5 AREA ARTS GROUPS GET NEA GRANTS

The National Endowment for the Arts on Tuesday awarded five major Southern California cultural institutions a total of $1.9 million in challenge grants that could be used to generate as much as eight times that amount in non-federal matching funds.

The endowment, currently celebrating the 10th anniversary of its highly competitive challenge grant program, awarded 87 major cultural institutions nationwide a total of $27.5 million this week.

Among Southern California institutions, UCLA’s Center for the Performing Arts won the top grant of $750,000. The American Film Institute in Hollywood received $500,000; the Newport Harbor Art Museum in Newport Beach garnered $300,000; the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art was awarded $250,000, and the Dance Gallery, slated to open in 1990 in downtown Los Angeles, came away with $100,000.

“Obviously we are ecstatic” about the award, said Pebbles Wadsworth, executive director of the UCLA Center for Performing Arts, which presents dance, music and theater events at UCLA’s Royce and Schoenberg Halls, the Wadsworth Theater in Brentwood and the James A. Doolittle Theatre in Hollywood.

The UCLA institution will use the grant to build its endowment fund, now about $1 million, Wadsworth said. (All the Southern California grant recipients expect to use their grants for endowment funds, although some will also use the money for working capital. All Southern California winners have also already received at least one challenge grant.)

“Needless to say, a grant of that amount certainly is important not only monetarily,” Wadsworth said, “but for people in Los Angeles to see how important the NEA feels our program is.”

Three institutions in the San Francisco Bay Area and one in Sacramento were also awarded challenge grants, for a statewide total of $2.8 million going to nine organizations.

Nationwide, the endowment’s challenge grants that are traditionally used for endowment funds or cash reserves ranged this year from $100,000 to $1 million. Each grant must be matched at least 3 to 1 with new or increased non-federal dollars over a three-year period.

To date however, cultural institutions nationwide have historically generated about $8 in matching money from non-federal sources for every endowment challenge grant dollar. The first fully completed round of these grants generated $903 million in matching funds for $109 million in federal funds.

Thus, the $1.9 million just awarded locally is expected to generate a total of about $16 million over three years, endowment spokeswoman Katherine Christie said.

The American Film Institute, which operates national film, television, video, archival and exhibition programs, will use its challenge grant mostly to increase a $2-million endowment, said director Jean Firstenberg.

“We’re just thrilled,” Firstenberg said. “What we find really exciting is when media organizations are recognized (for their achievement) with their counterparts in the older arts (such as music, dance or theater). That’s what gives all of us in the moving image arts the sign that we are accepted as an arts form.”

“It’s an honor to receive a challenge grant,” said Jane Piasecki, associate director of the Newport Harbor Art Museum.

The challenge grant will be used in large part to augment the $1.4-million endowment fund of the Newport Harbor Art Museum, Orange County’s largest, Piasecki said.

Hugh M. Davies, director of the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, said the museum will use its challenge grant to augment its $3.5-million endowment, the income from which is used for operating expenses.

“The nice thing about this money” is that “you can use it to pay your heating bills or security bills and other general operating costs,” he said, “and that’s the hardest kind of money to raise.”

Bella Lewitzky, whose Los Angeles-based modern dance company will become the resident troupe at the Dance Gallery, was unavailable for comment. However, a spokeswoman said the challenge grant will be used to establish an endowment fund for the Dance Gallery. (The gallery’s planned theater, library and educational dance institute are part of the California Plaza downtown redevelopment project on Bunker Hill.)

California came in second nationwide in the amount of endowment challenge grant dollars awarded. New York, with 12 organizations awarded $3.5 million in grants, took first place, and Ohio, winning $2.5 million for seven institutions, came in third.

This latest round of endowment awards falls into its Challenge II grant program. One more round of Challenge II grants will be awarded next fall, at which time the first round of Challenge III grants are expected to be announced, endowment spokeswoman Christie said.

Intended to focus support on projects that promote long-term excellence in the arts rather than on building endowment funds or generating working capital, the Challenge III program initially caused concern and confusion among arts institutions. However, it was endorsed earlier this year by the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies.

The new program will also enable state, regional and local arts agencies to apply for challenge grants for the first time, and make the grants more accessible to organizations involved in media, publishing, recording and education.