A (Temporary) Burst of Color in Downtown Long Beach

Twelve Long Beach artists have completed 10 temporary murals along downtown Long Beach’s Pine Avenue as part of a revitalization of the city’s historic main street.

The murals--which depict such images as abstract color bursts, jazz musicians and community scenes--are painted on boarded-up storefronts and construction barricades on Pine between 1st and 7th streets.

According to Kerry Kemp, administrative analyst for the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency, the project is designed “to clean up the street in anticipation of some new (development) coming in there. (The murals) are a stopgap solution for our goals of rehabilitating Pine Avenue.”

Kemp said that he expects the murals to remain for a year or so and that they will be taken down individually as the buildings they front are leased, sold or torn down. At that time, he said, the murals will be dismantled and either moved to other locations in the city or given back to the artists.

Participating artists, who were selected through the Long Beach-based Public Corporation for the Arts, are Joseph Giri, Heather Green, Jen Grey, Mayde Herberg, Norman Looney, Karena Massengill, Elliot Pinkney, Jorje Sicre, Jill L. Truair, Ben Valenzuela, Keith Williams and Jaye Whitworth.

Commissions: The Lannan Foundation has commissioned Minnesota-based public artist Siah Armajani to create the environmental work “The Poetry Garden” as a permanent installation at the foundation’s headquarters near Marina del Rey.

The garden--designed specifically for the presentation of poetry--is scheduled to open Oct. 12. It will also be open to visitors of the foundation’s galleries and will be used for music performances, lectures and other special events.

Armajani based the garden’s design on imagery derived from the late Wallace Stevens’ poem “Anecdote of the Jar,” which describes the transformative power of art.

Deadlines: Applications for 1992-93 L.A. Endowment grants are due Sept. 6 and are now available through the L.A. Cultural Affairs Department. Changes in the 1992-93 grants program include new categories and multi-year financing for mid-size multicultural groups; organizations that provide technical assistance to artists and arts organizations, and large-budget organizations with revenues of more than $1.5 million. Several workshops to help applicants have been scheduled through Aug. 10. Information: (213) 485-2433.

Submissions will be accepted through Aug. 30 for 12 public mural commissions offered through “1991-92 Neighborhood Pride: Great Walls Unlimited,” a program run by the Social and Public Art Resource Center and funded by the L.A. Cultural Affairs Department. Commissioned artists will receive $8,000 plus materials and paid youth assistants for each mural. Application workshops are scheduled for Aug. 17 and 21. Information: (213) 822-9560.

Aug. 15 is the deadline for Long Beach-based artists and groups to apply for grants administered through the city’s Public Corporation for the Arts. Information: (213) 499-7777.

Happening: Fantastica ‘91, an annual art and design tour to benefit the Friends of the L.A. Free Clinic, will be held in West Hollywood today from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event will begin at the Pacific Design Center, which will present performers including Beth Lapides and the Love Junkies and a silent auction of more than 150 works by such artists as Carlos Almaraz, Sam Francis and David Hockney. Several area galleries, including Asher/Faure, Rosamund Felsen and Kiyo Higashi, are participating in the tour. Tickets are $25. Information: (213) 936-1447.

Representatives of the National Institute of Appraisers will give free appraisals of up to two works of art during 11 a.m.-5 p.m. clinics to be held Saturday at Costa Mesa’s Works Gallery South (Crystal Court/South Coast Plaza, 3333 Bear St.) and Aug. 10 at the Works Gallery in Long Beach (106 W. 3rd St.). Information: (213) 495-2787.

Artists George Stone, Robert Millar, Michael Davis, May Sun and Gilbert (Magu) Lujan will show designs and discuss their Metro Red Line station commissions during a 7 p.m. presentation Wednesday at Barnsdall Art Park’s Gallery Theater. Information: (213) 244-6408.

Tours: The Craft and Folk Art Museum is sponsoring a “Tour of Ethnic Festivals and Folk Art in Guangxi and Guizhou Provinces of Southwestern China.” The tour will focus on the life and art of ethnic minorities concentrated in the most mountainous and inaccessible regions of China; it will run from Oct. 26 to Nov. 15. Edith Wyle, museum founder and director emeritus, will lead the trip along with folk art specialist William D. Y. Wu, a former professor at Dartmouth and Mills colleges. The tour, including air fare, hotels, meals, transportation, special programs and lectures, costs $4,995. Information: (800) 421-9537.

Etc.: Santa Monica Boulevard’s Space Gallery will close for a summer hiatus beginning next Sunday. The gallery plans to reopen Sept. 7 with new paintings by Patrick Percy and Sylvia Glass. . . . Santa Monica’s Richard Green and Bess Cutler have joined the growing list of local galleries to open on Sundays. Green’s Sunday hours are 1-5 p.m., and Cutler’s are 1-3 p.m., with a buffet brunch offered. . . . The Craft and Folk Art Museum has received a number of recent donations, including about 300 pieces of Mexican folk art from the collection of Ted and Carolyn Warmbold of San Antonio. Other recent gifts include eight pieces of contemporary Japanese ceramics by artists Tatsuo Shimaoka and Kenji Funaki, and a noteworthy collection of 15 American quilts from the Tosco Corp. . . . Margo Leavin Gallery’s survey exhibition “20th-Century Collage,” which showed at the gallery in January and February, will travel this summer and fall to the Centro Cultural Arte Contemporaneo in Mexico City and the Musee d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain in Nice, France. . . . L.A. artist Karen Frimkess Wolf will share a previously reported L.A. Endowment grant of $6,350 with recipient Rosalie Copeland.