TOP STORIES IN THE ARTS:Creative minds lent color

The past year will be known for the continuous redrawing of the intersection of art and governance. From sculptural fiascos to grandiose relocation schemes, the community navigated several tricky situations in the arts.

In addition, two of the city’s three major arts festivals marked their middle years with special events.

1. The ‘People’s’ Debacle

Linda Brunker’s “The People’s Council” sculpture was dedicated on July 6, nearly one year after the design was selected for installation in front of City Hall as part of an Art in Public Places competition — drawing more jeers than cheers for its unusual, Asian-fusion design.

The sculpture’s detractors have been louder than its supporters, but the artwork has settled in and has been bedecked with leis and sunglasses, not to mention countless school children.

The competition’s rivalry was fierce, as the city had offered its largest honorarium at the time — $80,000 — to the winner. (Since then, it has offered a larger honorarium to the winner of its current sculpture competition at the Village Entrance.)

Brunker’s piece was chosen over local John Barber’s “Star Thrower” after a long debate. Some Arts Commissioners who originally voted for Brunker’s design said later that if they had been given a better sense of how the sculpture was to look, they may not have voted for it.

Late in the installation phase, Brunker was also required to address accessibility concerns. She paid for the changes, which included sidewalk grading and repaving, and the addition of more granite benches.

The complicated piece also required a last-minute repair of one of its bronze elements that had broken off, just in time for Hospitality Night.

The piece replaced “Synthetic Falls,” installed in 1991, which had to be removed due to safety concerns.

2. Museum plan vanishes

The City Council was stunned in April by a proposal to relocate the Laguna Art Museum from its current digs at Cliff Drive and North Coast Highway to the future Village Entrance parking area.

Rumors had been flying around town since March about the proposal, in which an ad-hoc group led by former councilman Paul Freeman proposed that 34 town houses would be built on-site and sold to raise money for the project, which would also include a 450-seat amphitheater in addition to the museum and the planned 670-space city parking structure.

The museum’s board of directors met the night before the City Council meeting and unanimously voted to support the proposal — with backing from many key arts organizations, such as the Laguna College of Art & Design and the Laguna Playhouse.

The timing couldn’t have been worse for such a plan. The Village Entrance, a major component of the Civic Arts District, had already been designed and approved on a “fast-track” basis as an urban park and parking structure site. A final environmental impact report had just been approved, and the city’s relocation of its corporate yard had just begun.

The proposal later quietly disappeared from public discourse, and museum executives noted at their annual meeting in September that the museum was instead considering other options.

3. Donation flip-flop

A quiet man who passed away earlier this year in a red-tagged Bluebird Canyon home became the epicenter of a debate over public art when he tried to make a posthumous donation to the city.

Lew Geiser’s bequest stated that one or two sculptures by French artist Vincent Magni were to be selected and transported to Laguna Beach by his longtime friend, Katy Moss.

Moss and his sister, Gay Geiser Sandoval, presented their offer to the Arts Commission this summer, which declined it on the grounds of durability and safety of the sculptures.

A flurry of outcry from the public and Geiser’s friends and family ensued; in September, in an unprecedented move, Sandoval appealed the decision to the City Council. In an equally stunning move, that body unanimously overruled the Arts Commission and accepted the donation.

The Arts Commission was forced to choose a location for the sculptures it previously didn’t want and recommended that they be placed at the corner of Bluebird Canyon and Oriole Drive, on land owned by the city.

Moss traveled to Paris this fall to make the necessary arrangement for the purchase and transport of the sculptures.

4. Playhouse branches out

It was a rousing year for the Laguna Playhouse, which is actively developing plans to expand.

In November 2005, playhouse board members Suzanne and James Mellor pledged $5 million to the organization to allow for its long-planned expansion project.

This was the largest gift in the history of the playhouse, one of the region’s largest nonprofit resident professional theater companies. Founded in 1920, it is also considered the oldest continually operating theater company on the West Coast.

The playhouse has launched the careers of many actors, from Harrison Ford to Barbara Eden, whom it honored earlier this year at its annual gala fundraiser.

Playhouse operatives purchased an office complex adjacent to the city-owned, 420-seat Moulton Theatre on Broadway in 1998. Plans are to develop a second performance space there to accommodate increased subscriptions (by more than 20% this year) and to allow repairs to the theater which can’t be accomplished due to constant use.

This fall, the playhouse also received a grant of $400,000 from the James Irvine Foundation that will be used to fund a new communications program and a $15,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, its first from that agency.

5. Festivals reach 40

Forty is the new 30 for two art festivals that celebrated special anniversaries this year. The Sawdust Art Festival and Art-a-Fair each turned 40.

Both festivals had their roots in the free-thinking 1960s as breakaway exhibitions from the “mother” show, the Festival of Arts, which will celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2007.

The Sawdust had its roots as an “alternative” to the Festival of Arts. Sawdust strewn on the grounds of the first — and immediately popular — arts festival gave it its name.

Since then, the Sawdust has grown to more than 200 exhibitors in its summer show and also hosts a Winter Fantasy art fair. The summer show is limited to Laguna Beach resident artists and uses a lottery system to determine who can get a coveted Sawdust spot.

The organization published a book last year about the early years of the festival and made it available to the public this year.

The Art-a-Fair was established by another group of artists who broke away from the Festival of Arts at the same time but dissented with the practices of the barely established Sawdust.

Believing that there should be some sort of jury system to art shows, the group broke off to form their own festival, which, unlike both the Sawdust and Festival of Arts, has no geographical limitations on its exhibitors and can, therefore, call itself an “international” juried art show.

The Sawdust and Art-A-Fair festivals have co-existed next to each other on Laguna Canyon Road for decades — across the road from the original Festival of Arts.