Sandcastle Ingrained at The Oaks : Art: The 25-foot-high sculpture began as a stunt but is now a beloved landmark in Thousand Oaks. A plan to tear it down was postponed due to public outcry.

Made of billions of grains of sand, the sculpture soars to the second floor of The Oaks shopping mall in Thousand Oaks like a ship’s mast or a church steeple.

And although its sculptors packed their tools and headed for a new project two weeks ago, the world’s tallest indoor sand sculpture, a towering mass of muses and musicians, continues to dazzle scores of visitors from miles around.

Mall management originally planned to bulldoze the sculpture in June, but that prospect has outraged fans of the sandcastle.

What began as a publicity stunt has become a cherished community landmark.

“I just think it’s a disgrace that they’re going to tear it down,” said Eleanora Deem, assistant manager of a costume jewelry store in the mall. “I mean, it’s a masterpiece.”

In a comment book at the mall’s information desk, visitors urge mall management to “never take it down.”

One patron asked, “Could it be housed in a plexiglass case forever?”

The sculpture’s creator, David Vander Pluym, said the work would last the life of the building if it were allowed to remain.

Faced with the public outcry, mall officials granted the sandcastle a temporary reprieve, postponing its removal date until August.

They scrambled to devise a way to delicately de-construct the artwork. The solution? Auctioning off pieces of the sculpture, Berlin Wall-style, as a benefit for the arts in Thousand Oaks.

In addition, mall managers are planning a 1996 calendar with pictures of the sand sculpture, “so people will be able to keep the sculpture in their home or office,” said The Oaks Marketing Director Diane Brandes.

Brandes said the sculpture has drawn people from as far away as Newport Beach and Laguna Hills.

Word has even spread to Malibu, where a spokeswoman for the J. Paul Getty Museum, which showcases some of the world’s most treasured artworks, called the sand sculpture “fabulous.”

Composed of 275 tons of sand and water, the 25-foot-high sculpture took eight weeks to complete and cost the mall about $25,000. Five professional sand sculptors worked with 50 community volunteers on the project.

Designed as a tribute to the arts, the sculpture includes images of Salvador Dali pondering a surreal clock, Mozart playing the harpsichord and Shakespeare penning a play.

“It’s just so gorgeous,” said Ina Mitchell, a recording equipment broker who came from Woodland Hills on Friday to see the sculpture. Like many of the visitors, she brought her camera, and was carefully circling the sandcastle taking photographs.

Mitchell said taking the sculpture down would be “criminal.”

“I think it should be left on public display forever,” she said. “Such incredible thought and detailing and creative genius.”

Sculptor Vander Pluym, who grew up in Manhattan Beach, said he likes sand.

“Sand is by nature very clean,” he said. “It’s a totally reusable resource. There’s no chemicals or anything like it in the stuff.”

He said the sand he had to work with in Thousand Oaks, a city without a beach, “came equipped with a number of rocks in it, which has been a real nuisance.”

Experts said the work illustrates several trends in contemporary art. For one thing, it’s in a mall.

“There is definitely a trend with American museums, anyway, to have satellite museums out there,” said Marcia Page, director of exhibition development at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles.

She said museums gain access to a broad audience by moving into malls. And the malls, in turn, gain additional foot traffic.

Marketing director Brandes said the sand sculpture has drawn more customers to the mall, and that she hopes an Andy Warhol exhibit April 28 through May 7 will do the same.

Vander Pluym, who calls himself a performance artist, said he’ll take his brand of art to wherever people gather.

“I’m fine with malls,” Vander Pluym said, acknowledging that some of his sculptors come down with “mall fever” and have to leave the shopping center for outdoor breaks.

Jerry Slattum, a professor of art history at Cal Lutheran University, viewed the sculpture and gave it a mixed review.

“Whether this would fit into the mold of great art--I’m not so sure,” Slattum said. “But I’m sure this brings a lot of pleasure to a lot of people. You’ve got the ‘Wow!’ that people want to find in art.”