EXHIBIT BOOSTS ARTISTS

Although contributions to arts institutions have blossomed over the past five years, emerging local artists continue to be mostly overlooked by private and corporate arts philanthropists who have been busy supporting the performing arts and museums.

This summer’s exhibition of Southern California artists, underwritten by Standard Brands Painting and Home Decorating Centers with the assistance of the Combined Organizations of the Visual Arts, will not go down as the largest or sexiest example of arts philanthropy. But by rotating three separate shows of Santa Barbara, San Diego and Los Angeles artists through galleries in each of these cities, Standard Brands is giving the artists exposure at home and around Southern California.

A reception for the artists from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday at the downtown store, 939 16th Ave., kicks off the final segment of the exhibit, featuring San Diego artists and running through Aug. 29.

Perhaps potential art philanthropists will take a cue and start collecting, especially with local governments--the county, the San Diego Unified Port District and the cities of Carlsbad and San Diego--leading the way through public art commissioning programs.

But appreciating art, most agree, involves education. In Los Angeles, members of the dominant industry, Hollywood, have begun to learn about and collect L.A. artists. In San Diego, the city’s dominant and associated industries--tourism, real estate development, scientific and financial institutions--have supported the performing arts in varying degrees, but few collect art of any kind.

In other cities, businesses put really fine art in their lobbies. In New York the Whitney Museum is using lobby space donated by such firms as the Equitable Life Assurance Society and Philip Morris Inc. as satellite galleries for American art.

Perhaps something similar will happen here as San Diego becomes more cosmopolitan. Imagine office buildings and bank and savings and loan branches where the predominant decorative lobby art has been replaced with works by promising emerging artists. Contemporary art might no longer be such a foreign experience to San Diegans.

It’s hard to say if collecting art has the same public relations impact to a business as underwriting a symphony concert.

But concerts don’t appreciate in value.

SHOW AND TELL: In a year of headlines stressing its financial instability, the San Diego Symphony gets a chance to trot out at least one success story during the annual Assn. of California Symphony Orchestras conference, Thursday through Sunday at the Hotel San Diego.

A session on “How Pops Complement the Classics: San Diego Pops Case History,” was requested by symphony administrators from around the state, an orchestra spokeswoman said. Interestingly, last year the pops lost money as expenses rocketed past receipts, according to the symphony’s 1984-85 audit, released only last month.

Between 150 and 200 delegates representing 90 California orchestras are expected to attend. Among the less widely known symphonies are the Canejo Symphony, the Japanese Philharmonic Orchestra of Los Angeles and the Monterrey County Symphony. “It’s really a conference for all nonprofit organizations,” said a spokeswoman for the San Diego Symphony, which is conference host.

Highlights from the more than 20 sessions include “The Combination to the Corporate Cash Vault,” on how to approach a corporation for a major grant; “What’s the Board Member Supposed to Do and How Can We Persuade Him/Her to Do It?” and, perhaps with San Diego in mind, “Programming for a Conservative Community.”

Members of local arts groups can attend the conference. The fee for non-members of the Assn. of California Symphony Orchestras is $40 a day.

Meanwhile, as the symphony management and musicians continue contract negotiations, news of other settlements seems appropriate. In June, for the first time in more than 40 years the New York City Opera reached a written agreement with musicians without a strike, lockout or other work stoppage, an opera spokesman said. Wages in the three-year pact, which were $646.25, will increase to $755.25 for 5 1/2 performances per week for a 23-week season. Rehearsal pay goes from $19.33 an hour to $22.59 after three years. The minimum wage for a San Diego Symphony musician is $472 a week.

Feeling the regional pinch from low oil prices, the Houston Symphony Orchestra requested and received permission to negotiate a mid-contract settlement in which musicians took a 15% pay cut in return for having a member approved by the players appointed as a voting member of the symphony board’s executive committee.

AND ON THIS FREQUENCY: It may not be mayoral wars, at least not yet, but Friday’s noon to 1 p.m. “Talk to the Mayor” show with Maureen O’Connor on KFMB (AM 76) will air opposite KSDO’s (AM 1130) “The Roger Hedgecock Show,” starring her former opponent and the former mayor. A KFMB spokeswoman called O’Connor’s call-in show, hosted by Clark Anthony, a pilot and said noon was chosen because it is “a good talk hour.” Hedgecock’s producer, Steve Cosio, did not “view it as a threat at all.” All the world’s listening.

BARD ON TAPE: The Old Globe’s production of “Richard II,” starring Brian Bedford, will be preserved on film by the New York Public Library in the Lincoln Center’s Billy Rose Theatrical Collection. The collection, serves professionals, scholars and students, but has no tape of “Richard II” in its archives. A film team from the library will rectify that Aug. 30 or 31 by taping a performance here, a Globe spokesman said Tuesday.

ARTBEATS: While few elected representatives at City Hall take an active interest in the arts, one of Deputy Mayor Ed Struiksma’s last duties as acting mayor was to sign 4,000 thank-you letters to donors who helped the symphony in its hour of need. . . .

That’s right, the name of that new La Jolla art gallery opening Aug. 15 with an exhibit of some hot emerging New York artists really is Paris Green. Artist Jill Moon is director, and Mary Johnson, formerly of the Thomas Babeor Gallery, is manager. One man’s art is another’s poison.