COMBO Alters Method of Cutting Up the Pie

COMBO has announced critical changes in the way it plans to allocate money to arts groups. Instead of parceling out dollars just among its 30 “member” beneficiaries, the private local arts funding agency will distribute on the basis of proposals.

However, the grants will only be made for the performing arts.

“It’s going to encourage organizations to think through what their needs are,” said COMBO spokesman Michael Lyon. “So the competition is healthy. The encouragement of creative thinking is healthy.”

The new allocation method is intended to support the smaller and emerging organizations, Lyon said. However, he noted that “large or small isn’t so much the key here as is the quality of the proposal.”

And it appears that large arts institutions will also benefit from the policy.

Domenick Ietto, the San Diego Opera’s development director, praised the new procedure, calling it “very healthy. We were told we are free to apply to COMBO for special projects but no longer receive direct operating funds automatically.”

“I think that is very healthy. The top leadership of the business community can get involved in major arts organizations in a much more in-depth way.”

In the past, businesses gave one contribution to COMBO and did not need to understand the specifics of how individual arts companies operated, Ietto said.

“They figured COMBO would divvy up the money appropriately. Now they will have the case made for support by all the majors. A better understanding bodes well for increased support,” Ietto said.

The funding change is in response to the city of San Diego’s decision in 1987 to take charge of distributing all hotel and motel tax money. For 25 years, the so-called transient occupancy tax revenues made up more than half the annual bounty that COMBO allocated to a limited number of nonprofit arts groups. Last year, COMBO raised $450,000 from private, corporate and foundation sources.

COMBO will make grants twice yearly rather than monthly under the new procedures. According to Lyon, proposals should be made in letter form, with pertinent supporting material. Lyon said COMBO is interested in proposals that give it an opportunity to participate more directly in arts organizations.

Applications for the initial 1989 COMBO allocations will be accepted Nov. 14 through Dec. 17. A Nov. 22 application workshop will be held for current COMBO members.

Visual arts organizations that already are members of COMBO will be eligible to apply but only for performing-arts activities. Asked why COMBO will not fund visual artists and arts organizations, Lyon said the board of directors wanted to stick with performing arts groups because “they are the ones that are the most identifiable as successful, ongoing organizations.”

COMBO executive director Jack Borchers added a clarifying comments, stressing that restricting grants to the performing arts is for the current year. He said that, because COMBO views itself more as a foundation, it intends to focus on certain disciplines each year.

“All I think we can say this year is that our accent is on the performing arts,” Borchers said. “Each year we will take a look at where the needs are.”

A special-project coordinator with the San Diego Museum of Art and 25 artists have been tapped to implement a mammoth, innovative education program designed to take the visual arts to more than 68,000 elementary and junior high school students.

The three- to five-year program, dubbed “Young at ‘Art,” was made possible by a donation of more than $3 million in September by philanthropist Muriel Gluck. The money will go chiefly to pay the wages of up to 50 part-time artists who will give students hands-on experience with art.

The Gluck grant has been divided between the San Diego Unified School District and the museum. The district will develop a visual arts education curriculum, purchase vans to carry materials and hire artists.

It also has hired 25 artists and scheduled an initial all-day workshop for Nov. 29 to begin planning a “total program” for the arts, including dance, music and drama, said Kay Wagner, the district’s fine arts program manager.

“I want the schools to think about it and plan what they want to do,” Wagner said. “I have a strong belief that education begins with the child making art or doing art rather than reading about it.”

Wagner said she was overwhelmed by the response to the workshop from the district’s 110 elementary schools. Faculty from 60 schools said they wanted to attend the first workshop. Wagner had planned for 12 schools. Now she says she will try to accommodate 20 to 25.

The museum’s role is to develop study guides for use by the teachers and students and a series of lectures for students, parents and teachers. The money will also go to purchase an “artmobile” for the museum and to develop an after-school program for selected middle schools with a high percentage of working parents and “latchkey” kids.

The museum has hired Barney Malesky, the education curator at the Charles W. Bowers Memorial Museum in Santa Ana, to head its end of “Young at ‘Art,” according to museum director Steven Brezzo.

Before his move to Santa Ana nearly two years ago, Malesky headed the Dallas Museum of Art’s “Go Van Gogh” outreach program.