New sculpture school settles in downtown Carlsbad

By: BARBARA HENRY - North County Times | Saturday, January 12, 2008 8:29 PM PST ∞

CARLSBAD - Day after day, artist Lynn Forbes carefully pats clay over a 7-foot-tall wire mesh frame that's tucked inside a small storefront in the Carlsbad Village Faire shopping center.

This soon-to-be-bronzed sculpture of a young girl in a sun dress --- Forbes' first public art project --- will go up at Jefferson Street and Las Flores Drive within the next six months, she said Thursday. By then, folks around Carlsbad may be hearing much more about this recently arrived Carlsbad businesswoman, as well as what some are referring to as downtown's newly emerging art scene.

Forbes, a former movie costume designer who worked on the "Back to the Future" movies, and her husband, Ralph Muncaster, a former marketing executive, moved to Carlsbad last summer and opened a sculpture school at the shopping mall in October. They've already got 80 students enrolled, and they're about to start offering special programs for people who are blind, Muncaster said.

Meanwhile, the Carlsbad Village Business Association collected a $5,000 city grant last week to expand the free outdoor sculpturing classes that Forbes occasionally teaches along the city's waterfront. Soon, there could be "something going on every weekend, weather permitting" in the city's tiny waterfront park near the northern end of the sea wall walk, said Robin Young, executive director of the Village Business Association.

The grass-covered parkland was once home to the controversial Split Pavilion public art piece - derisively nicknamed "the Bars" - that the city tore down in the 1990s. That irony isn't lost on Young.

"One of the reasons we chose that location is because of the history," she said Friday. "We thought, let's change history and make it a positive experience."

So far, prospects look great for a historical shift, she added. Forbes' recent success with the sculpture school, plus last summer's grand opening of the new downtown playhouse for the New Village Arts theater company, has few folks speculating that downtown Carlsbad is finally gaining a long-sought reputation as an art-centered area.

"We're right at the beginning stages of it," said Laura Kurner, whose daughter, Kristianne Kurner, and son-in-law, Francis Gercke, founded the theater company.

Roughly bordered by Carlsbad Village Drive to the south and Buena Vista Lagoon to the north, the downtown region is home to many speciality shops and restaurants. It's long struggled to compete against the city's other main retail areas, including Westfield's Plaza Camino Real mall, Carlsbad Premium Stores outlet mall in the city's mid section and The Forum mall in the city's southern end.

Downtown boosters have long hoped to give the area more of an artsy feel.

"Research shows that art really does help revitalize downtown areas, so it's one of our goals," Young said.

She's hoping to capitalize on the sculpture school's success, believing it will encourage more artists to settle in downtown.

"Hopefully, we'll be able to draw on more artists and cluster them so we can do art walks," she said, noting that having multiple artists all in one area also can led to networking opportunities.

It already has.

Laura Kurner, whose daughter founded the theater company, started taking Forbes' sculpture classes last fall. Now, she's talking about hosting a show of Forbes' work in the coming months at the new theater's lobby area, she said. Meanwhile, Forbes is considering organizing a juried exhibition of sculpture that would celebrate the region's established artists as well as her new students.

Contact staff writer Barbara Henry at (760) 901-4072 or bhenry@nctimes.com.