State Allocates $324,600 to Arts Groups in County

Orange County arts groups received their largest allocation ever from the California Arts Council, after the agency voted Thursday to approve $324,600 in grants for 17 local organizations.

South Coast Repertory Theatre of Costa Mesa was among the top 10 grant recipients statewide, receiving a $106,400 award from the council.

Other major Orange County winners include the Pacific Symphony, which received $45,820, Opera Pacific, which was awarded $32,630, and the Newport Harbor Art Museum, which received $28,249.

The Grove Theatre Company, producer of the annual Grove Shakespeare Festival, was awarded $9,000, the largest amount it has ever received from the arts council. The troupe has been under attack through the summer by members of the Garden Grove City Council, who are distressed by its preference for more serious theater over Broadway-style musicals.

During the August meeting, when the CAC annually hands out its biggest bundle of grants--this year 555 arts organizations statewide garnered $6.4 million--the Los Angeles Philharmonic won the unprecedented top prize of $341,200.

However, because Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed any increase in the council’s $14.5-million budget for the 1988-89 fiscal year, the same number of dollars had to be shared by about 50 more arts groups this year than last.

“Many organizations are receiving less money this year because their grant request was the same, but the council’s ability to fund” did not increase, Juan Carrillo, the agency’s deputy director of programs, said after Thursday’s meeting in Sacramento.

The San Francisco Symphony received the second largest grant, $304,771. Among other top 10 winners were the San Francisco Opera ($252,120), the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco ($160,661), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art ($156,662), Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art ($129,200), the San Francisco Ballet ($124,880) and the Center Theatre Group Mark Taper Forum ($105,280).

These organizations, all with operating budgets of $1 million or more, received Support to Prominent Organizations grants, the council’s largest. In all, 34 groups won $3 million in this category.

A total of 521 organizations with budgets under $1 million won $3.5 million in Artistic and Administrative Development grants. Among top winners in this division were the Bella Lewitzky Dance Company ($27,200), Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions ($26,860), the American Film Institute ($23,800) and the Orange County Philharmonic Society ($20,400).

When Deukmejian signed the new state budget in July, he vetoed a $1.1-million increase that the council had requested, giving the agency no new funds. Most of that money had been promised by the council to 42 arts groups statewide in California Challenge Program Grants to be matched exclusively with new private dollars.

Still reeling from the blow--some arts groups had to cancel projects, some had to dip into their budgets to replace money spent on those projects--some arts officials are hoping that the Legislature and the governor will restore the challenge grants.

So far, however, the Senate and Assembly have not even agreed upon a proposal to restore the funds, said council Director Robert H. Reid, observing that getting the extra funds would be nothing short of “a miracle.”

In another key action Thursday, the council, nine of whose 11 members were appointed by the Republican governor, voted to request $17.8 million for the council’s 1989-90 budget. That figure, which includes $1 million to resurrect (or carry on) the challenge program, is “depressingly” low, said Susan Hoffman, director of the California Confederation of the Arts, a lobbying group for arts organizations. (The confederation wants a $21.5 million 1989-90 council budget.)

Reid, also a Deukmejian appointee, disagreed. “The confederation’s job is to advocate for more money for the arts. Our job is to do the best we can to present a budget that is prudent and yet meets the needs of the field. This ($17.8 million) is something we think is do-able.”

Reid also said Thursday that two council staff members whose positions had been eliminated by a two-house conference committee in June would not be fired.

“We’re making arrangements to keep those people on board in some capacity,” he said.

The conference committee was concerned that too much council money was being spent on its administration rather than on arts groups. It had voted to apply the staff members’ salaries toward minority arts grants, but those redirected funds were also felled when the governor, facing an expected $2-billion state revenue shortfall, vetoed all council increases in July.