Calif. in Feud Over Art Show

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. (AP) â€” Call it a festival of discontent. <br><br>In this Southern California coastal community, artists are carrying picket signs instead of paintbrushes as city and art officials

Monday, November 20th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. (AP) â€” Call it a festival of discontent.

In this Southern California coastal community, artists are carrying picket signs instead of paintbrushes as city and art officials debate the future of its famed art show.

The fight over the Festival of the Arts and Pageant of the Masters show â€” a blend of performance art and a juried art show â€” began more than three years ago as a rent dispute and has escalated into a battle over who runs the show.

The contestants: The board who oversees it and the artists and volunteers who put on the show.

``It's pretty clear there are different visions of what the festival should be and apparently where it should be,'' City Manager Ken Frank said.

The festival has been paying $600,000 a year in rent to the city for use of the 5.5-acre ground nestled into the Laguna Canyon, which opens up on to the beach.

With the rent agreement expiring, some festival board members believed that the rent was too high and the facilities inadequate. They also claimed the rent agreement, determined by the percentage of sales, was entered into in the 1970s when the city asked for the festival's help in paying construction and road improvement bonds.

But the city said the contract was renewed several times since the agreement without opposition.

When negotiations failed, the board signed a letter of agreement to move the festival south to new proposed facilities in San Clemente.

The debate over whether to move the festival became so acrimonious that artists last month led a recall of the board, ousting four of its five members. The fifth member's term expired this month.

An election to replace the board is scheduled later this month.

Former board president Sherri Butterfield was forced to resign after being recalled.

``Artists are usually more accepting of change. This came as a surprise to me that this particular group of artists doesn't have the willingness to look at the possibilities,'' she said.

But she and ousted board treasurer Vern Spitaleri say they would have still made the same decision to move the festival.

``At some point, you have to look to the future and decide how you're going to grow,'' Spitaleri said. ``At its current location, it will never be able to grow. There's no room.''

The festival and the pageant have become so popular that tickets go on sale six months before the show and performances are typically sold out before the show opens.

Both board members also said needed repairs to the festival grounds would cost more than $3 million. The city estimated the cost at $1 million.

Artists and city officials say the festival was never meant to expand.

``It's a Laguna Beach event,'' said painter Scott Moore, who has shown his work at the festival for 21 years. ``You don't yank the festival out of there because you have a problem with the rent or the location. You work with the other side to reach an agreement.''

Bruce Rasner, who led the recall and is running for one of the board's vacant seats, says the answer to the rent and repair debate lies in expanding the festival's run from May through October to year-around.

Even without a board, preparations were already under way for next year's show.

``Neither side wants to see the festival hurt by this. It will go on,'' Rasner said.

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On the Net:

Festival of the Arts and Pageant of the Masters: http://www.foapom.com

Laguna Beach City Government: http://www.laguna-beach.ca.us/laggovt.htm