The Arts and Culture Commission presided over a densely packed agenda at its April 8 meeting. Items for discussion included new details about the upcoming Beverly Hills Art Show, a funding matter for Festival Beverly Hills and a difference of opinion about a proposed award.
The session began with Recreation Supervisor Norma Mower’s ArtWalk series presentation.
She described alterations to the program, relaunched in March with a registration fee, scheduling changes and city-branded merchandise.
“The department is trying to pull any remnant items from other programs to identify what worked well, as well as what didn’t get picked up,” Mower said. “There was a lot of evaluation taking place.”
Senior Recreation Supervisor Paul Paolone spoke about the Spring Beverly Hills Art Show, scheduled for May 17 and 18. Paolone began by listing some demographics about the 235 exhibitors, including 51 first-time participants. He noted that 12 different states are represented, as well as France and Mexico.
Paolone also outlined new and revamped event features. Responding to Vice Chair Pamela Beck’s questions about the expanded creative area and other topics, the supervisor assured that staff could handle event setup scaling into the street without overburdening nearby parking areas.
The meeting continued with Paolone’s status recap of the Fine Arts Fund before moving on to Assistant Director of Community Services Patty Acuña’s report about Yayoi Kusama’s “Hymn of Life: Tulips” sculpture. The restored work represents Kusama’s first American public art commission and the panel’s first commissioned piece.
Acuña described the status of the restoration process, which involves detailed work on the curved flower heads of the sculpture. The project is exceeding the original two-week time estimates, she noted.
Recreation Service Manager Matthew Brown followed with feedback about Festival Beverly Hills from the Arts and Culture Council Liaisons, Vice Mayor John Mirisch and Councilmember Mary Wells. To deliver on Mirisch’s and Wells’ vision of the multicultural event, Brown is prepared to recommend an appropriation request at a City Council meeting for an additional $18,000 (on top of the allocated $47,000) in infrastructural funding to match last year’s scale.
If approved, according to Brown, the $18,000 would come from the Transient Occupancy Tax.
“To capitalize on the success of the [2023] event, we expanded the scale,” Brown said, pointing to last year’s 20 cultures represented across three stages. He cited an attendance estimate of 3,000 people, calling the space “lively and energetic.”
The meeting became similarly energetic during discussion of the proposed Arts and Culture Commission Award. Brown began with a procedural overview of qualifications and guidelines, drawing comparisons to awards already being bestowed by the Recreation and Parks Commission and Human Relations Commission, and recommended that this new honor be similarly announced at a regular meeting.
There was a contentious discussion as to the merits of such an awards program, leading Commission Chair Karla Gordy Bristol to call for a short recess of proceedings.
The commission continued to debate award logistics after reconvening. Brown acknowledged he had more information on staff involvement and other specifics not listed in the report and suggested a return in May for a follow-up and vote.
As the session reached its denouement, the manager’s report and chair’s report also touched upon other upcoming celebrations, including a preview of Jewish American Heritage Month and a report on the upcoming UNESCO World Art Day,
As always, a lot [is] happening in the city,” Bristol said.
