DATE: Friday, July 4, 1997                  TAG: 9707040513

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   78 lines

BEACH ARTS COMMISSION LOSES ALMOST HALF ITS MEMBERS 5 RESIGN, PROTESTING THE CITY'S REFUSAL TO GIVE THEM AUTONOMY AND ROOM TO GROW.

Five members of the city's 11-member Arts & Humanities Commission announced their resignations Thursday to protest the city's refusal to relocate the commission.

Commission Chairwoman Diane B. Murdock and four other commissioners quit because the city - after formal requests in 1993 and again this spring - has neither moved the commission to a new department nor created a separate department for the arts, several resigning commissioners said.

The commission is part of Virginia Beach's Department of Museums, which oversees the city's museums and historic houses.

Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf said Thursday the creation of a new department in this era of governmental downsizing is not feasible. Yet volunteers stressed it would be the ideal circumstance for carrying out their new long-term plan, called Cultural Vision.

``As long as we are aligned with any department, we are going to be a second or third priority,'' said Cathy Sampson, the resigning vice chairwoman of the commission.

The commission has spent more than a year crafting its Cultural Vision, said Darlene Thurman, a Beach hotelier who is resigning after six years on the commission.

``We have put together a wonderful plan to help the city grow culturally. The city can be so much more,'' she said.

The plan includes fostering festivals, locating or building a performing arts theater, creating a community arts center and reinstating a city program, which existed from the mid-1980s to 1991, to devote a percentage of its budget for public sculpture.

``We realized that certain things needed to be done in order for this vision to come to fruition,'' Sampson said. ``Basically, the arts really do not have a focal point in the city. That's really what needs to happen.''

Also resigning were Thomas Naughton, president of New Dominion Pictures, and Mimi Karesh, a commissioner for four years.

On June 17, commissioners Murdock and Sampson met with Oberndorf and Vice Mayor William D. Sessoms to discuss possible changes.

A letter from Oberndorf to the commissioners dated Tuesday outlines the city officials' proposed solutions, which include changing the department name to Museums and Cultural Arts and hiring an additional full-time administrator to assist the commission.

The formation of a new department is not being considered, Oberndorf said.

``All we hear in today's environment is `Make government work longer, harder, smarter. We don't want you to create more jobs,' '' she said.

``We have tried very hard to take a hard look at the suggestions and to respond to them in a positive way. I absolutely have not lost for one moment my commitment to nurturing and supporting the cultural arts in our community.''

Commissioners would not elaborate on why being connected to the museums department was not conducive to growth.

Founded in 1979, the commission - like all city commissions and boards - is run by volunteers and is aligned with a municipal department. Since 1992, the Department of Museums has overseen and supported the commission's activities, primarily doling out grant funds to nonprofit cultural groups.

In late spring, the commission learned its 1997-98 grants budget would grow by about $100,000 - to $432,278 from $338,075. The new figure amounts to about $1 per citizen in Virginia Beach.

The additional funds will be allocated early in the fiscal year, which began Tuesday. Among the 32 groups already slated to receive grant funds are The Actors' Theatre, Commonwealth Musical Stage, Tidewater Classic Guitar Society and the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, according to materials provided by Mac Rawls, director of the Museums Department and the Virginia Marine Science Museum.

The commission finances groups so that they, in turn, can present concerts, plays, exhibitions and other arts events in the city.

Rawls said he was generally supportive of the commission and its Cultural Vision. In reviewing its plans, he said, ``I don't think I found fault with anything, and for most of it I'd be an ardent supporter.''

Commissioners are appointed by the City Council. Oberndorf said she has already received offers from about two dozen people who wish to serve on the commission.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu