Artists Hold Vigil to Observe Festival Board’s Final Session

Two dozen candle-bearing artists gathered on the Festival of Arts grounds at sundown Tuesday to celebrate the final session of the governing board that had sought to move the long-running summer event from Laguna Beach.

Five of the board members were recalled last month for trying to relocate the 68-year-old institution to San Clemente.

“Until we took them on legally, politically and on the streets, they had no real opposition,” said David Milton, a festival artist involved in the recall campaign. “I’ve considered this a war, a very serious matter. Now [ex-festival president] Sherri M. Butterfield and the board are finally kaput. I can now focus on my painting.”

The meeting lasted only an hour, with Butterfield, who is mayor of Mission Viejo, reading a statement that five of the current seven directors had been recalled and that their seats are vacant.

“I really regret the opportunity that we’ve lost here and the road not taken, the chance to enhance art” in Southern California, Butterfield said before the meeting, which she did not attend. “It would have been a beautiful facility for generations to come.”

The outgoing board had signed a tentative lease agreement in August with San Clemente to move the festival from its 5.6-acre site on Laguna Canyon Road to a 41-acre hilltop near the Talega residential development.

Plans included a 3,000-seat amphitheater with a retractable roof, a fine-dining restaurant, an art institute and a three-story, 15,000-square-foot museum.

A number of artists who formed the recall committee--Keep the Festival in Laguna Beach Inc.--said they much prefer Laguna Beach’s ambience and the long-running success there of the festival and the Pageant of the Masters, in which actors portray famous artworks.

Of the 1,831 festival members who cast ballots on the recall petition, 65% voted to oust five of the seven sitting board members.

Butterfield said she will continue to be a volunteer at the Pageant of the Masters, a role she has held for the past 19 years.

Two board members--Kerry Smith, a Dana Point festival exhibitor, and Ronald T. Perrella, a Laguna Niguel business owner--were appointed after the recall drive began and were not targeted for ouster. They will keep their seats until Nov. 21, when the results of the festival’s annual fall election fills their positions and one other.

An Orange County Superior Court judge is scheduled later this month to decide how the remaining six seats on the nine-member board will be filled--by appointment or election.

The recall began after festival directors began taking steps to change the festival site. The board members felt that Laguna Beach was charging too much rent for a location that did not allow for expansion.

Diane Reardon, a photographer who exhibits at the festival, estimated that she dedicated more than 1,000 hours to the recall effort since it began in January, attending City Council and festival meetings, making phone calls and gathering signatures on petitions.

“This is the last board meeting. It’s very significant for us,” she said. “Saving the festival has been my life for 11 months. Finally we can have some closure.”