CalArts Sets Course for a Grand Adventure : New President Wants to Transform School Into a Breeding Ground for New Forms of Art

Javanese gamelans will ring through the hills of Valencia this afternoon as African dancers gyrate in the east courtyard at CalArts. This is the school’s way of inaugurating Steven Lavine as its third president.

Arriving from the Rockefeller Foundation in New York City, Lavine is taking charge of one of the nation’s most respected art institutes. And though he is just beginning this task, the new president is already trying to place his mark on the school.

Lavine is leading CalArts on what he sees as a grand adventure.

Over the next few years, a series of foreign artists will be invited to teach on campus. These visits, which have been labeled the Intercultural Arts Projects, are not an entirely new idea. Cross-cultural teaching was popular in universities during the 1960s.

But at CalArts, Lavine is hoping his experiment redux will produce revolutionary results. By adding Latin American, African and Asian influences to the school’s Euro-American traditions, he is hoping to transform the place--already known for its inventiveness--into a breeding ground for new forms of art.

“It will turn up in the kinds of paintings our people paint, the kinds of productions we have,” said the 41-year-old Lavine. “This is just so obviously a special opportunity. It feels to me that as an institute, we’re ready for a surge and the artists will take us there.”

Last week, the American Indian Dance Theatre spent three days at CalArts performing and giving workshops for dance students who haven’t been exposed to this folk art that remains outside mainstream Euro-American culture. Next month, a multiphonic choir of Tibetan monks will pay a visit and, after that, Sangrian Bunda dancers will arrive from Sumatra.

As the program continues, CalArts officials are hoping to have artists remain for a semester or a year. And, at this point, no form of art is being ruled out. Street or folk arts may be included, so it wouldn’t be out of the question to imagine that someday Run-D.M.C. might be invited to CalArts to lecture on rap music.

“In a sense, it’s simply a matter of bringing a series of visiting artists in fields we’ve not had before,” said Nicholas England, the former acting president at CalArts who has been put in charge of the intercultural projects. “One of the reasons for this project is to enlarge what our school is doing. One of the original beliefs of CalArts was that art is everywhere.”

For the most part, the institute’s faculty and students seem to have embraced this new plan. But, even at an avant-garde school where the unusual is usual, there are apprehensions.

Some teachers are worried that the intercultural projects will amount to nothing more than artistic tokenism--the mere parading of foreign artists through campus. Others are mindful that existing studies don’t suffer as a result of the program.

“It has to be managed,” said Cristyne Lawson, dean of the dance school, which emphasizes modern styles. “There certainly is time for other kinds of dancing, but we’re not here to turn out folk dancers and we’re not starting an ethnic dance program.”

The intercultural projects, she said, “would have to come after the curriculum.”

As for students, several complained that their days are already filled with practicing the classical basics. Actors must study Shakespeare. Violinists must labor over Beethoven and Mozart.

“Intercultural art sounds great. It sounds wonderful,” said Eileen Dorn, a voice student. “But, hell, I’m busy. I have enough to do learning my craft.”

And there are worries about money.

“In this kind of institution, there are never enough funds to meet all the dreams that people have for their own programs,” said Alan Chaplin, acting dean of the music school. “The idea of starting a new entity, where money would be spent outside the existing schools, would make people feel like their share is (in jeopardy).”

But the funding for the projects was provided by a donor who, England said, would not otherwise have given an undisclosed amount of money to the institute. England also said that in no way will classical studies be forsaken; intercultural events can be scheduled so that students who want to attend can find the time. And, for all the apprehensions that do exist, faculty members see great rewards if the projects are well-run.

“We do a certain amount of intercultural stuff anyway, but what the project will allow us to do is bring in people we wouldn’t have been able to bring in the past,” said Catherine Lord, dean of the art school. “That’s important.”

The art department hopes to invite an authority on Latin American photography to spend a semester at CalArts.

“If we can get him to come here,” Lord said, “it represents a tremendous introduction to photography in the Southern Hemisphere for the school and for Los Angeles.”

CalArts first opened in 1961 with money from Walt Disney, who envisioned it as a sort of Utopian high-arts community.

The school’s goal was to create a cross-pollination--an atmosphere where actors, painters, cartoonists, musicians and dancers could learn from each other. And for most of its history, the institute lived a hermitic life, single-mindedly devoted to the art made within its walls.

In recent years, though, this effort has paid off beyond the environs of Valencia. The school has gained a national reputation. Alumni like artist Matt Mullican, dancer Mary Ann Kellog and actors Pee-wee Herman and Ed Harris are getting widespread exposure.

The former president, Robert Fitzpatrick, forged a dazzling image by successfully directing the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival and the 1987 Los Angeles Festival. Fitzpatrick, now the head of Euro Disneyland in Paris, also raised millions of dollars and brought financial security to CalArts.

So Lavine believes he is stepping in at a time that begs for expansion.

The earnest Wisconsinite, scholarly looking in wire-rim glasses and conservative dress, has a number of immediate goals. He wants to hire more professors. He is passionate about making CalArts better known to the people of Los Angeles, even if it means sending students south in a roving van to bring their art to the city’s neighborhoods.

But Lavine’s duties as an associate director at the Rockefeller Foundation tended toward an intercultural bent as he watched the emergence of black independent cinema, Hispanic theater and “crossover” music that incorporated the sounds of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. It is with this work that Lavine has chosen to begin at CalArts, and that has won him a fan in Richard Koshalek, director at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

“In the city of Los Angeles, with the influx of new populations, this is a major concern of anybody involved in the arts,” Koshalek said. “I think Steven is a brilliant choice. I think the result of his appointment is going to be very important to the city.”

If nothing else, the intercultural projects are important at CalArts because they represent a decisive action by the new president. Faculty members say it was vital that Lavine make known his point of view.

“It sends a definite signal,” Lord said.

Said Lavine: “When I came here, it was not just to be an administrator, but in fact to lead CalArts in what I took to be important directions. What is important is for the faculty to understand that I am deeply serious about all the arts.”