Q&A; WITH BARBARA PIEPER : ‘Creativity Is a Trump Card for California’ : Arts: New president of the state arts council says her priorities include ‘fostering creativity’ and ‘increased emphasis on arts and education.’

Los Angeles County Board of Education member Barbara Pieper, 47, was recently named by Gov. Pete Wilson as president of the California Arts Council, which in recent years has been plagued by budget cuts and layoffs and even threatened with a proposal to abolish the agency outright. Pieper replaces Joanne Kozberg, who was named secretary of the state and consumer services agency.

Pieper, a Long Beach native and fourth-generation Californian, served as mayor of La Canada Flintridge in 1982-83 and 1985-86; she was also the first woman to serve on the city council there. S he will continue to live in La Canada Flintridge with son Christopher, 12, and husband Darold Pieper, an attorney. She will commute to Sacramento.

Pieper earned her undergraduate degree at UCLA and a master’s degree in educational administration at USC and is credentialed to teach history and Spanish. In 1992, Pieper spent the fall semester at Harvard University on a fellowship at the Institute of Politics.

Pieper calls her family “bilingual and bicultural,” because while she and her twin sister were born in California, her half-siblings from her father’s second marriage were born in Colombia.

Pieper, who was named to the $80,000-a-year position Nov. 19, had her first day as head of the agency Dec. 6--and several days later, talked to The Times about her plans for the council.

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Question: You’ve just started the job, so you are probably still in a good mood.

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Answer: Of course. And I plan to stay that way!

Q: Gov. Wilson has said that he selected you because of your background in “government, education and the arts.” It’s obvious from your resume what he means about government and education, but what about the arts?

A: I have been interested in vocal and piano music, and to this day I still play the piano, listen to CDs in the car and then try to play the piece when I get home. When I was at UCLA I sang with the women’s chorus, and, in my own community, I was a founding member of the Towne Singers, which is still in existence. I know the challenges of local communities wanting to do something for the arts and finding the impetus and interest to stay with it.

Q: You are taking on a difficult job. In 1992, there was speculation that the agency might be voted out of existence.

A: We’re here . . . you know, county offices--arts, education, etc.--we’re told every year: “You’re on the table.” Well, California is repositioning its economics, and everybody is on the table every year.

Q: So you don’t think you are in any more dire straits than any other government department?

A: I think that every year we have to monitor and follow the process carefully. We have many strong advocates in the legislature, and perhaps our strongest advocate is the governor himself.

Q: What is the update on the department? What is the current budget, and are you facing any imminent cuts?

A: We are in the middle of the process. The state’s preliminary budget will be delivered in January. . . . Last year, our total budget was roughly $13 million. We provided about $10.25 million in grants, and, by the time they were matched by (private) organizations, they total more than $27 million.

Q: Last year, (then-president) Kozberg discussed the possibility of the agency raising all of its grant funds through private means.

A: I don’t have a crystal ball there. . . . I act on what the arts council wants.

Q: What are your priorities for the department?

A: There is something very interesting happening here, and that is our economic impact study of the arts . . . Creativity is a trump card for California, whether you are talking computers or high tech or whatever. And the synergy that exists by fostering creativity will be very important.

Another area is increased emphasis on arts and education. At the end of March, we will have an arts and education conference sponsored by the governor . . . with (cutbacks in public education), frequently it’s the arts programs that get cut and not added back. . . .

We are also looking at a lot of cross-fertilization within the state; we are going to have a tourism task force. . . . One of the things that came out in one of our recent surveys is that, in San Francisco, more people attend arts events than go to sports events.

Q: A lot of money and effort seems to be spent on surveys and conferences rather than on artists. How do you justify that?

A: You are correct, but, again, a state this complex requires that leadership be multifaceted, we need to know what we are about and what we do well. With our cultural tourism conference, for example, I think we started many regional interests in the topic.

Q: What makes California different than the East Coast, in terms of the arts?

A: At Harvard . . . I taught a short course on “California in Crisis”--they love that back there, you know. One of my themes was creativity--whether in business or in the arts, we seem to attract those forces. That’s ultimately going to allow us to reposition and survive and ultimately come out stronger than the rest of the country.

Q: Let’s get more specific than California--what about Los Angeles, which is trying to change a tarnished image? A lot of the world thinks we’re still on fire after the 1992 riots.

A: And we’re not. In the year prior to my arrival, we have gone into South Central with some programs for some students. We need to give some support in that particular area. The arts are very important to many people, and I think for some children it can be a real relief.

Q: In April, the council launched an Arts License Plate to raise funds. What’s happening with that?

A: We are almost at our 5,000 number (of applicants needed to begin production); we only need a few hundred more before we turn it over to the DMV. We have a second year (to achieve that number), but we’d like to finish this year. (If we get 5,000 applications) we could see them on the road in early March.