Black History Festivals Planned : Art: The Fox Hills Mall and Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza are holding exhibits. Officials say shows lure shoppers.

After a disappointing holiday season, the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza and the Fox Hills Mall have set their sights on what they hope will be the next sure-fire promotion of foot traffic--celebrations to honor Black History Month.

Both malls have scheduled major art exhibitions, inviting artists from across the country to display their work.

More than 60 artists will be on hand to kick off Fox Hills Mall’s African-American Artists Celebration today through Sunday.

The Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza will sponsor the 10th annual Artists’ Salute to Black History Month, the West Coast’s largest exhibition of art depicting black history and lifestyles, from Feb. 5 through Feb. 10.

Last year, the Artists’ Salute to Black History Month exhibition was held at the Fox Hills Mall and drew more than 150,000 people. The show featured about 80 artists, displaying more than 5,000 paintings, prints, sculptures, batiks, masks and mixed-media work.

Barbara Wesson, the show’s organizer, said the exhibition was moved this year from Fox Hills, which sponsored Wesson’s show the previous nine years, to the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza to have “more room to work with.”

“This year we’ll be able to present many more artists. There will be different kinds of artwork.” More than 90 artists will be represented this time.

In response to the move, the Fox Hills Mall organized its own celebration.

“It has been a tradition we have maintained, and we plan to continue it,” said Deborah Hardy, the Fox Hill Malls’ marketing director. “We are taking a fresh approach with this year’s celebration.”

The Fox Hills show will sponsor a silent auction to raise funds for a scholarship for an African-American student at the Otis Parsons Institute of Design in Los Angeles.

Officials downplay competition between the shows, although both malls have put in a lot of time and energy in promoting their exhibitions.

“It is a win-win situation,” said Charles A. Dorsey, the curator of the Fox Hills Mall exhibit. “Everyone will benefit, especially the artists, because they will get more exposure.”

“It is going to be positive for the community,” said Linda Gray, marketing director of the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza. “One week they will go to Fox Hills, and the next they will go to the Plaza.”

Officials at both malls say the exhibits will increase the number of shoppers in the mall during a relatively slow period.

“February is a slow month, and this certainly this will add to the traffic in the mall,” Hardy said. “But this is not a marketing event, this is a community event.”

Both malls draw customers from the same largely middle-class Baldwin Hills, Ladera Heights, View Park and Windsor Hills communities. More than 50% of Fox Hills Mall’s customers are African-American, as are a large majority of customers at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza.

In the past, the Artists’ Salute has drawn a multiracial following.

Gray sees the exhibit as a major opportunity: “We expect it will attract people to the plaza who have never been here before.

“It will increase traffic flow during a slow period. Once we can get the people here, they will have an opportunity to see how beautiful our mall is,” he said.