ENCINITAS —— In about a year, when the Lux Art Institute has built a permanent home, the contemporary art museum will have three international awards to display there.

The American Association of Museums recently awarded the first-place prizes to the institute for its publicity materials. Lux was the only San Diego County winner in the international competition that drew 900 entries and awarded 24 first-place prizes.

Although the planned $8 million museum on El Camino Real remains unbuilt —— officials blame a cumbersome permitting process for delays —— Lux has commissioned sculptures and displays and runs a mobile art program for children.

The awards Lux received last month were for a fund-raising book, a newsletter and a party invitation.

John Ball, a founding member of the Lux board and creative director of the San Diego-based Mires design firm, oversaw the creation of the pieces as a freebie to the museum.

"It is a big challenge to get people to understand what we're all about and what our vision is when we're not built," Ball said. "This was a way —— in a dramatic, visual way —— to put us on a map."

Museum plans

City planning maps show the Lux museum on 4.1 acres west of El Camino Real and just south of Tennis Club Drive.

The first phase of construction, a $2 million artists pavilion, is scheduled to begin in about four months and be finished eight months later, said Reesey Shaw, the museum's director.

Meanwhile, Shaw and an assistant will continue to work from a trailer and a shipping container parked at the base of the sloping property that adjoins a wildlife preserve.

The trailer arrived last summer and so did workers, to build a driveway and install underground utility lines.

Construction was supposed to have started years ago. Shaw said at one point, she had planned to host exhibitions in 2000.

"I had no idea the permitting involved (for construction) on coastal property," she said.

A city planner last week said Lux has everything it needs to begin its project. Completing it, however, will require more fund raising.

A capital campaign has produced nearly $3 million in gifts and pledges so far, Lux officials state in their publicity materials.

Ramona Sahm of Rancho Santa Fe donated $1 million to buy the property. Philanthropist Francis White of Cardiff and Rancho Santa Fe residents Joanne Warren and Eileen and Carlton Appleby of Rancho Santa Fe have been consistent contributors.

An illustration shows what the gifts would pay for: A 15,000-square-foot museum complex that cascades down the face of a hill.

Designed by architect Renzo Zecchetto, the complex also would provide a home and workplace for invited artists to derive inspiration from their natural surroundings.

Lux hopes for visitors to experience the creative process and the artists' ideas as they unfold, said Shaw, the former director of California Center for the Arts, Escondido, museum.

Since its incorporation as a nonprofit organization in 1998, Lux has been determined to build a museum in a place that is easily accessible but surrounded by native landscape.

Winning pages

The cover of Lux's spiral-bound fund-raising book shows a location that accomplishes that goal.

A photograph taken from a satellite fills the cover. A title appears in white lettering: "A unique arts destination for a changing world." Above the title is an arrow that points to the Lux site.

Houses appear as specks, but the green and blue swath of San Elijo Lagoon Ecological Reserve also appears clearly, as does the sparkling ocean.

The 10 pages of the book describe the unbuilt museum and the motivation behind it.

Los Angeles sculptor Jacci Den Hartog is Lux's choice for the museum's first artist in residence. Her commission is to create a fountain with water flowing from agave leaves.

Colorful pages highlight the mobile art program that Lux brings to schools, The Valise Project. More than 5,000 students in 50 schools have been exposed to the portable, three-dimensional artworks, of which Lux has commissioned seven.

One valise is "The Bird Hub Steamer Trunk." Binoculars are mounted on a wing that extends from the trunk. Students can remove a stool contained in a drawer to peer through the lenses.

One display at the El Camino Real site commands a full page of the book titled "Environment." Astrid Preston planted 15 Anna apple trees in a gravel-coated triangle and named the work "Garden of Apple Delights."

The final page is not illustrated and asks supporters to "bring Lux to light."

In addition to the book, a four-fold, two-sided mailer took the museum association's first prize for newsletters.

Another award winner, in the invitation-to-events category, is an invitation to a Rancho Santa Fe party printed on red stock with gold glitter.

The invitation, R.S.V.P. card and envelope, and a note from Shaw —— all on sparkly, red, card stock —— are contained in a small paper sack with the letters LUX cut from the side of it.

Instructions on the invitation explain the sack can serve as a "Lux luminaria" by filling the bottom of it with sand and burning a candle inside of it.

Contact staff writer Adam Kaye at (760) 943-2312 or akaye@nctimes.com.