Council Recommends Arts Grants for O.C.

Fifteen Orange County arts groups would receive state subsidies for 1989-90 under recommendations released Monday from the California Arts Council.

Most of those organizations, though, are being recommended for two different grant amounts, and two additional groups may be funded because of a temporary change of council procedure.

Under one recommendation, the 15 groups would be awarded $322,426. Under the other, 17 groups would receive $448,350. The council is expected to approve either of these sets of recommendations Thursday during a two-day meeting in Sacramento.

Last year, 17 local arts groups were awarded a total of $304,695.

The dual recommendations are being made by council staff this year because of an augmentation to the council’s overall budget made in July by the state Legislature and Gov. George Deukmejian, according to Juan Carrillo, the arts council’s deputy director of programs.

Council grants are determined by formulas based on the budgets of the applying groups and evaluations of both their artistic and organizational strengths and their efforts to reach minority communities. A rating system assigns each art group a rating from 1, the lowest, to 4.

Historically, only groups rated 3 minus or above are funded. But this year, the council wanted to study the possibility of funding groups ranked 2-plus or above because of the $1-million augmentation that brought the council’s overall budget to $16.6 million for fiscal year 1989-90, and added $450,000 to the council’s Organizational Support Program of grants to be announced Thursday, Carrillo said.

An immediate decision to increase the grants was not made because the council also received $1 million more in grant requests this year, Carrillo said.

The first recommendation (A in the accompanying chart) follows the council’s historical formula. The second recommendation (B in the chart) suggests redistributing the funds to give $1,000 to each group with a 2-plus ranking, in this case the Historical and Cultural Foundation of Orange County and the Garden Grove Symphony, and to give smaller groups with higher rankings (Relampago del Cielo, the Laguna Poets and Orange Coast College Community Services) a minimum of $1,500.

These changes would apply only to groups with budgets of less than $1 million. Larger organizations are not affected and are given only one recommendation.

The council on Thursday will decide which set of recommendations to approve--or it may choose to come up with some combination of funding changes, Carrillo said.

Eight local groups are recommended to get smaller grants than they received last year. Among them are the Master Chorale of Orange County, the Pacific Symphony and South Coast Repertory. Seven groups, including the Orange County Philharmonic Society, the Laguna and Newport Harbor art museums and the Grove Theatre Company, are recommended for higher grants. One previously funded group, the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana (see accompanying story) will receive no grant.

CALIFORNIA ARTS COUNCIL GRANT RECOMMENDATIONS -- ORANGE COUNTY

RECOMMENDED ORGANIZATION REQUEST A/B** ART BOWERS MUSEUM $49,601 $0 LAGUNA ART MUSEUM $50,000 $14,000/$13,250 NEWPORT HARBOR ART $107,975 $59,386 MUSEUM ORANGE COUNTY CENTER $2,000 0 FOR CONTEMPORARY ART DANCE BALLET PACIFICA $20,000 0 COAST BALLET THEATRE $89,000 0 RELAMPAGO DEL CIELO $7,866 $1,416/$1,500 SAINT JOSEPH BALLET $15,130 $9,835/$9,759 MUSIC GARDEN GROVE SYMPHONY $20,000 0/$1,000 LAGUNA BEACH CHAMBER $18,799 $5,264/$4,982 MUSIC SOCIETY MASTER CHORALE OF $40,000 $7,300/$6,000 ORANGE COUNTY OPERA PACIFIC $139,600 $41,800 PACIFIC CHORALE $30,000 $14,000/$13,950 PACIFIC SYMPHONY $131,063 $39,319 SOUTH COAST SYMPHONY $25,000 $2,000 PRESENTERS AND OTHERS HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL $12,075 0/$1,000 FOUNDATION OF ORANGE COUNTY LAGUNA POETS $2,500 $1,000/$1,500 ORANGE COAST COLLEGE $13,500 $1,000/$1,500 COMMUNITY SERVICES ORANGE COUNTY $50,000 $32,500/$32,250 PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY THEATER GROVE THEATRE CO $40,000 $11,200/$10,600 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY $149,000 $81,950 TOTALS $820,433 $448,350/$322,426

** “A” is recommended if the council follows its tradition pattern of awarding grants only to groups with ratings of 3- and above. “B” is recommended if the council adopts a new plan that would allow funding of more groups.

CALIFORNIA ARTS COUNCIL GRANT RECOMMENDATIONS -- ORANGE COUNTY

LAST RANKINGS* YEAR’S LAST ORGANIZATION GRANT CURRENT YEAR’S ART BOWERS MUSEUM $10,000 2 3 LAGUNA ART MUSEUM $3,000 3+ 3- NEWPORT HARBOR ART $28,249 4-/3+ 3 MUSEUM ORANGE COUNTY CENTER did not 2- n/a FOR CONTEMPORARY ART apply DANCE BALLET PACIFICA 0 2 2- COAST BALLET THEATRE did not 1 n/a apply RELAMPAGO DEL CIELO $3,000 3 3 SAINT JOSEPH BALLET $11,696 4 4 MUSIC GARDEN GROVE SYMPHONY 0 2+ 2 LAGUNA BEACH CHAMBER $1,500 3+ 3 MUSIC SOCIETY MASTER CHORALE OF $12,000 3 3+ ORANGE COUNTY OPERA PACIFIC $32,630 3/3 3 PACIFIC CHORALE $15,000 4- 4- PACIFIC SYMPHONY $45,820 3/3 3+ SOUTH COAST SYMPHONY $5,000 3- 3 PRESENTERS AND OTHERS HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL 0 2+ 2+ FOUNDATION OF ORANGE COUNTY LAGUNA POETS $1,000 3+ 3 ORANGE COAST COLLEGE 0 3- 2+ COMMUNITY SERVICES ORANGE COUNTY $20,400 4 4 PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY THEATER GROVE THEATRE CO $9,000 3+ 3+ SOUTH COAST REPERTORY $106,400 4/3 4 TOTALS $304,695

* Candidates for grants are ranked on a scale of 1-4, with 4 at the top. Organizations with budgets of $1 million or more are given two scores--and therefore greater scrutiny--because they receive the largest grants and “have the greatest responsibility” to the state and their communities, according to a spokeswoman for the council. One of the two scores is for artistic performance,the other for community outreach.