All for one

Suzie Harrison

Started five years ago as a way to better organize and promote

Laguna’s arts community, the Laguna Beach Alliance for the Arts is

gaining more and more respect each year from local leaders and

artists as an invaluable resource.

City Arts Coordinator Sian Poeschl was one of the creators of the

alliance, now made up of 22 local arts organizations.

Its mission statement, Poeschl said, is to serve as an advocate

for the arts, promote collaboration and networking among artists and

art organizations and ensure inclusion of the arts as essential to

all city planning.

Before it officially became the Alliance for the Arts, it was

called “Artful Conversation,” which started in 1998 with quarterly

meetings of the Festival of Arts and the city. Now there are meetings

once a month at the Laguna Art Museum.

“Arts organizations gave updates on what they were doing, would

discuss issues helpful to them, important to their organization and

the arts in Laguna Beach,” Poeschl said.

“Passport to the Arts” was the first joint program initiated that

gives admission to the Laguna Art Museum, Festival of Arts, the

Sawdust Art Festival and Art-A-Fair for a discounted price of $14,

versus $21.50, and is valid July 6 to Aug. 29.

Though the arts commission had always produced an arts calendar,

another collaborative venture the alliance accomplished was to turn

its calendar into a four-color brochure and increase its distribution

throughvarious art entities, the chamber and the Visitors Bureau.

The brochure is done by Poeschl and Sharbie Higuchi, marketing and

public relations director for the Festival of Arts and Pageant of the

Masters.

“It’s now a joint project between the city of Laguna Beach and the

Arts Alliance,” Poeschl said. “I collect and process the information

and Sharbie designs, prints and publishes it.”

In mid May the alliance launched its Web site

www.lagunabeacharts.com, which provides detailed information on arts

events and complete information about Laguna’s art groups. Each

organization has a pop-up information page as well as a link to its

Web site.

Director of Laguna Playhouse Richard Stein, said the alliance has

been an invaluable tool.

He said he believed that there had been the idea to start the

alliance for some time and that it came to be with the evolution of

the Business Improvement District, which donates a portion of its bed

tax to the arts.

Stein said that in the meetings the 22 arts organizations bring

everyone up to date.

“It’s a great opportunity to hear what others are doing to promote

and inform us about what is going on in the arts,” Stein said. “It’s

important for the arts to have a strong voice in the community. It’s

Laguna’s heritage, it’s what attracted us to live here and for

visitors to come here.”

* SUZIE HARRISON is a reporter for the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. She may be reached at 494-4321 or [email protected].