Grievance Filed by Ousted Watts Towers Arts Director : Arts: Willie Middlebrook says he was reassigned because of his objection to a controversial exhibition at another city facility.

Charging racism and foul play, Willie Middlebrook has filed a grievance against the city’s Cultural Affairs Department protesting his removal as director of the Watts Towers Arts Center. Taking up his cause, some of Middlebrook’s supporters staged a rally on Saturday afternoon at the center.

On June 25, Middlebrook was removed from the directorship and reassigned to his former position as a photography instructor after a probationary evaluation that rated his performance as below standard. The city’s community arts director, Earl Sherburn, judged Middlebrook’s work to be substandard in 18 of 31 categories listed on a performance report.

Additionally, Sherburn cited Middlebrook for irregular work hours, misuse of a city vehicle and various payroll and accounting infractions.

Middlebrook, a 36-year-old artist with an extensive exhibition record, has countered Sherburn’s complaints in a letter to Adolfo V. Nodal, general manager of the Cultural Affairs Department, and submitted a lengthy account of center activities during his 5 1/2-month tenure.

Nodal declined to comment, stating that the grievance is a personnel matter that he cannot discuss. Middlebrook will have ample opportunity to express his views during a civil service review of his grievance, Nodal said.

Middlebrook has further charged that the real reason for his removal is his outspoken objection to a city-sponsored exhibition of work by an artist from New Orleans who is a friend of Nodal’s. “It all comes from Dawn Dedeaux,” Middlebrook said of his reassignment.

Dedeaux, who is white, presented videotaped interviews with black inmates of the Orleans Parish Prison in “Soul Shadows: Urban Warrior Myths,” an ambitious installation presented last spring at the Los Angeles Photography Center.

The exhibition--which cost the city $19,000 and was staged during a budget squeeze--was criticized by some members of the art community as an unnecessary expense, while Dedeaux was accused of exploiting negative racial stereotypes.

At the time, Nodal defended the exhibition. “I just felt that the content of the show is so powerful and so fitting for Los Angeles that it was important to have it here,” he said. “There has been a lot of strong reaction to it, but it’s important to have programs that engender debate about community issues.”

Middlebrook said he and other city arts workers opposed “Soul Shadows” when Nodal first proposed it, but when Nodal eventually arranged for the traveling show to come to the Photography Center, where Middlebrook then worked, he dutifully scheduled it.

Middlebrook subsequently became director of the Watts Towers Arts Center--getting a $34-a-month raise as he moved to a $32,000-a-year job--but he returned to the Photography Center for a public discussion with the artist, in conjunction with the show’s March 23 opening.

Incensed by Dedeaux’s responses to African-Americans who questioned her, Middlebrook said that he made negative remarks after the discussion and that Dedeaux overheard him. “Al Nodal hasn’t spoken to me since then,” he said.

Middlebrook said he believes he will be fired for falsification of a neighborhood worker’s time sheet, one of the charges in his performance report. The sheet in question bears Middlebrook’s signature, but he said he didn’t sign it. “Why would I jeopardize my reputation, my family and my job?” he asked. “Do they think I’m going to get a kickback from someone who earns $7.04 an hour?”

Middlebrook launched his career in 1981 with an exhibition at the Watts Towers Arts Center. Being director of the center was a dream he had cherished since he was a junior high school student, he said, but he doesn’t want to return to the position.