Laguna Festival Sites, Museum Survive Fire

Both the Laguna Art Museum and the Art Institute of Southern California survived Wednesday’s devastating fire, and the grounds of the three summer arts festivals that provide a livelihood for many of the city’s artists and craftspeople also apparently suffered no major damage.

There were unconfirmed reports on Thursday, however, that some artists’ studios and houses along Laguna Canyon Road were burned. Art collectors and museum supporters left homeless by the fire included Richard Jonas and his wife, Johann, and their Emerald Bay neighbors, Suzanne and Theodore Paulson.

John Lottes, president of the Art Institute, said Thursday that he hopes classes will resume next week. No damage was reported at the Festival of the Arts, the Sawdust Festival and Art-a-Fair grounds located, like the art institute, along Laguna Canyon Road.

Bolton Colburn, the museum’s curator of collections, said he didn’t know when the galleries would reopen. Colburn is examining artworks at the site for possible smoke damage, and will notify owners of the works if there are problems, he said. Museum director Charles Desmarais was out of town and could not be reached Thursday. He is scheduled to return today.

The museum smelled of smoke Thursday morning, but none was visible. According to a deputy sheriff, the fire had come within a half-mile of the museum. Other sources said the fire came close to the hills behind the Cottage restaurant, across Pacific Coast Highway from the museum.

Except for a small sign on a scrap of paper lying on the main gallery floor near the front door (“Museum closed temporarily due to fire”), there was scant evidence in the lobby of the museum that anything had happened. Ed (Big Daddy) Roth’s customized car, “Beatnik Bandit,” part of the current “Kustom Kulture” show, was still on display. The museum’s closing will cut short public opportunity to see the exhibition, which cannot be extended beyond its Nov. 7 end date because of other scheduling commitments, officials said.

Museum staff stayed until 5 p.m. Wednesday, storing most of the art either in the concrete-walled Steele Gallery or in the museum’s basement vault. Staff members moved the museum’s computer backup files out of Laguna Beach.

Artworks were removed from the downstairs gallery--the only one with a sprinkler system--because it was feared that smoke would trigger the sprinklers even if the fire didn’t reach the museum. Elsewhere in the museum, the fire protection system uses a gas that won’t harm the artwork.

“We were really concerned about just making sure the history of art in Laguna Beach wasn’t wiped out,” said Susan Anderson, the museum’s associate curator. “We have all those old files--archival materials, photos. We got lots of them into vaults . . . and put (others) in our cars and vans.”

Anderson suggested that her next exhibition, “Hand and Spirit: Media Exploration in Laguna Beach, 1918-1993,” opening Dec. 3, “should be honoring (the city’s crafts)people who may have lost their life’s work.” She also expressed concern about the fire’s impact on the museum’s Nov. 19 art auction, which depends heavily on work donated by Laguna Beach artists.

At the Art Institute of Southern California, the county’s only private art college, staff removed works of art from the building on Wednesday, and stored financial and student records in a fireproof vault.

“It was a miracle,” Lottes said. “Mark Murray, our receptionist, went in this morning (and saw) no signs of fire along the Canyon Road at that level. . . . We’re going to try to get back in as soon as we can.

“(The building) would have gone up like a matchbox. It’s all wood-frame construction, with cedar siding and an asphalt roof. But I’m pleased our evacuation plan did work. . . . Fortunately, we’re a small place. We had great help from students.

“We had just hung a new (art) show, ‘Dark Suburban Fantasies,’ ” he said. “It was supposed to open (Thursday night). All the paintings were taken to people’s homes” outside the fire area.

Lottes, who lives in Laguna Niguel, said he tried to check in on the school himself Thursday morning but he was unable to get past Crown Valley Parkway.