Artwalk Is Taking Softer Steps This Time : Art: After controversy and City Council criticism, works this year seem downright tame.

Call this the “kinder and gentler” Artwalk.

After last year’s furor over a controversial billboard and the resulting attempt by the City Council to scuttle a grant for Installation Gallery, Artwalk’s sponsor, things seem downright friendly for the free, sixth annual celebration of the downtown art scene, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

There aren’t any public works that might anger or embarrass the city’s boosters, and several prominent names from the local business community--Ernest Hahn, Gordon Luce and Malin Burnham--are on Artwalk’s honorary committee.

On 11th Avenue between F and G streets--the same site where last year David Avalos, Louis Hock, Elizabeth Sisco and Deborah Small erected their billboard lambasting the city’s refusal to name the convention center for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.--there’s a work by Barbara Sexton called “CASTE + AGE = CAGE.” The piece, depicting five hands of varying age and color, is an obvious damnation of racial and age discrimination, but it’s nowhere near as provocative as last year’s billboard. Still, Artwalk organizers say they didn’t consciously avoid controversy this year.

“I wasn’t told to be conservative,” said artist Lynn Engstrom, who headed the three-person committee that chose nine commissions for this year. “We were just told to pick the best pieces.”

The committee, which reviewed 46 proposals, included Installation board Vice President Beverly Schroeder and art collector Carla Bassi. They awarded six $2,000 and three $1,000 commissions--the largest amount ever for the event.

Among the commissions is a mural by Victor Arballo, Robin Barnett and Jason Faessel, over the entrance of the former First Baptist Church on 10th Street. Ironically, the building also once housed Installation Gallery, which has been dormant since September, when it mounted its last exhibit, “No Stomach,” a group show organized in response to local and national censorship issues. The gallery may soon be making a comeback, however, according to Schroeder.

“We are advertising for a gallery director, we have a small temporary office space and we have somebody acting as an administrator,” said Schroeder, who echoed Engstrom’s comments about the commissions. “I think we proceeded in good faith and responded to the submittals. We felt we picked the strongest submittals.”

Schroeder acknowledged, however, that the Installation board has been aware of its tenuous relationship with the City Council, which at one point completely denied Installation’s grant request, despite a recommendation for funding from the city’s Commission for Arts and Culture. The council ultimately approved a $37,000 grant for Installation, but stipulated it could be used only for Artwalk.

“When they gave the grant only for Artwalk, it showed where the council was coming from,” Schroeder said. “They chose to support the event rather than the institution, which has had a long history here with local artists and difficult issues.”

Schroeder said the addition of an honorary committee “was something we did to help fund raising.” She estimated the budget for the two-day event is from $65,000 to $70,000. Organizers say that more than 400 artists are participating.

Besides the nine commissions, galleries and studios throughout the downtown area will be open, and there will be live performances of music, dance and theater on two stages, one on 6th Avenue between F and G streets, the other on 7th between G and Market. The Ilan Lael Foundation’s “Avenue of the Arts,” on G Street from 6th to 8th avenues, will feature more than 100 arts, crafts and demonstration booths, and there will be a children’s parade Sunday at 12:30 p.m.

Artwalk hours are 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday. A brochure, including a map and list of all Artwalk sites, will be available throughout downtown.