County Asks for Further Opinions on Airport Arts Plans : Public Art: Supervisors get a task force’s recommendations on a program for the new John Wayne Airport terminal, then ask for a staff analysis.

Will the John Wayne Airport soon transport travelers with art and culture as well as with aircraft?

That question--posed via an arts task force’s recommendations for everything at the new terminal from a permanent art collection to a series of live performances--came closer to being resolved Tuesday when the Orange County Board of Supervisors received the recommendations and immediately turned to airport officials for input.

The board, without adopting or rejecting the recommendations, instructed the airport staff to analyze the recommendations and return them with comments or recommendations of their own to the Airport Commission and the board by Dec. 12 for a final vote.

“I am very pleased” with the task force’s report, said Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, whose district includes the airport, but, he added, “we should consider the administrative and fiscal impact of the recommendations” before adopting them.

“Arts activities are always a measure of a community’s vitality,” Harvey Stearn, chairman of the 12-member John Wayne Airport Arts Task Force, told the board. “An arts program at the John Wayne Airport would be a very visible measure of vitality in Orange County.”

The arts program would feature four exhibits a year, performing arts events, and the acquisition of two artworks annually, according to task force recommendations made after surveys of airport patrons reportedly showed a widespread desire for such a program.

At present, the art displayed at the airport consists of a bronze statue of John Wayne and several illustrations of the actor.

A permanent director and a five-member arts commission (appointed by supervisors) would run the program, and professional curators would be hired for each exhibit.

The first exhibit, pegged to the terminal’s opening day, would be of work by Orange County artists. The terminal is scheduled to open April 1.

Because the program would begin in the middle of a fiscal year, the task force recommendations call for an initial partial-year budget of $70,000 that would provide for the acquisition of one artwork and money for two exhibits.

The money would come from the airport “enterprise fund” generated by fees charged to airlines and other airport users. County officials estimate that the fund will total $28.3 million this year.

A full-year budget of $250,000 for future years has been suggested--but not formally recommended--in a “sample” spending plan. According to that plan, the enterprise fund would supply $200,000 and private donations for art purchases would account for the rest.

Task force member Courtney Wiercioch, executive assistant to Riley, said the board will probably most want advice from airport staff on:

* Whether money from the enterprise fund would be available for the program;

* Whether it should indeed be spent on art, and

* Whether the five-member airport art commission would be properly accountable to airport officials and supervisors.

Assistant Airport Manager Janice Mittermeier has said that the arts program, if it is financed by the enterprise fund, could cause a slight increase in airport user fees. On Monday, however, Mittermeier said it would be premature to speculate on the size of an increase when “we don’t even know for sure what the budget would be.”

As for accountability, she said, “Certainly there will be a review process in place so we make sure . . . we are getting value for our dollar.” The task force recommendations, she noted, stipulate that all activities and expenditures proposed by the airport arts commission will be subject to board approval.

“I think the task force is a responsible group and the Board of Supervisors is a responsible group, and no one is going to expend funds that are not justified,” she said.

Many in the local arts community are paying close attention to the progress of the proposals for the airport program.

Charles Desmarais, director of the Laguna Art Museum and chairman of the Committee for an Orange County Arts Council, a new ad hoc group working to establish a countywide arts service organization, was one of four committee members at the meeting Tuesday. Desmarais praised the board for its “commitment to the arts.”

Other arts officials agreed Tuesday that the airport arts program would not preclude or conflict with county support, financial or otherwise, for a new arts council. Many in the local arts community have expressed hopes that the county would support such a council in some fashion.

The chief purpose of such a council would be “to provide services to arts organizations and present a case for the arts” throughout the county, and it therefore would “serve an entirely different function” from the airport arts program, said Stearn, who is also a member of the California Arts Council.

NEXT STEP

A final vote to approve or reject recommendations for an arts program at John Wayne Airport will be made Dec. 12 by the Orange County Board of Supervisors.