Panel Rejects 3 of 4 Funding Requests From Arts Groups in Orange County

The South Coast Symphony may have to abandon developing a TV series for youngsters, but two other projects in the county probably will proceed even though a California Arts Council advisory panel has recommended against funding them.

Of four applicants from Orange County, only South Coast Repertory has received preliminary approval of its full request from the Council, $43,500 for a new California Plays Festival next year. Requests from the Pacific Symphony ($50,000 to help underwrite a five-concert summer series at Irvine Meadows) and the Orange County Philharmonic Society ($20,000 for a new concert series for youngsters) were rejected by the advisory panel along with South Coast Symphony’s bid for $25,000 for its TV series.

The panel’s decisions are non-binding. The full council will vote on the recommendations June 2.

“We’re disappointed and are trying to reach the Arts Council to find out the specific reasons we were turned down,” said Doreen Hardy, South Coast Symphony general director. “We had approached corporations to back the project and had good preliminary interest. But now it looks like we’ll temporarily have to abandon the project.”

Pacific Symphony Executive Director Louis G. Spisto said the orchestra’s Irvine Meadows series “is not dependent upon that grant. He said the orchestra is securing individual donors for the summer season and is working with interested corporate sponsors.

The Philharmonic Society’s general manager, Eve Henderson, had a similar reaction. “I imagine the new series and the new pilot program will go ahead (anyway),” she said. “There are other grant programs and foundations that we will be applying to and have already applied to.”

“I wasn’t counting on the (Arts Council) money,” added Erich Vollmer, the society’s executive director. “I never do.”