Despite tension and uncertainty about the future of the Festival of Arts and Pageant of Masters in the city of Laguna Beach, both the Festival and Pageant posted record attendance and merchandise sales during the two-month summer run this year.
At last week’s annual Festival of Arts membership meeting, newly elected board members reported an increase in net assets of $51,000 and total net assets of $2.2 million. In addition, ticket sales grew to about $5 million from $4.3 million in 1999, while merchandise sales were up about 25% from $318,000 in 1999 to roughly $400,000 this year.
In addition, the Festival of Arts Foundation, a separate nonprofit organization that administers scholarships to local students of the arts, awarded $96,950 in scholarship grants during the year, according to Foundation President David Young.
Young also announced that the Foundation had removed Sherri Butterfield from the Foundation board at a special meeting earlier that evening. Butterfield is the former Festival of Arts President who, along with four other Festival board members, was recalled from office for spearheading an attempted move of the Festival to San Clemente. The planned move to new, larger facilities in San Clemente began as the result of long-stalled lease negotiations with the city of Laguna Beach about the Festival’s current location and led to a prolonged and bitter fight among Festival members and local residents.
At the emotion-filled annual meeting, Young,who had resigned from the previous board in protest over the planned move but has now been re-elected,also announced that 64% of the voting membership have approved a change in the organization’s bylaws that would preclude any move of the Festival of Arts or Pageant of the Masters outside the city limits of Laguna Beach without a two-thirds ratification by the membership.
Newly elected board member Bruce Rasner said “We spent a year fighting negativity. We (the new board) want to channel that energy in a positive way. The slate is clean.”
Diane Challis Davy, director of the Pageant of the Masters and a previous recipient of Foundation scholarship funds, said she was relieved that the bitter year was over, and called the theme of the 2001 Festival,Beyond the Horizon,”appropriate” in the wake of the recall.
Tickets for the 2001 Pageant of the Masters go on sale to the general public this week. n
