11 GROUPS IN COUNTY SEEK ARTS GRANTS

Eleven Orange County applicants, including the newly expanded Opera Pacific, are being recommended by state advisory panels to receive 1987-88 organizational grants from the California Arts Council.

The other local groups being recommended are all former grant winners, including South Coast Repertory Theatre, Pacific Symphony, Newport Harbor Art Museum, Pacific Chorale and Orange County Philharmonic Society.

The recommendations were issued this month by panels representing the various arts disciplines, council spokeswoman JoAnn Anglin said Wednesday.

Bonnie Hall, South Coast Repertory’s development director, said SCR was “very pleased with the (panel) action, but they (state agency) won’t know the dollar figures for another few weeks.”

“Applicants do not get all that they ask for, but we are encouraged by the fact our actual awards have been increasing each year,” Hall added.

SCR, given a three-plus rating this month on the four-point scale, is seeking $140,000. Last year SCR received a $60,000 grant, compared with $44,800 in 1985.

The panels do not recommend dollar amounts but rate organizations according to artistic quality and such criteria as managerial competence and community support.

But the recommendations are considered crucial since the California Arts Council, the state’s official arts grant agency, generally follows the panel choices, Anglin said. The council will make its final decisions Aug. 28 in Sacramento.

The state agency’s overall 1987-88 budget, $14.5 million, is about $1 million more than the previous year. However, the final allocations for these organizational grants, which are generally for operational and programming purposes, have not been determined, she said.

In this category last year, the agency statewide made grants of $6.1 million to 477 organizations, including 13 in Orange County. All recipients must raise a dollar-for-dollar matching amount from other sources.

Of the 11 Orange County groups being recommended this year, all but the Irvine-based Opera Pacific have won previous grants in this organizational category.

WHO WANTS WHAT

The list of recommended grantees (in order of amount being sought):

--South Coast Repertory Theatre: $140,000 asked for a new-plays program, touring children’s productions and other community outreach. Rating: three-plus.

--Newport Harbor Art Museum: $115,000 for general operations and outreach. Rating: three-plus.

--Pacific Symphony: $103,000 for audience development, subsidizing student tickets and concert touring. Rating: three-plus.

--Opera Pacific: $47,500 for singer apprentice program and community concerts. Rating: four-minus.

--Orange County Philharmonic Society: $44,000 for community youth concerts. Rating: four. (In the separate touring and presenting category, the organization this year has been given a $23,250 grant.)

--Pacific Chorale (Performing Arts Assn.): $30,000 for staff salaries, choral festival costs and other areas. Rating: three-plus.

--Grove Theatre Company: $29,900 for guest artists’ salaries and stipends for regular troupe members. Rating: three-minus.

--Laguna Art Museum: $25,000 for salaries of curator and development staffs. Rating: three.

--Relampago del Cielo dance troupe: $12,500 for salaries for staff officials. Rating: three.

--South Coast Symphony: $5,261 for general operations. Rating: three-plus.

--Laguna Poets: $2,000 for fees for participants in poetry reading sessions. Rating: three-minus.