The Art Guild held various art classes, including life drawing, in the Fine Arts Gallery during the 1960's.
     The Guild held small exhibits at Benbough's furniture stores in La Jolla and downtown San Diego for over five years during the late 1950's and early 1960's, and had an exhibit at the Design Center on Fifth Ave in 1962.
     Numerous exhibits where works were combined with community merchants' campaigns and other groups were tried. Among these were the Benbough Company's "Accent on Art" shows begun in 1959; Marston's windows and other exhibits, 1960; World Trade Mart, begun in 1959; Channel 10 Shows begun in 1957; Spanish Village Shows; an exchange with the Santa Barbara Museum of Art; Design Center; Deems-Martin Associates; College Grove; Home Federal Savings and Loan Shows in 1963; Festival of Art and Art Guild Fairs at Mission Valley Center; Lloyd Furniture Store, a traveling show for the city and county schools; a show to travel the Museum circuit; numerous panel discussions and lectures along with special evenings, such as Shivaram dance program, 1960; the Charles Eames Program, 1961, presented jointly by the Guild and Education Committee of the Fine Arts Society for high school students, and many other activities too numerous to list.
     In April of 1960 Guild members were invited to exhibit in Spanish Village. The Guild maintained an art studio, Studio #31 in Spanish Village for the sale of art during the early 1960's. Studio 25 in Spanish Village showed more traditional paintings by Guild members whose work was largely omitted from the Fine Arts Gallery show's jurors.
     Guild annual diners were highlights of each year's social calendar.
     The Art Guild's annual dinner meeting held in May 1960 featured several prominent members of the Fine Art Society, including the new president of the board, William T. Stephens, past president Michael Ibs Gonzalez, director Warren Beach, and curator Martin Petersen.
     In June 1960, the Guild held an exhibition at Marston's Department Store, John Baldessarri was the exhibition chairperson.
     Ruth Rowe set up the "Channel 10 Project" in 1960. It was based on the invitation of Mrs. William Goetz of Channel 10 - KFSD-TV, to exhibit the paintings of a number of artists in the Channel 10 offices lobby and/or any other appropriate space for periods of three months at a time.
     The Guild had several California South Exhibitions during the 1960's. It later evolved into the All California Hawaii, an All California Hawaii Baja was once held, and finally an All California until cancelled in 2000 by then director Don Bacigalupi.
     In 1960, the first California South Show was held. Artists were invited from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border to submit to a juried competition. Non-Guild members were charged entry fees. This show was repeated each succeeding spring, and invariably stirred the community with interest and controversy. The Guild, giving up its membership spring show to make space on the calendar for the California South, felt that a larger show has proven extremely valuable to the community.
     The Guild also had a show in the spring of 1960 at the "International House and World Trade Mart, Inc." located on the Broadway pier.

     From January 6 - 29 1961 Fred Holle and Ethel Greene held simultaneous one-man shows at the Fine Arts Gallery
     Artists, critics, and art students alike roundly criticized the 1961 California South show. It was a disappointment and the one-man juror concept was challenged.

     Dan Jacobs wrote this letter to Ruth Rowe on January 23, 1961:
     "Mrs. Jacobs and I, doing business as Orr's Gallery, wish to send $100.00 every two years to be used as a 'Purchase Award' for the spring all media show. We would like the award to be titled 'Orr's Gallery Purchase Award'.
     We understand the award will be given to an artist, selected by a jury, and that this jury is appointed by the board of directors of the San Diego Art Guild. We also fully understand that the decision of the jury will be final.
     At the end of approximately a year or two, we will review the results of the award and if there are any changes we wish to make we will notify the Art Guild."

     On May 1, 1961 Studio 31 in Spanish Village was leased to the Guild for the display and demonstration of drawings, watercolors, and prints. It opened on June 1, 1961.
Third annual auction had a Parisian art colony theme of the "Les Fauves" period. Costumes were suggested.
     The Guild also exhibited at the Islandia Hotel several times in 1960's. They held a major exhibition at California Western University in October 1962. Another exhibition was held at the San Diego State library.
     In July 1961, the Guild participated on a committee called Citizens Coordinate, devoted to safeguarding and enhancing visual environment. Hottest current problem was freeway billboard advertising control.
     Guy Williams painting, "Phallic Relic No. 2", was censored from the Guild show in 1961. It was censored not because of the content of the painting but its title was deemed offensive.

     On September 21, 1961 an emergency meeting was held to discuss the censorship of Guy Williams painting. William Bowne had sent a letter to Paul Lingren, president signed by John Baldessari, Richard Allen Morris, Helen C. Dowd, Marge Ehlers, Terry Ferguson, Doris O Allen, and James Clark. It was decided that William Bowne write a letter to the Executive Board of the Fine Arts Society.

