Manhattan Beach to Let Public Decide What Art to Keep

With a $20,500 budget, Manhattan Beach is confronting an age-old dilemma: sponsoring public art that the public actually likes.

The city is on the verge of installing pieces by five artists under its 15-month-old public arts program. Officials describe it as their most ambitious project. Up until now, the public art program has stuck mainly to tours and lectures and showcasing local artists, once even sponsoring a sand castle contest.

But this project, which will loan art to the city, involves seven artists and curators, some with up-and-coming reputations in the international art scene. One artist, a sculptor, has sold in the $100,000 range. Officials are proud that the city will be able to run the project on a modest budget.

“This project is without precedent in Manhattan Beach,” said Cultural Arts Commission Chairperson Paula Benard. “ . . . We feel art is important and we want to educate the public.”

At the same time, the artists and city officials recognize the inherent risk in public art: it generates controversy because you cannot predict the public’s reaction to art. “But we think we have ways to deal with that, if it arises,” said Benard.

Their method is to let the public decide which pieces the city buys. Unless residents express approval for the works, they will go back to the artists after an 18- to 24-month loan period. Benard’s panel is deciding how that referendum would be run.

Supporters of the public art program have tried to ensure that the artists would create pieces that are compatible with Manhattan Beach and with the sites where the works will be installed.

Co-curator Peter Frank said: “The city made it very clear that they wanted the pieces to be an honest reflection of the community. The pieces are subtle and witty and fit into their situations very well. They truly reflect that (Manhattan Beach) has a small-town family environment with a youthful spirit.”

Display Will Be Late

Despite the good intentions and the planning, there are glitches. The most obvious one is that the pieces will go on display late. There is disagreement about who is to blame.

Installation was to begin two weeks ago, but that was the week Public Art Administrator Katya Williamson abruptly quit. The target date for the opening is now in early September.

Officials say the delay was caused by several artists not having their pieces ready, and not by Williamson’s resignation.

The artists, who have been promised that they will receive $2,000 each for the loan of their works, say they had problems with the city and still have not signed contracts.

Perhaps the biggest surprise to residents may be in artist Kenneth Capps’ attitude toward Manhattan Beach. It is not very favorable, he said, and that is reflected in his work.

A Visual Puzzle

The works and their artists are:

“Rebus” by Michael Davis and Susan Groetsch.

A rebus is a puzzle that uses pictures and phrases to create a longer word or sentence. This one, which will be placed along Manhattan Beach Boulevard, has three parts. In the residential section at Aviation Boulevard: a silhouette of a man. In the business section at Sepulveda: a silhouette of a hat. In the stretch where the street meets the Pacific: the word TAN.

MAN . . . HAT . . . TAN.

The city commissioned Davis to do the piece. Davis, along with his wife, a graphic artist, came up with the idea during a brainstorming session in their kitchen. “This one presented itself like an apple falling out of a tree,” Davis said.

Groetsch agreed. “They told us to try to think of something that reflects Manhattan Beach and this does. Literally.”

Capp’s work, which is untitled, is four posts that will be set in Polliwog Park.

The steel poles, which are topped by something that could be a lighting fixture, will be placed in different areas of the park.

“Basically, they are poles ranging from 12 feet to 15 feet. The tops have various forms, but really they have no practical function,” he said.

“The point to a lot of my work is to force people to think about the absurdity of symbols they cherish. I think a few people (in Manhattan Beach) could use that lesson.”

Capps said the “negative energy” he picked up in Manhattan Beach and from its residents is reflected in his art.

“That park is very awkward. It’s got too much in there. It’s like some one said, ‘Oh, we need this and we need that and now we need art.’ And the poles, their shapes, can emit this false sense of power and importance. But if you think about it, people don’t need all that stuff in there.”

Jim Isermann’s work will decorate the children’s section of the county library on Highland Avenue.

Isermann will bring bright colors, flowers and bean bags to the 25-foot-square space. The centerpiece is a steel mobile, 15 feet in diameter, with 20 dangling flower shapes. There will also be five kaleidoscope-like designs on wood panels. The final touch will be 15 bean bags, regular size. Yellow, orange, turquoise and red are the dominant colors.

