The Search for Deep Pockets : Observers of the Orange County arts scene are wondering who will pay for the profusion of projects

Last weekend, for the first time in its history, the Newport Harbor Art Museum canceled a fund-raising event for lack of ticket sales.

The museum’s director of development, Margie Shackelford, said the “Good Vibrations” affair, which was to have coincided with an exhibition of pop art from the ‘60s, was called off because of unforeseen competition from private parties. Still, some observers of the local arts scene are wondering whether the explosion in projects is plumbing the depths of the county’s deep pockets.

A marketing report released earlier this month has recommended that the Orange County Center for the Performing Arts build as many as three new theaters--at a cost of up to $119 million.

Excluding the cost of programming and endowments, other capital projects now either under construction or on the drawing board--from Costa Mesa south to Laguna Beach alone--could exceed $50 million more. These include the Newport Harbor Art Museum ($20 million), the 750-seat Irvine Theatre ($17.6 million), expansion of the Laguna Playhouse ($2.8 million) and a new, 1,500-seat theater in Mission Viejo, which has no cost estimate.

“Population in Orange County is growing rapidly,” according to the Center’s marketing study, prepared by the Harrison Price Co. of Torrance. “Estimated population in the year 2000 is approximately 2.7 million persons. To maintain the same ratio of population attending performing arts events as is currently being achieved, the county must increase both the level of programming and the number of theater seats. . . . If Orange County is to provide programs for its growing audience, it must build new theaters.”

Although a significant portion of the funding of these projects has been provided from public sources or already has been raised from private sources, still more needs to be raised. These needs include up to $10 million, for example, for the Newport Harbor Art museum (the museum declined to say how much more has been raised since it announced that it had reached the halfway point), $3.2 million for the Irvine Theatre and $2 million for the Laguna Playhouse.

Even on the local level, the hunt for private money to help build and renovate arts institutions is growing. Backers of Huntington Beach’s new Municipal Arts Center, sensing a shift of sentiment on the newly elected City Council, announced plans earlier this month to raise more than $300,000 through a nonprofit foundation. . In Fullerton, supporters of the Muckenthaler Cultural Center are hoping to raise $300,000 for major renovations, also from private sources.

With all this construction under way and in the wind, “certainly the issue will have to come up of where the dough is going to come (from),” says David Emmes, producing artistic director of South Coast Repertory Theatre, which expanded its own facilities in Costa Mesa to the tune of $1.7 million 2 years ago.

Professional fund raisers affiliated with various county arts organizations are upbeat. Newport Harbor’s Shackelford, for instance, is unconcerned by the other campaigns. She said the drive for the museum, which is slated to open in 1992, is going “very well,” and she said that her organization’s fund-raising probably would be completed by the time the Center’s expansion campaign was getting under way.

“There is certainly plenty of money to go around in Orange County,” she said. “The county’s booming.”

All the major campaigns, she said, had feasibility studies done before they began.

“The county is ready for these institutions,” she said.

Henry Goldstein, a New York fund-raising consultant now working for the museum’s campaign, agreed that private giving for the arts in Orange County is “nowhere near the limit” of what can be done. With the median age rising to the late 30s, he said, “marginal and incremental supporters will later become serious supporters.”

Henry Segerstrom, perhaps the best known performing arts patron in the county, said he believes that the Center’s forthcoming capital campaign will not compete with any of the projects now under way.

But James L. Vandeberg thinks arts “organizations need to bear in mind that there’s a finite amount of money out there.” Vandeberg is secretary and corporate counsel for Carter Hawley Hale and vice president of South Coast Repertory. Carter Hawley Hale has contributed $50,000 to SCR and between $50,000 and $100,000 to the Performing Arts Center’s $73-million building fund around the same time.

Raising tens of millions of dollars for the various new building projects should be “a real challenge,” Vandeberg said. “That’s a lot of money. They might have to expand out of Orange and L.A. counties to raise it.”

At its recent board meeting, the Center established a division of national gifts. But based on the Center’s experience in building the existing facility, two-thirds of the money contributed by businesses will be from those with headquarters in Orange County.

Inevitably, some of the same names pop up whenever the hat is passed for major donations for the arts:

* The Segerstrom family, which donated the land for the Performing Arts Center, valued at the time at $5 million, as well as $6 million for construction. One of the most likely sites for the proposed Center expansion is owned by family interests.

* The Irvine Co., which contributed the site for the Newport Harbor Art Museum, $1.75 million to the Performing Arts Center building fund and $600,000 to the Irvine Theatre.

