Huntington Will Continue Art Center Financial Support

HUNTINGTON BEACH —  Despite controversy over the Huntington Beach Art Center’s untraditional exhibits, the City Council on Monday voted to continue its financial support of the center but to review the question again in September.

Councilman Peter Green had asked for a report of the art center’s operations at Monday’s council meeting to review the city’s financial support of the center, a venture between the private sector and the city.

“I’m not an artist, art patron, an art critic and I don’t want to be an art censor, but as a councilperson I must be concerned about how tax dollars are spent, and this means accountability,” Green added. “I think accountability is interpreted as censorship of the arts.”

Councilman Dave Garofalo also expressed concerns that the art center, which opened in March, could become a financial burden for the city.

The city currently contributes $81,000 of the center’s $381,000 operating budget for 1994-95. The remaining $300,000 is supposed to come from the Art Center Fund--money from fund-raisers, grants, ticket sales, membership fees and sales from the center’s bookstore and gift shop operations. But there is no money in that fund yet, and another question before the city is whether it should come from city coffers.