Arts Panel Sticks to Goals Despite Furor Over ‘Fence’ : Carlsbad: Some say fledgling arts commission should heed the publics’ views to avoid conflicts like that over beach sculpture.

If Carlsbad residents believe the recent flash-fire of controversy over the oceanfront public artwork “Split Pavilion” will mute the artistic goals of the city’s fledgling arts commission, the commission’s chairwoman has a message for them:

“We don’t want to just slip in sculptures of penguins and dolphins,” said Sue Ladouceur. “That’s not what we’re here for.”

The arts commission toiled in relative obscurity until the debate exploded over Split Pavilion, the fenced-garden designed by New York artist Andrea Blum completed early this year.

When the city established an arts office in 1986, it also set up the seven-member commission, made up of volunteers appointed by the mayor, to advise the City Council on how to spend the hundreds of thousands of dollars the city planned to set aside each year for arts-oriented events and projects and to help direct the city toward cultural goals.

Until recently, the relationship functioned smoothly, if not quietly, establishing a wide range of community-oriented arts projects.

Although it has managed to install several modest public artworks--which is more than many cities can claim--the commission hasn’t always met with complete support or recognition for its efforts from the City Council. Early in the commission’s history, the council rejected two public art projects approved by the arts commission board--which led to the first efforts to inform the public about the development of projects--but there was little furor or widespread community interest in the commission’s activities.

Split Pavilion thrust Carlsbad’s commission squarely into the spotlight’s glare. In the past, monthly commission meetings rarely attracted more than a handful of community members; in March dozens of emotional residents descended on meetings to complain about the Blum project, most of them focusing their ire on its 8-foot-high galvanized-steel fence that lines Carlsbad Boulevard. A petition drive protesting the piece garnered 12,000 signatures, and residents began displaying “Remove the Bars” bumper stickers.

In the wake of the controversy, the City Council has asked the commission to prepare a detailed, step-by-step explanation of the process the commission will use in the future to select projects. At a commission meeting tonight, a plan prepared by the city’s arts office is due to be presented to the commission. It will call for more public notice of meetings about public art projects, including that artists develop a model or drawings for public appraisal as each project develops, and that the mock-ups be displayed near the site for people to inspect.

With so many residents complaining that they were surprised, if not downright shocked by Split Pavilion, the council wants the arts office and the commission to elaborate on its procedures for involving the community in decisions.

“Everything is in place to make this work,” Mayor Claude Lewis said. “The way we’re tweaking this is to make sure the public is aware of the meetings.”

The result is, after six years in existence, that the commission finds itself preparing to operate under intense public scrutiny for the first time. Well aware of the national debate over the role of the government in sponsoring art, the commission is struggling to strike a balance between encouraging public input and maintaining the artistic integrity of future projects.

On one hand, the new-found attention may be “a good thing” for the commission, since people will now be more aware of the commission’s role in the community, said Connie Beardsley, manager of three-member Carlsbad arts office, which directs the city’s arts programs.

“We’re responding to what appears to be a concern in the community,” she said.

But public scrutiny also carries inherent dangers, particularly the problem of designing art by committee, or over-empowering those that “whine and cry long enough,’ as Ladouceur puts it, with the ability to veto projects.

“At that point you start creating work that is really going to be mediocre,” said artist Raul Guerrero, who has worked on several art projects for the city of Carlsbad. “You can’t create by community consensus.”

But even some commission members feel that the commission must be more responsive to the community.

“When using public money, you can’t thumb your nose at the public,” said Arthur Wood, one of the newest members of the arts commission, who argued during the heat of the Split Pavilion debate that Blum should drop the fence from her project.

Wood, appointed earlier this year, is vice president and regional director of a labor union who applied for the city’s personnel committee but was instead appointed to the arts commission to give it another “layman’s” point of view. He is one voice in a very diverse group.

Commissioners range from artists, like Patra Straub and Ladouceur, who was recently appointed to a second three-year term, to people with little background in art, like Wood and businessman Gary Wrench.

When it was formed in 1986, the commission was a novelty, the first arts commission in the county. Since then, San Diego, Escondido and Chula Vista have also developed similar organizations.

In Carlsbad, most arts events, programs and temporary art projects are funded through an annual allocation from the city’s general fund. The arts appropriation reached a high of $280,000 in the 1991-’92 budget, but it probably will slip to about $266,000 for ‘92-’93. Beardsley said the cuts are due to citywide cutbacks, and are not backlash from the Split Pavilion controversy. Among the programs lost will be an annual temporary public art festival this fall, and an annual pops performance by the San Diego Symphony on Labor Day weekend.

A wide variety of projects will continue, including an annual series of jazz concerts; a visitingartist program which has brought a theater troupe, an opera singer a pianist and other artists to the city for workshops and lectures; school programs and a grants-allocation program, which annually distributes $15,000 to $20,000 to local artists. The arts office also prepares a calendar of arts events and a regular arts newsletter.

