Angels Land in L.A.

HUNDREDS OF 6-FOOT SERAPHIM TO MAKE UP GIGANTIC OUTDOOR ART EXHIBIT

LAST year, an exhibit of wacky cow sculptures strewn in public places throughout Chicago drew thousands of tourists to that city and pumped hundreds of millions into its economy.

The same exhibit is coming to Los Angeles -- with a twist.

Cows don't sell in the City of Angels, so the local version will feature hundreds of 6-foot-tall, painted and decorated fiberglass angels -- set up all over the city and possibly even in other local cities. The angels will be manufactured by Silvestri Inc., an L.A.-based company that made some of the more than 500 cows now adorning the streets of New York City.

The Volunteers of America and Catholic Big Brothers charities in January developed the Community of Angels concept, following an extremely successful exhibit of painted cows in Chicago last year. The cows were a highprofile explosion of outdoor art, with hundreds of cartoonlike bovines stationed throughout the city, catching the eyes of passersby anti enriching local merchants with tourist dollars.

The Chicago exhibit was so successful that New York City has now unleashed an even bigger herd of fiberglass cows.

It has taken quite some time to get the event off the ground here, though.

"L.A. is not an easy town to get a project started, especially with a convention in the works," said Cal Winslow, the Volunteers for America executive who is spearheading the exhibit.

Despite the city's preoccupation with the Democratic National Convention, the charities convinced L.A.'s Convention and Visitors Bureau and Volunteer Bureau to sign on. They're currently forming committees to manage artistic proposals for decorating the angels, and handling other logistics such as recruiting corporate sponsors.

The project will be officially announced and sample angels will be unveiled on Aug. 22 -- the week after the convention.

One of the biggest problems for planners is figuring out where to post these outdoor sculptures, because L.A. does not have an obvious city center like Chicago or New York.

"It is a major issue," said Karen Wagener, executive director of the Volunteer Bureau for the city of L.A. "We are very conscious of the fact that we want angels everywhere, but that one of the benefits of an exhibit like this is the impact on tourism. We'll be focusing on areas where visitors are likely to be."

Likely locations for angels include museums, parks, the harbor, Staples Center and other places downtown.

L.A. groups are also in talks with the cities of Santa Monica and Pasadena to make the exhibit more of a county-wide event and place angels in prominent locations in those cities. "We didn't want to limit this to just (the city of) L.A.," Winslow said. "But until the word gets out, we're going to build from L.A. out."

The Los Angeles planners are taking organizational cues from Chicago and New York. An art committee will evaluate artist proposals to paint angels, and recruit artists to participate.

In the other cities that have held the exhibit, cows were painted and decorated by a wide range of people - from well-known artists to schoolchildren. Designs at other shows included cows covered with abstract paintings or mirrored tiles, or cows dressed up like pop-culture icons.

Organizations and corporations will pay to sponsor the figures, and each can request that the angel it sponsors be placed outside its building or in its courtyard or atrium.

The exhibit is slated to begin some time early next year, most likely in February. Angels will be on display for 45 to 60 days. The total number of angels that will be scattered throughout the city is still being determined, but the final tally will be in the hundreds. Chicago had 300 cows and New York currently features more than 500.

Each fiberglass angel will be 6 feet tall, in one of three different designs currently being created by a local sculptor. After the designs are finalized and original samples are made, L.A.-based Silvestri Inc., which made hundreds of cows for the New York exhibit, will churn out the plain white fiberglass angel figures. The figures will then be delivered to artists to be painted and decorated.

There are no official estimates on how much money such an event could bring in for the city, but the Chicago event generated an estimated $100 million to $200 million for retailers as tourists flocked in to see the sculptures.

The local event's planners are currently in talks with auction houses to sell off the angels at the end of the exhibit. Proceeds will go to local youth charities, including the Volunteer Bureau.

Though the purpose of the event is to inspire tourism, generate funds for charities and strengthen civic pride, organizers realize that some groups might complain about the use of angels, because they are commonly associated with Christianity.

"Every religion has angels," Winslow countered. "We intend our sculptures to be fun and generic enough that everyone can participate."

From Mannequins to Cartoon Cows

PROVIDING 6-foot-tall angel sculptures for 17 L.A.'s Community. of Angels exhibit seems like a big change for Silvestri Inc., a local mannequin manufacturer.

"Actually it's not," said spokesman Fidel Argomaniz. "It's the same material. It's fiberglass, models and molds."

The company has found new success since it was selected to make fiberglass cows for the Cows on Parade exhibit in New York.

Organizers of the New York show had ordered cows from a Swiss group. But the first 50 sent to New York, slated to be painted by schoolchildren, disintegrated when exposed to flame. Cow Parade Holdings Corp., which organized the exhibit, decided to find American companies to create new cows. Silvestri won the bid, and shares the job with a Florida company.

Silvestri was founded in 1934 to make props and sets for the budding film industry. In the 1950s, the company bought a local mannequin manufacturer and expanded into the retail display business, while keeping its entertainment-industry clients.

The company was even immortalized in classic television archives, thanks to a job providing props for "I Love Lucy." Fans might remember an episode in which Lucy needs to replace a statue she's broken during one of her wacky schemes. "Mr. Silvestri! need your help" she cries into the phone.

Silvestri still has entertainment-industry ties, and makes the gigantic Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny statues found at Warner Bros. Studio Stores.

"When we tell people we're doing (the cow figures), they get so excited, they think it's so cool," Argomaniz said. "It's a fun event and, since (the figures) am all auctioned off at the end, it helps people out in the end."