Members of our new activist group “Young Minds for Laguna’s Future,” would respectfully like to be heard on the subject of the proposed Village Entrance Art Installation. Presently, our group has over 400 members comprised primarily of Laguna Beach residents under 50 years old who care about the future of our hometown. However, ones’ age is not a condition to be a member of the group. We are made up of minds who are frustrated at the hostile division in our community, and we feel that the younger generation in town, those who will be here for decades to come, finally needs to add their voices to debate. Previously, most arguments in town have been dictated by the vocal minority, and we are now doing our best to learn how to be involved and be considered.
We appreciate the revisions made by the artist shown at the recent Arts Commission meeting, which reduce the scale of the project, retain current Village Entrance landscaping, and refine the location.
If we don’t allow the Arts Commission to continue working on this, we believe it sets the tone for the word “no” to be the response for anything fresh, new, and different that is proposed in Laguna.
What are we telling our students at LCAD if we deny this project? Presently, we have next to zero opportunities for them in Laguna Beach after they graduate. Now, we are telling them that Laguna is against progressive, modern, interesting art? That if it isn’t a painting of a whale or Heisler Park then they should take their post-grad art to Santa Ana?
Growing up in our arts colony, we were taught that art is subjective, and it seems that a lot of our community can easily dismiss this project by saying, “It’s ugly; I hate it.” But we would argue that whether one likes this piece of art is irrelevant. What matters is we continue to progress as a community of artists. We cannot claim to be one of the world’s leading art towns if we continue to look to the past to inspire us. Leading requires innovation, freshness, and trendsetting.
We believe that the proposed Village Art Installation sets a positive trend for the future of Laguna Beach and for art in Southern California. This project is a pivotal crossroads that, if denied, will tarnish the hope, motivation, and progress of any artist in our community.
Tyler Russell McCusker, JJ Ballesteros, Dylan Rouda, Nia Evans, Hasty Honarkar, Monica McCusker, Mark Poterfield, James Thistlewaite, Megan Evans, Susan Shea, Jessica Harmon, Corey Brindley, Gabriel Serrato-Buelna, Ed Steinfeld, Greg Paul, Tamera Dowell, Brandon Menchacha, Dave Munday, David Evans, AJ Allen, Laura Buckle, Anthony Higginbottom, Caylie Morck, Helen Kramer, Molly Evans, Heidi Miller, Lacy Gomez, Stephen Bramucci, Mckenna Nokes Joyce, Corrin Tatiana Brubacker, Kevin Bailey, Jeff Roach, Caroline Rustigian Bruderer, Julie Laughton