The commission also oversees public art projects, which are funded by the city through a Capital Improvement Project financed from fees charged to local developers. To date, the arts office has spent a total of $125,000 on seven public projects, including $25,000 for Split Pavilion. The total cost for Split Pavilion was about $350,000, with additional money provided by city redevelopment fees, part of the overall plan to upgrade Carlsbad’s downtown.

Among the other public art pieces already installed are an installation by Lloyd Hamrol in Stagecoach Park, which consists of concentric stone walls submerged in a grassy slope, and a James Hubbell mosaic marking the entrance of the city on Carlsbad Boulevard.

Several other projects are in development, including a $150,000 contract for pieces by DeLoss McGraw, Jan Sanchez and Ellen Ziegler for the new library being built in La Costa and a $30,000 seawall being designed by Guerrero.

“Overall, Carlsbad, compared to San Diego, is much more advanced in terms of commissioning art and getting it done,” said artist Guerrero, whose mosaic bench overlooking the ocean commissioned by the city in 1990 is one of the permanently installed art pieces .

“They’re doing it, they’re not just talking about it,” he said.

In general, the city’s first steps into art were cautious, especially in public art--a small part of the arts office’s activities, but the most visible.

In 1987, the City Council killed two projects approved by the commission after residents came to City Council meetings to complain. One was for a hanging sculpture at a seniors center; the other was for an abstract sculpture in front of the city’s fire department.

In both cases, few complaints were heard until the project reached the council.

“The city is young and a little immature as far as being adventuresome,” Ladouceur said

During the long debates over Split Pavilion, many in the community complained that the arts commission “was talking down” to residents.

“If the citizens want a 30-foot brick wall that you can’t see through at all, then I’d support that. But it’s up to the citizens, not the mayor or the arts department or an artist,” Jim Watson, who spearheaded opposition to the sculpture, told the press.

Much of the commission’s early public arts efforts have focused on the annual temporary public arts series, which have featured the works of various artists. In addition to their artistic strengths, the programs also have been clearly designed to help educate residents about different artistic forms.

The temporary projects were a good way to start, since unpopular pieces “would be gone tomorrow,” said David Lewinson, who curated the first temporary series in 1987.

The summer temporary projects changed each year, with new curators coming in to select the artists. In 1991, the temporary public art series was entitled “Art and Architecture: Crossing Boundaries,” as the city was “excited about the notion of getting developers and businesses interested in art,” according to Kathleen Stoughton, a professor of art and the director of the San Diego Mesa College Art Galley, who curated the series.

City officials were supportive but wary of the projects, Stoughton said. The city was particularly sensitive to potential lawsuits, which “was one of the biggest handicaps” to the project, she said.

For example, for one piece at Stagecoach Park, architect Rob Quigley wanted to set up an iron door to emphasize the transition from the public spaces into a natural, rural part of the park that was not meant to be accessible to the public. However, the city’s risk-management team wanted the piece moved because they feared people would blame the city if they were injured in the rural part of the park, or that they might damage the natural setting, Stoughton said. Quigley eventually placated the city by adding a sign on the door saying “This is not an exit.”

While members of the art community often praise Carlsbad’s efforts, there is a wariness, given San Diego’s very public squabbles about public art.

Some even think that Carlsbad may be trying too hard: “It seems to me (Carlsbad) is being overly conscientious of public input,” Lewinson said. “It is stunning that (Blum) put up with it.”

But Beardsley takes a more tempered view, explaining that she believes artists have to understand that there are quirks to dealing with any city agency.

“If an artist wants to work in public art, then they should want to work with the community,” she said. “That is what public art is.”

There is a downside, Beardsley acknowledged. “Some good projects don’t get built.”

In the case of Split Pavilion, which was particularly controversial due to its oceanfront location, there were plenty of public hearings, but despite public notice, it was never an issue until the work was built.

“No one screamed loud enough,” said Wood, the new commission member.

Wood believes artists “should not be restrained, but there should be guidelines.” The commission should ask the artists to be more specific early on in the process, but ultimately the piece has to reflect the artist’s vision, he said.

“It’s like if we say, ‘do a mural depicting whale migration,’ ” Wood said. “Then if he paints a whale with four eyes and a funny tail, that’s the artist’s concept and that’s fine.”

There is no doubt that the commission has learned lessons from the furor over Split Pavilion. The commission needs to make more of an effort to sell art to the public, she said. In the future, Wood believes the commission should focus on recruiting local artists.

“We took for granted (the community) was listening, and they weren’t,” Ladouceur said.

No matter what the Carlsbad commission approves, it will still be up to the City Council to give projects the go ahead.

“City officials need to stand up for the process once it’s been finalized,” Ladouceur said. “We have to know they’re going to stand up for us.

After a project is approved by the commission, if council members kill it because, “ ‘people don’t like it and they’re not going to get reelected,’ then something is wrong with the process,” Ladouceur said.