Renek Gaszewski [Blog]

Renek Gaszewski:

It started as a simple plan to add a drawing class to the offerings at Koo’s, a nonprofit space for visual and performing arts in Long Beach.
Simple - unless it involves nude models.
Limning bare bodies may be standard practice in art schools around the world, but in downtown Long Beach’s burgeoning arts district, life drawing classes that charge a fee are defined as “adult entertainment” by the municipal code and strictly forbidden without a permit.

That was news to artist Shelley RuggThorpe, a volunteer director of the center, who planned to teach the class. She knew Koo’s youth-oriented music programs are closely watched by the police and thought it prudent to get official approval before launching a new venture.

She presented her proposal to the city planning department, only to be sent to the city attorney’s office and told that she needed a permit - which she couldn’t get because Koo’s is in a building with apartments above the arts space. The ordinance on public nudity prohibits life drawing classes in close proximity to residential property.

But students shouldn’t put away their sketch pads yet. On Tuesday at the City Council meeting, Councilman Dan Baker plans to ask the city attorney to draft an exemption for life drawing classes at private art centers.

The ordinance is “overly broad,” he says, “so we are trying to tweak it a little bit to at least allow for this very legitimate form of artistic expression.”

RuggThorpe is hopeful but prepared for disappointment. “We don’t have to have life drawing classes,” she says. “It just seems ridiculous that we can’t.”

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