TIME TO EXAMINE CITY SUPPORT FOR ALL ARTS

Will COMBO continue to be the City of San Diego’s umbrella organization for granting money to many arts groups? A city manager’s report on that recurring topic will be delivered to the council’s Public Services and Safety Committee today.

Among its recommendations are the makeup and discussion areas for a task force to study the matter. Questions were raised a month ago in the committee about the suitability of COMBO.

The report recommends a nine-member task force including leaders from government, business, foundations, other umbrella organizations, the academic community, an arts patron and representatives from the San Diego Taxpayers Assn. and the Public Arts Advisory Board. That would be a broad-based task force, but perhaps it could be one notch broader by the inclusion of an arts administrator.

It sounds like overkill, however, for such a formidable committee to study only COMBO. Perhaps it will study the city’s support of all arts groups. The city has been generous with the arts as demands for government support have grown, but it funds the arts entirely through transient occupancy tax money collected from hotel and motel guests.

It is questionable whether many smaller arts organizations would receive any of those funds, because the money has been used to support activities that draw tourists. A percent-for-art program based on 1% of the city’s capital building budget has yet to fund any public art.

STAY TUNED: American Public Radio’s “A Prairie Home Companion,” a hit variety show hosted by Garrison Keillor, was bound to inspire imitations. Two San Diegans have what they hope is the right idea for such a program.

Former stand-up comic and Shakespearean actor Mark Price and composer-singer Glenn Erath (a.k.a. the Hudson and Bauer Singers) will present a live variety show as a pilot program at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 14 in the Lyceum Theatre. They’re calling their show “Stay Tuned,” and hope the pilot will be convincing enough for radio station KFMB-AM (760) to make it a regular feature.

A KFMB spokeswoman said that no decisions will be made until the pilot is in, but she but said that, if there is a show, it would most likely air Saturday nights between 10 and midnight. Admission to the pilot show is free.

BUSINESS AND THE ARTS: Increasingly, businesses are recognizing the value of the arts to a community as well as to their bottom lines. Affiliate Artists Inc. of New York is a 20-year-old nonprofit business that brings artists, institutions and communities together through business sponsorship. For the last two weeks, the Old Old Globe Theatre’s educational outreach department has been presenting actress Kathleen Gaffney in a one-woman “informance” throughout the county. She has spoken to a wide range of audiences--from schoolchildren and theater supporters to shipbuilders at Nassco and high-tech types at MA/COM Linkabit.

“Informances” are informative performances that allow the artist to establish a dialogue with the audience. Gaffney starts out talking about herself, then moves into soliloquies, picking from a repertoire of 70 roles to fit the material to the audience.

Gaffney’s three-week residency is sponsored by Montgomery Ward & Co. in connection with the grand opening of its three renovated specialty stores Nov. 14.

ARTBEATS: Joyce Selber is the City of San Diego’s first full-time arts administrator. She was an arts administrator and consultant for the City of Austin, Tex. Here, she will oversee the city’s new master arts plan, including a program to bring public artworks and the performing arts to San Diego neighborhoods. . . .

Live concerts from UC San Diego will get a wider audience over KFSD (FM 94.1). Called “Music at Mandeville,” a series of digitally recorded concerts are being aired at 10 p.m. the third Friday of each month. On Nov. 21, a concert from the Pacific Ring Festival featuring John Cage, Conlon Nancarrow’s player pianos and works by UCSD Prof. Joji Yuasa will be aired. . . .

The California Arts Council is offering grants as large as $2,000 for three years to artists from Asian, black, Latino, Indian and other ethnic communities. For information, contact Kathy Russell at the Arts Council, 1901 Broadway, Suite A, Sacramento CA 95818. . . .

The county’s Public Arts Advisory Council will grant awards in January to individual artists working in any discipline. Applications for the grants, which range from $1,000 to $3,000, must be submitted by Dec. 12. Applications are available from the council in the Community Involvement Office at the County Administration Center, 1600 Pacific Highway. . . .

The Llan-Lael Foundation will publish a special issue of “Hidden Leaves,” its magazine on public art, next year. Sculptors are invited to submit, by Dec. 1, photocopies of any ideas for inclusion to the Llan-Lael Foundation, P.O. Box 1221, Julian CA 92036.