Museum closes galleries to walk

Fewer pieces of art will now be featured on First Thursdays Art Walk in Laguna Beach after the Laguna Art Museum pulled its free participation.

The museum has stopped giving free admission to its exhibition galleries that drew hundreds of onlookers on Art Walk nights. Many art venues in the city stay open late in the evening and welcome visitors in an open-house format on Art Walk nights.

Doors are still open to its store, lobby, and permanent collection in the basement, director Bolton Colburn said.

Marion Meyers, president of First Thursdays Art Walk, said her organization is disappointed that the museum will no longer be fully open, as it had been since the Art Walk began seven years ago.

“We would prefer it if the museum were open like it used to be,” Meyers said. “It was one of the highlights of the Art Walk.”

During Art Walk, shuttle buses provide free transportation around the city, paid for by an assessment on the city’s hotels.

Its purpose is “to promote the city as a leading year-round fine art destination,” according to the Art Walk website.

The museum charges $10 for adult admission, but, during the Art Walk on April 6, the exhibition galleries were closed for a special event and were cordoned off.

Colburn said the museum will still be an important part of the Art Walk.

“The museum feels that it is very important to continue to be open as a central gathering space during First Thursday and to act as informal concierges for the evening,” he said.

Colburn said museum officials made the change last month to shift attention from the major exhibitions to the museum store and the permanent collection, which is housed in the basement.

“The museum and its permanent collection galleries will be open for free as well as the Museum Store Gallery. However, special exhibitions will not,” Colburn said. “The museum would like to put more emphasis on the permanent collection and the museum store gallery.

“The Museum Permanent Collection galleries feature work from the early plein air painters that settled Laguna Beach as an arts colony as well as significant examples of California art from various different periods.”