Corp. She is a member of the board of trustees of the Museum of Photographic Arts, the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art and the San Diego Symphony.

- Karen Sugg Cohn. Cohn, a collector of contemporary sculpture, is an arts patron. She was one of the underwriters of San Diego Repertory Theatre’s production of “Six Women With Brain Death.”

- David C. Copley. He is senior vice president and assistant to the president of the Copley Press. Copley serves as trustee of the San Diego Museum of Art and is on the board of the La Jolla Playhouse.

- Jess Stoddart Flemion. She is a professor of history at San Diego State University. Flemion co-wrote the book “Eleanor Roosevelt: An American Journey” with Coleen O’Connor, sister of the mayor.

- Milton Fredman (chairman). He is a member of the county’s International Trade Commission and Protocol Committee. Fredman is a member of the San Diego Symphony, the San Diego Natural History Museum and the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Arts. His wife, Faiya Fredman, is a noted artist.

- Dr. Warren Kessler. Kessler is s physician and member of the San Diego Symphony and the San Diego State University Art Council.

- Ann Winslow MacCullough. A director of the YMCA’s family options program, she is a longtime volunteer in arts and community planning.

- Roger Revelle. Revelle helped co-found UC San Diego and is an arts patron and respected scientist. He served as vice president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences from 1968-72.

- Darlene V. Shiley. A member of the board of directors of the Old Globe Theatre, Shiley served on the city’s Cultural Arts Task Force.

- Linda Smith. Founder and president of Mothers Embracing Nuclear Disarmament, Smith is the daughter of McDonald’s restaurants magnate Joan Kroc, who has contributed $1 million to help underwrite O’Connor’s Soviet Arts Festival. Smith is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

- David Thompson. A former theater presenter and director of publicity and advertising for the Old Globe, Thompson is a theater advocate and consultant.

- M’Lafi Thompson. An actress who is also the cultural affairs officer for the Educational Cultural Complex, Thompson--no relationship to David Thompson--served on the city’s Cultural Arts Task Force.

- Mario Acevedo Torero. An artist and gallery owner, Torero’s mural, “Homage to Martin Luther King,” is situated at 32nd Street and Imperial Avenue.

- Catherine Yi-yu Cho Woo. She is a poet, artist and considered an expert on Asian art, history, language and culture. She is a professor of Chinese language and literature at San Diego State University and works part time at San Francisco State University.