PUBLIC MAY GET SAY ON COPPER CURTAIN.

Byline: Enrique Rivero Daily News Staff Writer

Still hoping to resolve whether the Civic Arts Plaza's Copper Curtain should be altered, the city's Arts Commission wants to bring the public into the act through a workshop designed to improve the artwork.

A workshop, which would take place prior to the Arts Commission's scheduled June 12 meeting, should answer the question of how - or even if - the controversial copper strips should be changed to make them more pleasing to oft-complaining eyes.

The workshop hopefully would bring city and arts officials together with the public to create and mull over options, said Arts Commissioner Bonnie Roth.

The workshop idea, approved by the commission April 10, will go to the City Council tonight. It arose during a commission discussion when three people suggested ways to incorporate pleasing details without altering the curtain, Roth said.

``I thought this is great, why not look at other options - here are three that came out of the blue - but we don't want to do it alone,'' Roth said. ``We want to do it collectively, as a team effort.''

The city has been receiving complaints about the Copper Curtain almost from the day it was unveiled in 1994, many residents referring to it as an eyesore or maintaining that it never came close to resembling the stage curtains it was intended to represent.

The City Council set aside $10,000 in 1995 for improvements to the curtain.

The Copper Curtain was designed by Antoine Predock, the New Mexico architect who also designed the $63.9 million performing arts and government center.

Though some commissioners have questioned whether the city has the right to tamper with an artwork without the artist's consent, the City Attorney's Office has said the city owns the work and can do with it whatever it wants.