* The Harry and Grace Steele Foundation, which gave $1 million to the Center’s building fund, $500,000 in matching funds to the Laguna Playhouse’s capital campaign and $50,000 to SCR’s 1987 expansion, and has pledged $1 million to Newport Harbor Art Museum.

* The Mission Viejo Co., which contributed between $100,000 and $250,000 to the Center’s building fund and an unspecified amount to the Laguna Playhouse expansion. The company is also expected to be a major supporter of the proposed Mission Viejo theater, which may be built on the campus of Saddleback College.

Like the major corporate givers, the number of foundations who are likely to participate in capital campaigns is limited. Relatively few national foundations, like the Kresge Foundation, make “brick-and-mortar” grants to build facilities, according to fund-raiser Goldstein.

In addition to the Steele Foundation, major players in Orange County include the James Irvine Foundation (not affiliated with the Irvine Co.), which contributed more than $1 million to the Center’s building fund; the W.M. Keck Foundation of Los Angeles, which donated a similar amount; the Security Pacific Foundation, which gave between $500,000 and $1 million, and the Ahmanson Foundation, which gave between $250,000 and $500,000.

At some point, major donors may begin making choices about their giving, although most were reluctant to be quoted on the subject.

The Mission Viejo Co., for example, supports the idea of a theater on the Saddleback campus.

“It’s too early in that proposal to decide much else,” said Wendy Wetzel, director of corporate affairs.

Asked how that support would affect the company’s participation in building new theaters at the Center in Costa Mesa, Wetzel said only that “projects in our planned community do have our first priority.”

Another question that looms is whether the reliance on these major contributors can continue.

Douglas C. Rankin, general director of the Irvine Theater, has a unique perspective. His $17.9-million institution is being watched as a model of local, state and private partnership.

The site for the theater was donated by UC Irvine, which also contributed $1.8 million in cash, and the city of Irvine has approved $11.3 million in building support. That still left $4.8 million to be raised from the private sector. To date, $1.6 million of that has been raised.

Even though the Irvine Co. has made the largest private contribution to date--$600,000--Rankin thinks institutions like his need to look beyond the usual sources of major givers.

His strategy has been to “develop new leadership and new contributors who are out there. I believe that if you can first find them and then create the interest for your project in their minds, those individuals and corporations will grow over time and have the potential of becoming major donors later on. . . . We’re in this for the long haul.”

But, at least for the foreseeable future, Segerstrom says he expects the traditional pyramid configuration of fund-raising, with its heavy reliance on major givers, to apply: the top 10 donors account for one third of the total, the next hundred largest donors provide the second third of the total and all the remaining givers provide the rest.

It’s even possible, said Bob Sharp, a Santa Ana-based consultant, that reliance on large donors is increasing.

Sharp, who directed the Center’s building campaign and is now directing the Irvine Theatre’s efforts, said that recent figures on efforts similar to the Center indicated that as much as 95% of the money was coming from 5% of the donors.

The biggest challenge to fund-raisers is the Performing Arts Center, primarily because of the hefty price tag for the Center’s new theaters and the Center’s policy of not accepting government funds.

Officially, the Center has so far only accepted the Harrison Price survey’s recommendations and is in the very preliminary stage of looking for a site for the new theaters. And while the survey recommends building three new theaters, for up to $119 million, it suggests that one of these could be “deferred.” Even building two of the three theaters--a concert hall being first in order of priority--probably will require a capital campaign of $90 million over the next 10 years.

John Miltner, vice chancellor of UCI and a member of the Center board, thinks a $90-million capital campaign is realistic, but he doesn’t disagree with Rankin that newer sources of funding will be needed.

“I think it’s realistic if (Center officials) start right now expanding their constituency,” said Miltner, who has served as chairman of the National Society of Fundraising Executives. “I don’t think they can do it on the existing donor base.”

Paying for the Arts in Orange County Many arts projects requiring private donations are under way in Orange County. Some fund raisers see only a finite amount of money available from patrons. Other say private giving is “nowhere near the limit.” Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton: $300, 000 for renovations. Huntington Beach Municipal Arts Center: $300,000 to rehabilitate an industrial building. 750-seat Irvine Theatre; $17.6 million. Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa: $119 million to build three new theaters. Newport Harbor Art Museum; $20 million 1,500-seat theatre in Mission Viejo: No cost estimate Expansion of the Laguna Playhouse: $2.8 million