COPPER CONUNDRUM; PANEL SEES DESIGNS FOR ARTS PLAZA.

Byline: Enrique Rivero Daily News Staff Writer

Though a solution to improving the looks of the controversial Copper Curtain did not emerge from this week's public workshop, arts officials say they are closer to making the work on the Civic Arts Plaza more pleasing to the eye.

Nearly 70 people crowded the plaza's board room for Tuesday's special Arts Commission workshop to see some 30 suggestions, presented in mock-ups and drawings, for beautifying the curtain. It was the largest crowd an Arts Commission meeting has ever attracted, proving the intensity of interest in the Copper Curtain, member Jane Brooks said.

``I was very happy with the ideas that were presented and I was most happy with the outpouring of interest from the community - I think that needs to be said,'' Brooks said. ``I'm so tired of people knocking everything in the city, this is a perfect opportunity to start on the right foot and have a positive attitude - that's where I'm coming from, and for the most part I think the commission feels the way I do.''

Most of the ideas incorporated the city's trademark oak tree and ranged from the abstract to the fanciful. They included a design whose elements merged into an oak tree as one moved past it and special lighting projected onto the giant wall facing the Ventura Freeway on which the $150,000 curtain has been mounted.

The city has set aside $10,000 for the improvement project, which commissioners agreed would barely pay for the scaffolding to hold the workers. Only one project - the lighting suggested by museum exhibit designer William Maple - could be done within that budget.

Under that concept, special gels would be placed in front of a large light, projecting any number of figures such as an oak tree or a Chumash Indian onto the wall, at low cost, without altering the artist's intention for the curtain, Maple said.

``It would be subtle, it would be able to advertise shows in the theater and it would be easily modified if found inappropriate,'' he said.

To make up for the potential shortage of money, arts officials discussed the possibility of finding donors who would sponsor the improvements and a sign identifying the Civic Arts Plaza on the wall.

The Copper Curtain has been the object of controversy and even derision since it was unveiled in late 1994 because few people see the intended representation of a stage curtain, seeing something closer to the back of a refrigerator or an automobile radiator grille.

The ideas will be discussed again at the Arts Commission's June 12 regular meeting, member Bonnie Roth said.

The commission has to deal with many issues with which it only became aware at Tuesday's meeting, she said. For example, the curtain had been altered from the original design by New Mexico architect Antoine Predock because city officials feared a possibility that the loose copper strips comprising the curtain would bang against the wall, disrupting performances inside the theater.

On Tuesday, however, the commission found out that a sound study showed that noise would not be a problem.

``My point has always been you can't go forward if you don't know where you have been and we've never been able to get a clear history of the Copper Curtain,'' Roth said.

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5 Photos

Photo: (1-3--Color only in Conejo edition) Design proposals for the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza include adding wrap-around art elements, left, palm trees and wall texturing, center, or planters and latticework.

(4--Color only in Conejo edition) Several suggestions incorporate the city's oak tree emblem into a new feature for the Civic Arts Plaza's south face.

(5--Color only in Conejo edition) Motorists on the Ventura Freeway driving past the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza get a good view of the Copper Curtain.

Phil McCarten/Daily News