CAC APPROVES $688,002 IN GRANTS TO ARTISTS

The California Arts Council unanimously approved a round of grants here Wednesday worth $688,002 to be awarded to artists affiliated with 73 community arts organizations.

Ranging from $2,700 to $10,400, the grants will be given through the state agency’s Artists in Communities program. The funds will help support statewide artistic activity in neighborhood centers through three- to 11-month individual artist’s or arts groups’ residencies.

In Los Angeles, 23 awards will be funneled through various arts organizations. Those to receive top grants of $10,400 are the Center Theatre Group; the Women’s Building; the Steelworkers Old-timers Foundation in Huntington Park; the Pasadena Community Access Corp.; the Westminster Neighborhood Assn.; the Long Beach Public Library; the Senshin Buddhist Temple (also awarded a $9,900 grant); Plaza de la Raza (recipient of two $10,400 grants); the Friends of the Watts Towers Arts Center; the L.A. Contemporary Dance Theater; and the Inner City Law Center.

Los Angeles organizations awarded smaller grants are the United Cambodian Community Inc., in Long Beach (one for $9,900, another for $10,200); the UGMAA/Crossroads Arts Academy ($9,900); the William Grant Still Community Arts Center ($9,900); joint award to the Los Angeles Theatre Center and the Los Angeles County School of Performing Arts ($9,900); the City of Long Beach ($7,500); Connexxus Women’s Center in West Hollywood ($6,800); and the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department (2,700).

The council also voted unanimously to approve a 13-member folk art program advisory pool, which will eventually be trimmed to eight. The group of both academically trained folklorists and practicing folk artists will work with a folk arts coordinator (to be appointed by Sept. 1) to help the council determine if a folk arts program is needed.

Though 46 states (and the city of Los Angeles) employ folk arts coordinators, California has “lagged behind” in the development of a folk arts program, according to Bess Lomax Hawes, folk arts program director for the National Endowment for the Arts.