     Here is a transcript of a letter written to the Gallery Director by the Guild President on September 24, 1961:
"Dear Mr. Beach:
     With the greatest regret and concern for the difficult position in which the Fine Arts Gallery and the Art Guild find themselves, the Board of the San Diego Art Guild is compelled to protest the removal of the Guy Williams entries from the 1961 Fall Membership All-Media Exhibition as resulting from an act of censorship.
The Board request clarification of conditions applying to future exhibitions. If there are certain subjects and images which are forbidden, it will be necessary to notify prospective jurors of these limitations upon their judgment so that the Gallery will not be called upon to perform later acts of censorship.
     Please accept our sincere expression of sorrow that this difficulty should have arisen, but the very freedom which we consider a prime requisite of American art and life, and the traditional absence of prudery from our scientific and cultural institutions seems to have justified our carefully chosen jurors in the selection of a work of art which has been since labeled pornographic. We have no choice but to defer the final authority to the officers who have given it this label.

Respectfully,
Paul A. Lingren, President"

     A few articles came out in the local papers about this incident. This one was reported in the San Diego Union in October 1961:
Artists Assails Painting Ban
     "A local artist whose painting was ordered removed from a forthcoming exhibition at the Fine Arts Gallery yesterday called the action censorship and a violation of traditional ethics.
     The artist, Guy Williams, said the removal by Warren Beach, gallery director, of his painting, 'Phallic Relic No. 2,' was 'uninformed censorship.'
The painting was one of those selected for the autumn exhibition of the San Diego Art Guild, which opens Friday. However, it was removed from the show by Beach and executive committee members of the Fine Arts Society.
STATES REASONS
     Beach said the painting was withdrawn 'not on esthetic considerations, but in the belief that this work was not proper for public view, that its display would be damaging to the good name of the Fine Arts Society of San Diego, of the Art Guild and of the artist.'
     Beach said the decision was based 'on the belief that the society's trustees, as custodians of the gallery of fine arts collections and operations are responsible to the public for all works displayed there and all activities carried on there, and that they would be derelict in their public duty had they not taken this action.'
     Beach's statement said, 'No one was happy to have to take this action, but perhaps it could point up the fact that artists, like all people, have some responsibilities in life where they enter the realm of public display.'
     Williams, who maintains a studio in the Spanish Village, described the painting as 'non-objective art.' He said it was a serious work in good taste and not intended to shock.
Beach's action was a censorship of fine art and a violation of traditional 'ethics' Williams said.
     Emerson Woelffer, a Los Angeles artist and member of the jury, which selected pictures for exhibit, said he saw nothing morally offensive in the work.
     'You could read anything into it that you wish,' he said. 'I do not endorse removing this picture, but it's Mr. Beach's museum.'
ENTRIES WITHDRAWN
     Paul Lingren, Art Guild president, said five guild board members have withdrawn accepted entries from the exhibition in protest…
Beach said the decision to withdraw the painting was made by him but later was corroborated by members of the executive committee of the society.
Williams painting was cited for honorable mention by Woelffer."

     Dr. Armin Kietzman, the San Diego Union Art Writer, wrote this article:
Of Art & Censorship: Can Both Be Right?
     "Speaking of an artist's evolution, a great connoisseur once said that in his waverings spiritual giftedness forms a constant and that which is on the positive side of it is less deceptive.
     'A man of brains (or talent) is far more likely to say something silly once, than a fool is likely to ever say anything intelligent'…
     Williams, one of this community's few gifted artists, had two accepted entries in the show. One of them, no matter how sincerely Williams himself and one of the jurors…felt about the painting purely as a work of art, contained a symbol which would probably have shocked a majority of viewers.
     Anticipating such reaction, Warren Beach, as director of the gallery and host of the show, insisted upon the work's removal. Those who criticize him also might consider if they, in Beach's position, could have acted differently.
     Williams withdrew both paintings. The Art Guild sent a formal letter of protest against an 'act of censorship'…
     All this happened more than a week before the opening of the show. It was an internal quarrel, and should have been treated as such, as everyone involved seems to have wished.
     However, the publication of Beach's statement on the affair put it in a sensational light. Whatever the reactions to the statement, one thing was missed in it, and that is a word on the positive side of Guy William's work on the whole.
     In the meantime the show goes on, but whether this is caused by the controversies or by gaps created, by the withdrawals, the local scene, as represented in a selection of about a third of 201 entries, looks more turbulent than ever.
     Following the popular belief that artists make the best judges of such exhibits, but also trying to counter too specialized courses the jury was entrusted to 'imagist' painter Howard Warshaw, non-objectivist Emerson Woelffer, and vangardist ceramist John Mason, all of Los Angeles and all widely known.
     The divergence of their opinion on the entries is best illustrated by the fact that only two works received unanimous acceptance of all three jurors; 20 got the nod from two jurors, and the rest of the acceptance were each chosen by one juror…."

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