Laguna Arts Festival Board Rejects Outside Promotion

Directors of the Laguna Festival of the Arts have rejected a proposal by festival artists to hire an outside promoter to enhance the event’s image.

“We have a high level of confidence in both the governing structure and our professional staff,” directors wrote in a letter Tuesday to the artists, who had presented their ideas to the board’s public relations committee.

“After many discussions with various departments, the board feels--unanimously--that it must reject as unnecessary and potentially counterproductive the notion that a separate new system be established for promotion of activities relating to the grounds,” the letter continued.

Festival artists led by sculptor David Sabaroff had blamed a 10-year slump in festival attendance on a poor image that the festival has in the arts community. The festival, Sabaroff complained, is promoted as a tourist event rather than an arts event.

Artists also had complained that the festival takes a back seat to the adjoining Pageant of the Masters, the annual stage show in which models pose as famous works of art with the help of elaborate sets. Both the pageant and the festival started in the 1930s.

In a two-day period in August, 84 artists signed a petition expressing dissatisfaction with current promotion efforts. There are 164 artists in the festival; Sabaroff has estimated that about 90 to 100 artists are on the grounds on any given weekend.

Sabaroff was unavailable for comment Wednesday, but Dan Miller, another festival artist active in the call for increased promotion efforts, said he was disappointed with Tuesday’s board decision.

“It doesn’t feel to me like that letter does anything to answer my questions,” Miller said. His first impression of the letter, he said, is that the board “does not feel that there is any problem.”

In the letter, board members defended their promotion efforts and pointed to an attendance increase last summer. “Our professional staff members are continually reviewing matters related to both pageant and artists’ needs, and action taken this past year resulted in an increase in attendance” of about 10,000, the letter stated.

But Miller said the estimated increase makes only a dent in the losses from 1980 to 1989, which the artists put at more than 35,000 people. “How did it ever get to this point in the first place?” Miller asked.

The board’s letter, signed by public relations committee chairman Jack Kemp, was sent Wednesday to Sabaroff and other artists who participated in the presentation.