1990 ORANGE COUNTY : Depth of Commitment to Be Measured : ARTS ORGANIZATIONS

Most Orange County arts leaders say they will continue to court private donations with a vengeance, rather than bank on more bucks from government.

Reasons for the strategy vary. But often cited is what many see as historically inadequate growth in the California Arts Council’s budget and recent controversies at the National Endowment for the Arts.

Erich Vollmer, executive director of the Orange County Philharmonic Society, knows that competition for private dollars is already rife. He’s optimistic nonetheless.

“We’re seeing a great influx of Asian corporations into this area, and I think they feel an obligation to get involved in the community” by supporting its needs, Vollmer said.

Henry T. Segerstrom, chairman and chief executive officer of the Orange County Performing Arts Center, said the Center will continue to seek private funds exclusively. Plans for the ‘90s include increased efforts at winning corporate donations from outside Orange County, he said.

Still, others haven’t abandoned hopes, at least, for an enlightened decade that brings more government support. A continued thaw in the Cold War could precipitate a “reordering of American priorities,” said David Emmes, producing artistic director of South Coast Repertory. “I hope that there would be this move toward more humanistic values . . . and greater financial support for the arts in this country.”

In addition, there are signs that the county may begin to fund culture. Board of Supervisors Chairman Thomas F. Riley recently asked county officials to examine the county’s role in supporting the arts. The move, he said, means he “hopes” the county will give more funds to the arts in general, and specifically that the board would eventually fund a proposed countywide arts service agency that local arts officials have been working to form.

Even if the state’s art budget does blossom in the ‘90s, however, it looks as though state-subsidized arts groups that don’t show concerted efforts to serve the growing ethnic minority population will continue to suffer for it, perhaps even more so than in the past.

The council will pay even greater attention to “programming that reflects the (ethnic) diversity” of audiences and the numbers of minorities that organizations place on their staffs and boards of directors, said council director Robert H. Reid.

Yet even in the event of increases to the overall arts budget, the ever-growing number of groups seeking state aid may reduce the net amount of grants, as it markedly did during the ‘80s.

Without exception, arts officials interviewed said they want to include more minorities on their boards in the ‘90s. They also want to expand other activities that expose the arts to ethnic communities, but few have specific plans on new ways to accomplish these goals.

“We already have a staff member who has responsibility for affirmative-action” hiring, SCR’s Emmes said. “And we are certainly making an effort, in our casting policies, to involve more minorities that way. This will certainly be true of the next decade.”

Although there appears to be widespread support for an organization to promote the arts countywide, another trend many foresee is the continued proliferation of municipal arts agencies.

Nationwide, the number of these entities has grown from 1,800 in 1985 to 3,500, according to the Washington-based National Assembly of Local Arts Agencies.

Local agencies, run by an area’s own citizens, know best what local arts communities need and want, and are bound to continue multiplying, said Olive Mosier, executive vice president of the national assembly.

Irvine and Dana Point are among cities that have recently set up cultural commissions. A new Costa Mesa Tourism, Arts and Promotion Council, probably to be funded through a fee or tax charged on local hotel and motel bills, could generate $2.2 million for arts and tourism, city officials have said. This year, the city gave $175,000 to arts groups.

Finally, more public art--sculpture, murals and other works that people can see without paying museum admission--may also pop up in the ‘90s.

The outlook for more privately funded public art “looks positive,” said Mary Beebe, an expert on public art and director of the Stuart Collection, a permanent outdoor display of contemporary art at UC San Diego.

“I get calls from developers in Orange County and north San Diego County who are interested in it. There seems to be a lot of interest in public art on the part of the public sector too.”