Public Arts Project Encounters Power Struggle in Lancaster

Lancaster, once a sleepy desert outpost, is now a city of 100,000 with a burden of big city problems--drugs, the homeless, overdevelopment, corruption, crowded schools and even gangs.

But just when it seemed that Lancaster had confronted all the usual metropolitan woes comes a new one: Art wars.

Lancaster’s first attempt to institute a public art program to put donated paintings in city-owned buildings has broken down amid battles over who controls the program and chooses the art. It’s not exactly a world-class art scandal, but it has resulted in charges of mismanagement and secret agendas and even talk of theft.

At the center of the controversy is a Lancaster sculptor, Judy Schwabacher, who created the art program last year. Her detractors say that after the program was approved by the City Council, she became a self-appointed art czar, striking out on her own to gather art and refusing to share decisions with others.

“She was making it like her own personal art collection,” said Vice Mayor William Pursley, who has led criticism of Schwabacher on the City Council. “She would not go through the proper procedures. She was sort of saying, ‘I will decide about the art and then when I am ready, I will invite the people I want to come to the ceremony to donate it to the city.’ ”

Schwabacher, who declined to comment for this article, also has her defenders.

“She is a well-known artist up here and she has a lot of art in her own house,” said Councilman Arnie Rodio, the senior member of the council and Schwabacher’s staunchest defender.

She is best known for making busts and porcelain dolls of local and national figures. The bust she did of Rodio sits in Lancaster City Hall.

“She is knowledgeable in the field and her intentions were completely honorable,” Rodio said.

As a member of the city’s Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission, an advisory group appointed by the City Council, Schwabacher was in a good position to implement her art acquisition program. “Most of the people on the commission are concerned with softball and other sorts of sports activities,” Rodio said. “She was the only one in the group who represented art and artists.”

The program, approved by the City Council in November, called for formation of an Art Acquisition Committee that would develop a list of potential donors and acquire the art at no cost to the city. Schwabacher, who receives no salary for serving on the commission, was named head of the committee.

Lyle Norton, director of Lancaster’s Parks and Recreation Department, said all acquisitions would eventually have to be approved by the full commission and the City Council.

Schwabacher set to her task in earnest, contacting at least a dozen local artists and collectors about making donations.

“People know her and trust her,” said George Theophanis, a city councilman who has also spoken on Schwabacher’s behalf. “She knew who to go to.”

But some other commission members charged that Schwabacher was purposely leaving them in the dark. “We were asking for a clarification of what was going on,” commission member Arvid Orbeck said. “We didn’t know if she had gotten one piece of art or a thousand.”

The matter was complicated by the fact that in May, through regular rotation, Schwabacher became head of the commission. “She basically didn’t know how to run a meeting,” Orbeck said.

At the July commission meeting, which Schwabacher had to miss for personal reasons, a majority of the commissioners voted to depose her as chairwoman. The action was overturned a few days later by the city attorney, who said the vote was invalid because the issue had not been listed on the pre-meeting agenda.

But Schwabacher was so angry, Orbeck said, that she told him that she would administer the art program entirely on her own.

That led to an exchange in the City Council on Aug. 5 at which Pursley wondered out loud just where the acquired art was and if Schwabacher was keeping it for her personal use. Rodio was directed to talk with her to see if the matter could be settled.

Officials at the Parks and Recreation Department have determined since then that Schwabacher had not actually acquired any art, personally, although her discussions had played a part in two donors giving paintings to the city art museum, Norton said. She agreed to meet with Orbeck today to discuss their differences.

“Everyone agrees the program is a good idea,” Rodio said. “I’m sure we will get on with it, soon.”