LAOOC Seeks OK to Fund Permanent Cultural Fair

Los Angeles Olympic officials have taken the first step toward turning over part of the Games’ massive surplus to help fund a permanent cultural fair patterned after the widely praised Olympic Arts Festival.

The Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee’s charitable foundation asked the state attorney general’s office this week to allow it to provide money for future arts festivals, which are now under discussion by a blue-ribbon city committee. Approval of the change may be formally given within three weeks, according to Carole Kornblum of the attorney general’s Charitable Trust Division.

Under terms of the contract that brought the Games to Los Angeles, 60% of the committee’s $225-million surplus will go to the U.S. Olympic Committee and national sports federations.

The remaining 40% is earmarked for Southern California youth sports programs--but the change requested by the LAOOC also would permit money to be spent on arts festivals.

Paul Ziffren, the LAOOC chairman, cautioned that the move is only a preparatory gesture meant to give the LAOOC’s 60-member board the option of donating money to arts festival organizers. No specific sum has been promised, Ziffren said.

“If the board wants to proceed, the mechanics are available,” he said. “If they don’t want the procedure, it will not be used.”

Nevertheless, the request was greeted with optimism by Robert J. Fitzpatrick, director of the Olympic Arts Festival and head of the blue-ribbon committee examining the possibility of future cultural fairs.

“Depending on what happens with the LAOOC, we’re either off and running or we abandon it,” he said. “(But) I’m encouraged.”

The 10-week Olympic Arts Festival drew more than 1.27 million people to dance, theater, music and art exhibits across Southern California. Critics heaped praise on the festival, and then-LAOOC President Peter V. Ueberroth lauded it as contributing to the public enthusiasm that fueled the Games’ athletics events.

Fitzpatrick said discussions about organizing a sequel to the festival began only weeks after the Olympic events closed. “There has been a consistent interest that the Games not just (be) one brief moment of glory or excitement . . . but that the success be a way of nurturing on an ongoing basis the life of the city,” he said. “The festival is clearly a part of that.”

Would Run Four Weeks

As envisioned by Fitzpatrick, future festivals would be held every two years, beginning in 1987. Smaller in scope than the Olympic festival, they would last approximately four weeks, Fitzpatrick said.

The major sticking point for planners has been money. Each festival would cost about $8 million, and Fitzpatrick said organizers would have to have $5 million in hand before tickets were sold to ensure that the bills could be covered.

Fitzpatrick said the blue-ribbon committee has secured commitments for funding part of the $5-million cost, although he declined to name the sponsors or the amounts promised. But a donation by the Olympic foundation is seen as essential for the festival, both to give it a financial shot in the arm and to serve as a lever for prying loose other contributions.

“It would be the key to allow the festival to take place,” Fitzpatrick agreed. “It would make no sense to do a second-rate, on-the-cheap festival.”

Approval of Request Likely

Since the Olympic Arts Festival closed, Fitzpatrick said, his office has received as many as 10 inquiries a week from Los Angeles-area residents interested in helping organize a sequel. Several foreign governments and artistic troupes also have indicated their interest in future festivals, he said.

Kornblum, of the attorney general’s Charitable Trust Division, said it appears that the foundation’s request will be approved. “We don’t anticipate there would be a problem,” she said. “The only time we’d call a halt is if they wanted (to donate to) something not charitable.” The division oversees the operation of nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations in the state.

The LAOOC’s board is scheduled to meet April 17 to name a president for the charitable foundation and to set up guidelines for the disbursement of grants.

The foundation is expected to have approximately $100 million in its till, but Olympic officials have indicated it will use only interest income for its grants.

Olympic officials have received more than 300 requests for grants, Ziffren said.

Only one grant has been announced--a $2-million donation to expand the hours and staffing at 328 recreation sites in 17 Southern California cities. The money will allow Los Angeles playgrounds to stay open 75 hours a week.