New Faces at LACE Steer Avant-Garde Community

There are a lot of new faces on the staff of LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions), and with this influx of key personnel, the avant-garde arts community is watching to see if a change in direction is in store. With a budget of more than $600,000, LACE is the largest artist-run space in Los Angeles dedicated to avant-garde visual arts, music, performance art, dance, video, film and literature.

One indicator of the new direction for LACE is Erica Bornstein, the new performance coordinator at LACE, who recently replaced Weba Garretson. Fresh from New York where she has worked extensively in the field of avant-garde and jazz dance, she will oversee programming and manage the tiny performance space on the second floor of the old two-story industrial building between 7th and 8th streets near the Los Angeles River.

“I’m really a maniac with a lot of energy,” said Bornstein in a conversation at a small downtown restaurant and hangout for many of the LACE personnel. “In my own work I tend to be allied with the next generation after John Zorn, Elliot Sharp and Fred Frith (prominent New York avant-garde musicians). But as an administrator, I try to have as open a mind as I can.”

Part of her job includes sifting through the hundreds of proposals that LACE receives from artists. Another major task will be to coordinate the new Sonic Series with the Independent Composers Assn. and Meet the Composer.

Beginning tonight with events by performance artists Carole Caroompas and Marnie Weber, the new Sonic Series season will continue to program out-of-town composer/musicians as well as local artists in an effort to mix and match ideas from the various regions. Future artists will include Texan instrument-builder/performer Ellen Fullman and local composer/performer Harold Budd.

“We’re not trying to stress an out-of-town performer over a local artist,” insists Bornstein. “We’re just trying to emphasize the differences and learn from them.

“For example, the difference between Los Angeles and New York is space. It’s hard to rehearse in New York because there aren’t that many available places. But here, space is no problem. There are plenty of places to go and rehearse which somehow creates an environment that draws in more people.”

In addition to Bornstein, another key position at LACE, which was filled a little over a year ago is the important exhibitions coordinator, Jinger Heffner, who overlooks the visual arts activity. Other new faces as of the beginning of this month include Adriene Jenik, the new video coordinator, and Dan Bernier, the new bookstore manager.

Laurie Garris, the development coordinator at LACE and acting director during executive director Joy Silverman’s six-month sabbatical which also began at the beginning of this month, insists that no new agenda has come to fore with the arrival of the new people. “We have no plans of being anything other than the animal that we’ve become,” she said. “We’ll continue to support both established and emerging artists like we have in the past.”

All of the staff members stress that their devotion to mutual participation helps keep LACE on a democratic course where one personality is considered just as important as another, and power politics is avoided.

Bornstein concurs that she is bringing no new agenda with her into this position. “I’m more of facilitator,” she insists. “It’s my job to listen and coordinate, not to dictate.”

But there has already been at least one new direction at LACE. An organization called the Coalition for Freedom of Expression which now meets weekly at LACE and involves many LACE members organized a demonstration on Aug. 26 in front of the Westwood Federal Building. About 1,000 people gathered to demonstrate against three amendments which would restrict National Endowment for the Arts appropriations for controversial works.

But executive director Joy Silverman sees this new activity more in terms of growth rather than a new direction. “Getting involved with political issues like these is traditionally related to what artists do anyway,” explains Silverman. “Many of artists who have performed or been exhibited at LACE over the years have been involved with volatile issues that have attracted the attention of right-wing activists.”

“Through freedom of expression it’s possible to mobilize a community for positive change,” Bornstein adds. “The artistic community out there is speaking out about how they want to change things.”