His Job Is to Be a Spark Plug for the Arts : Manhattan Beach: The public’s initial enthusiasm has waned in the city arts program, so Howard Spector is trying to stir up interest--and money.

Howard Spector turned up at a recent Manhattan Beach Coordinating Council luncheon armed with a stack of printed handouts and a carousel full of slide photographs.

He was there to talk about quality of life, intellectual and aesthetic challenge and other good things that the arts do for cities--in this case, the Public Arts Program in the seaside city of Manhattan Beach.

Spector’s presentation was warmly received, although one woman in the audience suggested that the public art on display in the city doesn’t have anything to do with “our little beach town.”

As administrator of the arts program, Spector expects to be making several appearances before civic and business groups in the next few months, and he hopes to spark a public dialogue about the program.

“A major education process has to take place here,” said Spector, who began his $35,000-a-year job in February, six months after the program’s first administrator abruptly left the job.

Spector’s challenge is to revitalize the arts program, which was launched with strong city support two years ago but whose initial public art displays have stirred widespread criticism.

Spector sees Manhattan Beach residents as educated, affluent people oriented more toward sports and the beach than a program that installs art in public places and sponsors arts lectures and performances. “Nothing like this was offered to them” before the arts program was started, he said.

He said the 1990-91 fiscal year is critical to the program’s survival in light of a mandate from the City Council to develop public support for the venture and raise money so it can be self-supporting.

If the public really supports the program, Spector said, it needs to demonstrate that support.

Created by the council two years ago as a pilot program, the public arts project was given a $100,000 annual budget. Although its art lectures drew sizable audiences, and art festivals at Polliwog Park were big successes, the contemporary art pieces loaned to the city by artists for two years drew the lion’s share of comment. For the most part, that comment was negative.

The chief target was a pictorial puzzle in which the word Man-hat-tan is depicted in sequence along Manhattan Beach Boulevard. It seemed to leave more people confused than amused. Other brickbats were thrown at an artist’s rendition of dumbbells--which were attached to a bench along the Strand--that gained notoriety when they were stolen, returned and then stolen again. They’re still missing.

“I don’t see the particular need of appropriating the citizens’ funds on those kinds of things,” Councilman Dan Stern said in an interview.

This year, the council voted to continue the arts program after the pilot period expired July 1, but with a curtailed budget. The council appropriated $50,000 for administrative costs and pledged to match up to $50,000 in funds raised by the program.

According to Spector, funds carried over from the earlier budget will cover stipends to artists for a new set of works being selected for temporary public display. That money also will pay for the city’s first permanent artwork, which will be installed next year in the Manhattan Beach Parkway between Valley Drive and Ardmore Avenue.

But he said future activities depend on funds from local businesses, corporations, individuals and grant-giving agencies. Manhattan Friends of the Arts, a nonprofit group that supports art programs in the city, already has donated $3,000 to co-sponsor an arts lecture program that begins in January.

Spector said he is scheduling more appearances before community organizations and service groups, as well as preparing a video on the arts program. He also is developing a nonprofit foundation that will provide more opportunities for raising money from public sources.

Most council members are supportive of the arts program, although they believe it harmed itself by displaying art that residents weren’t prepared to accept.

“The community was not buying into the art in public places,” said Councilwoman Pat Collins. “I felt we needed a little more education. Possibly we needed to start with some more traditional art . . . to begin educating the community.”

Councilwoman Connie Sieber emphasized involvement with the schools. “If kids are brought up . . . being taught how to appreciate art, those will be the real staunch supporters,” she said.

Jason Lane, a businessman, art collector and chairman of the Cultural Arts Commission, which recommends art selections to the council, faults the original commission for some of the program’s problems. Lane said the commission was dominated by artists “who were so far out in front of the people. . . . (They) were far more interested in putting forth this cutting-edge art statement.”

But Paula Benard, a teacher who was on the original commission, said the selection process was complicated and defies a simplistic explanation.

“There was a lot of effort to include community input,” she said, “but I don’t know if we went far enough to reach enough people. . . . There was a public hearing, but hardly anyone attended.”

The commission was reduced from nine to five members this year and has only one artist member. Lane said that in evaluating new artwork, the commission considered “what might be the reaction of people” as well as artistic merit.

“It is important that the community be involved in the dialogue, that we understand some of their views,” Spector said.

At the same time, Spector--a longtime photographer and painter who makes a striking appearance in a ponytail and broad-brimmed hat--said controversy is inherent in public art. “It’s brought to the people and put in public spaces. . . . People may or may not be ready to see it,” he said.

He said one measure of the program’s success so far is that it “has gotten people commenting. Art is a waker-upper, an alarm, and it has been for as long as it’s been around. People need to start understanding and getting out of their own isolated little areas. . . .”

In what Spector hopes will lead to involving the arts program in the school system, the city and the South Bay Union High School District will dedicate a mural Saturday in the boys gym at Mira Costa High School. The work, by Manhattan Beach artist Steve Kelso, depicts sports programs at the school.

The mural was paid for by the city and the Manhattan Beach Kiwanis Club, which donated labor and materials to prepare the gym wall for the mural. The invitational dedication will be from 5 to 7 p.m., and a public open house will be held Oct. 28 from noon to 4 p.m.

Officials say the arts program expects to take an important step forward next summer with the installation of its first permanent project, the “Mariposa Pathway,” in a 250-foot-long portion of the Valley-Ardmore parkway.

Seven totems depicting monarch butterflies will be installed along the jogging trail and sandstone path for viewing by joggers and walkers.

Lane contributed $25,000 for the pathway, which was matched by the city. The gesture was in memory of Lane’s wife, Julie, who used to run down the parkway.

“She would have enjoyed the butterflies,” he said.