“As an animal, I feel threatened...

“As an animal, I feel threatened by the extraordinary number of animals dying all over the world. I mean, if the animals die, we all die.”

--Jen Grey, 1989

Jen Grey is a Long Beach artist and art professor whose sense of urgency about the environment is reflected in her words, her teaching and her work.

“Free Beach,” her latest call to arms about the environment, opened Saturday night at the South Bay Contemporary Museum of Art in Torrance and is alternately described as an experimental art event, an interactive set and an urban beach drama. The exhibition--conceived by Grey and created by her and 61 of her friends, students and colleagues--features murals, music, drama, videos, poetry and sculpture.

Peggy Sivert, the museum’s curator, invited Grey to put on a one-woman show, but Grey had something else in mind.

Grey, who teaches at Cal State Long Beach and is active in environmental causes, wanted to create an opportunity for people to confront the “fears, facts, fantasy and dreams about clean water.” Her idea was to “invite a wide circle of people to look at the issue of clean versus toxic water and respond to it.”

“Free Beach” contributors include artists, environmentalists, art historians, writers, union organizers, Grey’s students and “people who don’t ordinarily get a chance to participate in art in this way,” Sivert said.

The result is “somewhere between folk art and the avant-garde,” Grey said. “When you take risks, that’s what creativity is about. Engendering creativity is what helps create solutions.”

The centerpiece of the set is a mural composed of 360 canvas panels, 120 of which were painted, decorated and inscribed by Grey’s students to convey environmental messages. Grey’s contribution to the mural is “Fractured Wave,” which features panels that are purposely in disarray to symbolize the damage caused to the sea by toxic waste.

Bright-colored beach towels and beach chairs in the middle of the museum floor are a stage for performances and exhibits. Surfboards with environmental statements add to the beach feeling.

Among the other contributions are a computer-generated work, “The Voice of the Sea Turtle,” by Pat Clark; “Oars,” a slide show by John and Muriel Olguin documenting their voyage across the Indian Ocean in a rowboat, and “U.V.,” Judith Spiegel’s artistic demonstration of the increasing danger caused by ultraviolet rays.

The museum, located at 5029 Pacific Coast Highway, is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. “Free Beach” runs through Dec. 4. Admission is free.

“When you set up a space like this, interesting things can happen,” Grey said. “Sometimes the dialogue afterwards may be more important than the event itself.”

Proceeds from the sale of “Fractured Wave” will fund a scholarship for Grey’s art students. The sale of other pieces will finance an international symposium of artists, Grey said.