Hope and Innocence

“I think my works were chosen because they wanted a love-and-hope-and-innocence-type aura there,” Isermann said. “That relates to children very well.”

“Serpent” and “Dumbbells” by Ann Preston, will be placed at the 20th Street Alcove.

Preston’s cast-bronze serpent head will jut from a wall along a staircase that leads to the beach. The pair of dumbbells will be secured to a nearby bench. The pieces are small. The dumbbells, the larger of the pieces, are 15 inches in length.

Art critics have noted that Preston’s smooth and softly curved sculptures have sexual allusions. Preston, who is vacationing in the South Pacific, was unavailable for comment.

But former Public Arts Administrator Katya Williamson said that the pieces in the context of the Manhattan Beach site create a “whimsical effect,” not a sexual one.

A Gentle Surprise

In an interview before her resignation, Williamson said the pieces will give people a “gentle surprise. Hopefully, they will decide it enhances the environment,” she said.

Enhancing the environment is what the public art program is all about, those involved in the project say.

“All of us feel that art is truly an essential of life . . . that Manhattan Beach will be a better place to live if we can educate the public about art.” said Williamson.

She said the program’s biggest accomplishment so far has been the revamping of the city’s annual Festival of the Arts so it includes student art work and a juried contest for South Bay artists.

They’ve Been Exhibited

The upcoming art-on-loan project is clearly on a different level. The artists involved have had their works exhibited in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Japan and Europe. Only Davis is based in South Bay, living and working in San Pedro. Isermann and Preston are based in Santa Monica and Capps in Carlsbad. Davis has sold work in the $100,000-price range.

The two curators hired by the city, Bonnie Clearwater and Peter Frank, have worked on dozens of shows and for major art foundations. The curators, whose job was to select the artists and the sites, were paid about $600 each.

With $8,000 set to go to the artists, the remainder of the $20,500 approved by the City Council was budgeted for appraisals, insurance, administrative and installation costs. Should the residents decide to buy any of the work, the city will negotiate a price with the artist.

Said co-curator Clearwater: “I know very little of their other events, but clearly one of the signals this project sends out is that Manhattan Beach is an up-and-coming community.

‘Just Plopped Down’

Frank agreed. “Both Bonnie and I tend to avoid public art programs. In fact, this is my first, because so much of it is what I call plop art. It’s just plopped down with no consideration of the environment.”

Adds Clearwater: “They had a very modest budget for this, but what makes this a good program was that it is well thought out and focused.”

But clearly there were mistakes. Officials and the artists said they underestimated the red tape involved in the project and set an unrealistic starting date.

Commission members said that Williamson clashed with her supervisor, Ed Montan, assistant director of parks and recreation, over the administration of the program, and that eventually led to her resignation. Montan and Williamson last week declined to comment on the dispute.

Interim Administrator

Montan, meanwhile, is the interim administrator of the public arts program while the city searches for a new one.

Three of the artists--Davis, Isermann and Capps--complained they were kept in the dark. After visiting the city early in the year to see the sites where their work would be installed, they had very little contact with the city.

“At times, I wondered if the project was still on,” Isermann said, noting that he has received fewer than five phone calls since January to discuss the contract, the work, the appraisal or its results. Isermann and Capps acknowledge that they did not make a point of calling the city to get answers to their questions.

And then there is Kenneth Capps. In a project where officials took measures to avoid public outcry, Capps is an unexpected wild card.

Raise Eyebrows

He expects his work and words to raise eyebrows, he said. “If there isn’t controversy I would consider it a failure. My job is to get as many people to question and think as possible. And some people in Manhattan Beach should wake up to this false identity they’re getting.

“I used to live in Inglewood for a while in the ‘60s and Manhattan was a funky beach town with a lot of interesting characters. When I went back to Manhattan Beach to look at the park, I was appalled. Now all I see is white sharks in tennis shoes with nothing to do but sip coffee in cafes and go shopping in quaint little tourist shops. What kind of life is that?”

Counters Mayor Patricia Collins: “We’ve gotten knocks of becoming ‘yuppified’ before. All I can tell you is the people who move into town are no different from us old-timers.” Collins has lived in Manhattan Beach for 17 years.

“They are active in civic and church organizations and they care about their families,” she said. “They just have more money.”