Seattleite took her love of art to L.A.

Arts administrator Mickey Gustin Hardman, a former Seattleite and University of Washington graduate, died Tuesday at her home in Los Angeles at age 74, according to Julie Silliman of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission. The cause was cancer.

In the mid-'70s, when she was known as Mickey Gustin, she was assistant director of Seattle's Allied Arts and then director of the Factory of Visual Art at the Good Shepherd Center.

Later, she coordinated the 1 Percent for Art program for King County, said former Allied Arts director Alice Rooney.

"People just adored Mickey," said Joan Mann, former editor of a Seattle and King County arts commission newsletter. "Her vitality was just enormous. She just swept into a room, a very glamorous figure. She certainly had a huge impact on public art in this area."

Most recently, Mrs. Gustin Hardman served as a public-arts planner in Los Angeles, shepherding projects by such artists as Betye Saar, Lita Albuquerque and Jud Fine to neighborhoods undergoing an upgrade.

Public art was a way to "bring artists into the design of our cities. [It] transforms spaces, gives them context and relevance, making them places of community interest and pride," Mrs. Gustin Hardman said in a statement on the Community Redevelopment Agency Web site.

One of her favorite projects was Biddy Mason Park in downtown Los Angeles. Works by Saar and graphic designer Sheila Levrant de Bretteville illustrate the life of Mason, a former slave who settled in Los Angeles in the mid-1800s, worked as a nurse and bought herself a house.

Mrs. Gustin Hardman brought poets and artists together for "Poet's Walk," a series of vignettes set in granite at Citicorp Plaza in downtown L.A. One pairing combines poet Robert Creeley and artist Lawrence Weiner.

She also commissioned film director Catherine Hardwicke, whose credits include the 2003 film "Thirteen," to create "Hollywood La Brea Gateway," a gazebo with larger-than-life silver statues.

Seattle artist Jack Mackie recalled that "She [Mrs. Gustin Hardman] was involved in so many different [arts organizations], she was the one who knew what everybody else was doing ... what the concerns were and what the issues were."

Born Marian Gooch in Salt Lake City, Mrs. Gustin Hardman was married twice. She is survived by her husband, Richard Hardman; her sister, Florence Cohen of Del Mar, Calif.; and two nieces.

Seattle Times art critic Sheila Farr and Los Angeles Times reporter Mary Rourke contributed to this report.