STATE GRANTS WON BY 3 ARTS GROUPS

The Orange County Arts Alliance, Orange County Black Actors Theatre and the Anaheim-based Xipe Totec Aztec Dancers won operating grants this week from the California Arts Council, state officials said.

The Arts Council awarded $17,000 to the arts alliance and $6,000 each to the Black Actors and Xipe Totec troupes at a meeting late Thursday in the Fresno Arts Center, council spokeswoman JoAnn Anglin said. The council is the state’s agency that handles grants to the arts.

The Orange County Arts Alliance is one of 49 county and city arts organizations receiving “basic operations” grants under the State-Local Partnership Program for 1987-88. The one-year grant requires the alliance to raise matching funds from local sources.

Last year, state council officials warned the local alliance officials that lackluster programming and fund-raising efforts could cost the group its operational grants, which it had been receiving since 1980.

In April, however, a state advisory panel urged the Arts Council to award a 1987-88 grant for the Orange County Arts Alliance, citing its efforts to revamp the organization and to involve more of the county’s multicultural arts groups.

Alliance President Robert Garfias said the alliance--composed of representatives from arts, corporate and educational groups in the county--will now try to provide more “direct services” to local arts groups, in addition to sponsoring planning conferences and workshops.

The Orange County Black Actors Theatre and the Xipe Totec Aztec Dancers were among 75 groups awarded three-year grants under a new category for “emerging” multicultural arts organizations. Each will receive $2,000 a year over the next three years, beginning in 1987-88. Matching funds from other sources are required to receive the second- and third-year allocations.

The Black Actors Theatre, founded six years ago, is based in Santa Ana. The 53-member company has staged original productions, including the revue “Movin’ On,” and other works at community theaters and festivals. It has a youth group that performs at local schools.

Adleane Hunter, the group’s executive director, said this year’s $2,000 state allocation will help underwrite the staging of “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf”. The troupe is presenting the work this summer at the South Coast Repertory Theatre’s Second Stage in Costa Mesa and the Santa Ana City Hall Annex Auditorium.

The 7-year-old Xipe Totec troupe’s 40 members are from Orange and Los Angeles counties. The troupe has appeared at community festivals and school concerts in such areas as Los Angeles, Downey and Anaheim. Lazaro Arvizu, the director, said the state grant will be used for expanding the troupe’s promotional efforts.

The awards are the first state grant of any kind received by either Orange County troupe.