A Day Without Art

Roughly $26,000 was netted through three recent performances of "Son of Lagunatics," the musical spoof of Laguna Beach life produced in commemoration of the AIDS observance, A Day Without Art, according to a preliminary estimate by the show's producer. The money will be split equally between Laguna Shanti, an AIDS hospice, and Ballet Pacifica, which lost all its sets and costumes when its warehouse perished in October's Laguna Canyon fire.

In his commentary "A Day Without Art" (Dec. 1), Christopher Knight says: "A wise person once said that when a loved one dies, it's a tragedy; when a stranger dies, it's a statistic." Surely you are educated enough to know that the famous quote being paraphrased is universally attributed to that well-known progressive Josef Stalin. Invoking Stalin's memory in a favorable way is entirely appropriate to Knight's little communal fantasy. Although he does not mention them by name, many of the groups involved in a "A Day Without Art" are extremist cultural terrorists who are deeply contemptuous of mainstream society.

At New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, where Pablo Picasso's famed "Portrait of Gertrude Stein" usually hangs, there will be only a placard Friday. The note will say that the missing masterpiece symbolizes the loss suffered by the art world from those who have died of AIDS. In Los Angeles, visitors to the Museum of Contemporary Art and the County Museum of Art will find that the museums' usual admission fees are being waived for the day.

Saturday will be a busy day at the Newport Harbor Art Museum. From 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., the museum is holding a panel discussion in conjunction with the exhibit, "American Landscape Video: The Electronic Grove." A lunch will follow the program at 12:30 p.m. At 2 p.m., the museum will show "Inter/National," a program of narrative and documentary videos.

Four cultural institutions in Orange County will join with their compatriots around the nation Saturday to observe "A Day Without Art" as part of the second annual Worldwide AIDS Awareness Day being sponsored by the World Health Organization. * The Newport Harbor Art Museum will offer free admission, information on HIV infection and two special programs, sponsored by Robert Tyler and museum trustee Eugene White. At 11 a.m.

In "Mona Rogers in Person," a play written by Philip-Dimitri Galas, actress Helen Shumaker sings a few bars from "After You've Gone." In one of life's strange twists of fate, the lyrics Shumaker cynically sang to a lost lover in Galas' work now sadly apply to the late San Diego playwright, who died in 1986.

No need to dry-clean that Donna Karan for this year's Day Without Art. Arts groups in Orange County have abandoned their customary joint performance in favor of quiet, independent actions that they hope will drive home the day's message with greater depth and breadth. Since 1992, several institutions here have marked the international observance--which spotlights the disproportionate toll AIDS has taken on the arts community--with a single, collaborative presentation of dance, music and drama.

In response to Zan Dubin's article "Costa Mesa Refuses to Issue Proclamation" (Nov. 30), I find it hard to believe that cost alone was the determining factor behind Mayor Sandra L. Genis' decision not to officially proclaim Dec. 1 as A Day Without Art. The mayor states in the article that "she supports proclamations only for individuals or groups based in Costa Mesa or involved in projects that directly benefit the city and its residents."...

At UCLA, black shrouds covered the works in the campus' renowned sculpture garden in a grim reminder of the toll AIDS has taken on the art world. * At the federal building in Westwood, demonstrators castigated the government for issuing an "AIDS Awareness" postage stamp instead of pumping money into the quest for a cure. At a poignant Hollywood ceremony, several people with AIDS were honored for their contributions to life in Los Angeles.