Harvey Lichtenstein

Calendar's choices of Taste Makers--people who move and shape our arts and entertainment in 1988--run the gamut. If the eight faces on the cover form a rather curious collection, it's because creative abilities come in many forms. As a result, our group's pursuits range from directing the distinguished PBS series "American Playhouse," to fronting the hard-living, hard-rock band Guns N' Roses.

Calendar's choices of Taste Makers--people who move and shape our arts and entertainment in 1988--run the gamut. If the eight faces on the cover form a rather curious collection, it's because creative abilities come in many forms. As a result, our group's pursuits range from directing the distinguished PBS series "American Playhouse," to fronting the hard-living, hard-rock band Guns N' Roses.

The 1990 Los Angeles Festival, second sequel to the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival, will incorporate a major Pacific component to run simultaneously on two coasts and be presented in partnership with UCLA and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Times has learned.

The 1990 Los Angeles Festival, second sequel to the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival, will incorporate a major Pacific component to run simultaneously on two coasts and be presented in partnership with UCLA and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Times has learned.

Robert Garfias, dean of the School of Fine Arts at UC Irvine, has been nominated by President Reagan to serve on the National Council on the Arts, the advisory body to the National Endowment for the Arts.

The National Endowment for the Arts, completing action to reverse a decision that roused major controversy among artists, voted unanimously Saturday to make a $10,000 grant to a Texas environmental group for an ecology-related project by New York City artist Mel Chin. The vote by the National Council on the Arts was immediately endorsed by NEA Chairman John E. Frohnmayer, apparently bringing to a close an episode that began late last year.

Los Angeles Festival director Peter Sellars proved a gleeful presence during much of the fifth Festival of Pacific Arts, speeding from one venue to another like a butterfly collector about to pounce on a gorgeous new specimen.

From the "Danger Art" T-shirts and knickknacks for sale in the gift shop to the plexiglass shield that now guards Chris Ofili's portrait of "The Holy Virgin Mary," visitors to the Brooklyn Museum of Art's new exhibition "Sensation: Young British Artists From the Saatchi Collection" will know that they are entering controversial territory. Amid ongoing attacks from city officials and even the U.S.

In a besieged atmosphere of high security and criticism, the National Council of the Arts met this weekend to discuss grants and its own future. The council, which is the presidentially appointed advisory body for the National Endowment for the Arts, appeared to be weary of the controversy that has dogged acting NEA chairwoman Anne-Imelda Radice since she assumed her position in May. Shortly after taking over from the deposed John E.

TELEVISION Monica Money: Monica Lewinsky may not be getting a dime from ABC, but ABC is getting about $35 million because of her. That two-hour "20/20" interview by Barbara Walters that the network will air Wednesday from 9 to 11 p.m. actually contains about 90 minutes of interview and introductory comments, which leaves about 30 minutes of advertising time. Some of that will go to local stations to sell, and some will be used to promote ABC shows.

Los Angeles Theatre Center has ventured where the National Endowment for the Arts wouldn't go. LATC has commissioned new works from John Fleck and Tim Miller, two of the four solo performance artists whose applications for NEA fellowship grants were rejected in a controversial decision by NEA chairman John E. Frohnmayer in June.