Local News in Brief : $60,000 Awarded for Cultural Center

The National Endowment for the Arts has awarded $60,000 to the Cultural Foundation, a San Fernando Valley group that is trying to build a cultural center in the Sepulveda Basin.

The grant will help pay for a design competition that will provide architectural plans for the center by early summer, officials said.

The Cultural Foundation envisions an “Arts Park L.A.” including a 2,500-seat concert hall, an open-air performance glen, a natural history museum and a cluster of workshops and classrooms.

Still unresolved is a legal challenge by environmentalists to use of the basin, which is a flood-control area under the jurisdiction of the Army Corps of Engineers.

Another obstacle to the project is a potential $70-million price tag. Foundation officials said they will begin a fund-raising campaign once the architectural plans are completed.