Nodal named to L.A. cultural panel

Adolfo V. Nodal, former general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, has been appointed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to the city’s Cultural Affairs Commission, an advisory body to the department.

During his 1988-2001 tenure as the city’s top arts official, Nodal was perhaps best known as the architect of 1991’s controversial “Cultural Masterplan,” a 182-page document encouraging social responsibility on the part of artists and attempting to ensure equitable division of grants to the city’s various ethnic groups.

“I’m looking forward to going back and doing what I can to help the department,” Nodal said in an interview. “I think it’s a department that needs a lot of energy and ideas.”

Nodal said he had no interest in returning to the general manager’s post, which has been filled by an interim manager, Karen Constine, since last summer, when Margie J. Reese stepped down to take a position coordinating arts and cultural grant-making in West Africa for the Ford Foundation. A Cultural Affairs spokesman said the department hopes to name a new leader in mid-March.

Nodal is currently project general manager for the Annenberg Foundation and oversees the Not a Cornfield project, a $3-million “living sculpture” installation by Lauren Bon that has involved planting a 32-acre site near Chinatown with cornstalks, as well as other public art projects downtown.