1990 L.A. Festival Hopes to Attract Orange County Artists : The Arts: The curated sessions and the “open” events will look south in seeking participants to this 1984 Olympics sequel.

Planners of the 1990 Los Angeles Festival intend to present arts and artists from as far away as Australia, Korea and Colombia. The City of the Angels is to be represented too. But will any limelight shine on Orange County?

Organizers of the festival hope so. Any Orange County artists and arts groups--practicing any media--may take part in the event’s Open Festival, in which participants will pay their own production costs.

The Los Angeles Festival, planned for Sept. 1 through 17, is expected to include about 1,500 dancers, visual artists, musicians, actors and more. The festival will be a sequel to the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival, which recognized the vitality of Los Angeles on the worldwide cultural landscape.

A meeting on how to get involved is scheduled for 7 o’clock tonight at the Warner Grand Theater, 478 W. 6th St., San Pedro.

“We are absolutely interested in having Orange County artists take part in the Open Festival,” said its coordinator, Aaron Paley.

While no one locally has been invited yet, Orange County artists may also appear in the festival’s curated component (still being organized), where artists are paid to present their work, according to L.A. Festival executive director Judith Luther.

The overall festival’s chief focus will be on cultures “touched by the Pacific Ocean,” such as those in Southeast Asia, South and Central America, Canada, Siberia, Japan, Mexico, the Pacific Islands and Australia, she said.

With this county’s large Southeast Asian population, “I’d be surprised if some of those artists (of Southeast Asian origin) were not pulled out of Orange County,” Luther said.

While Open Festival artists--whose work need not fit the Pacific-oriented theme--must pay their own way, they will be offered a range of other services, said Paley, who directed the 1987 Fringe Festival, also a pay-to-play event devoted to smaller, local groups that coincided with the 1987 L.A. Festival.

One such service, he said, is that all 1990 L.A. Festival events--”open” or otherwise--will be listed for free in a single schedule of activities. “Open” participants will also be offered workshops on self-production and receive a free guide on self-producing in Los Angeles County, where all festival events will probably occur. And organizers will help participants find venues to present their work.

“Our job is to network with artists, to put them in touch with other artists they might collaborate with,” Paley said. “For instance, if the dance community in L.A. is doing a series of dance concerts, we would put them in touch with an Orange County dancer or troupe.”

Tonight’s meeting will address such possibilities, Paley said: “We would like to talk to artists in Orange County to find out what their needs are.”

Those who cannot attend tonight’s meeting may call (213) 315-9444 or (213) 689-8800 for an Open Festival application or other information.

About 300,000 people attended the 1987 Los Angeles Festival and the Fringe, Paley said. While many of the 500 participants in the Fringe Festival (which included at least five Orange County groups) said they would do it again, many lost money, he reported at the time.

Organizers hope to minimize that risk for the Open Festival by helping artists to find venues with less expensive rents (several performances will take place in parks and other outdoor sites with no admission charge, organizers have said), and by omitting a Fringe Festival application fee (the previous minimum was $100).

Participation in the “Open Festival” will offer artists significant benefits, organizers said.

“One of the most important is the contact they’ll have with other artists, particularly those from countries around the world,” Luther said.

“It could be extremely meaningful, for instance, for Cambodian artists in Southern California to have contact with Cambodian dancers from Phnom Penh,” members of a troupe that festival planners are hoping to present.

NEXT STEP

Orange County artists and arts groups may attend a free meeting tonight to find out how to take part in the Open Festival of the 1990 Los Angeles Festival. Open Festival participants pay their own productions costs. The 7 p.m. meeting with festival director Peter Sellars will be held at Warner Grand Theater, 478 W. 6th St., San Pedro. Information: (213) 315-9444.