Brody Grants a Lifeline to Stuggling Artists : Fellowships: 14 organizations and individuals are recipients of the grants, designed to encourage new voices reflecting the cultural diversity of Los Angeles.

It’s no secret that many artists have to work regular day jobs to support their creative passions. So when an artist decides it’s time to quit that day job and survive only on the returns from his artistic work, things can get a bit scary.

Such was the case for performance artist Luis Alfaro, who earlier this month quit his seven-year job as a personnel director for a sizeable automotive firm and gave up his comfortable Eagle Rock apartment.

“I was getting a bit worried,” said Alfaro, who was house-sitting for friends to save himself from having to pay rent money. Alfaro’s worries were ended, however--at least temporarily--when he found out this week that he had been selected for a $2,500 1989-90 Brody Arts Fund Fellowship from the California Community Foundation.

“It couldn’t have come at a better time,” said Alfaro, who plans to use a good deal of the money to develop a one-man show, called “Learning the Language,” about the politics of growing up in downtown Los Angeles. “It’s going to help me just to get off the ground. . . . And immediately it’s going to help, because I’ll be able to get a place to live.”

Fourteen emerging arts organizations and 15 individual artists--including such well known figures as performance artist Tim Miller, actress/playwright Jude Narita, choreographer Young-Ae Park and flautist Michiko Akao--were selected this week to receive a total of $85,000 through the Brody Arts Fund. The fund--which was begun in 1984 to encourage emerging artists and arts organizations whose work reflects the cultural diversity of Los Angeles County--operates on a $900,000 endowment that was established through a four-year partnership with National Endowment for the Arts.

Grants to organizations ranged from $4,200 to groups such as Korean Traditional Folk Dance (L.A. Dance Academy) and United Latinos for the Arts in Los Angeles to $2,200 for the San Pedro Croatian Kolo Dancers. The individual fellowships--which this year were limited to performing artists (visual artists received fellowships last year, and spoken word and video artists will be eligible next year)--are for $2,500 each.

Alfaro was not the only artist for whom the Brody grant came at a pivotal time.

“For me, this grant is of great emotional and financial importance,” said openly gay actor and playwright Michael Kearns. Kearns explained that, until recently, he financially supported his theater work through television appearances on shows such as “Cheers” and “Murder, She Wrote.” But, he said: “The more vocal I am about AIDS issues and gay rights, the more that work dwindles. And if one’s going to do theater, one has to have an income from somewhere other than the theater. So although I’m new to the grant scene, grants have become imperative to me for doing the kind of work I do. “

Kearns plans to use the fellowship money to produce a performance piece in which he plays six culturally diverse characters with AIDS. The piece, to be called “more intimacies,” will be a follow-up to his acclaimed 1989 piece “intimacies.”

Other projects to be funded or partially funded by the Brody grants include the creation of a group work with gay men from several cultures by performance artist Miller, the creation of a nonprofit dance company by Korean choreographer Park, the purchase of new technical equipment for the piece “Secrets of a Samurai Centerfielder” by performance artist Dan Kwong, and the preservation of five Los Angeles area murals by the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles.

Here is a complete list of the 1989-90 Brody Arts Fund recipients:

ORGANIZATIONAL GRANTS

Afro-American Chamber Music Society, $4,200.

Cambodian Art Preservation Group, $3,000.

Carson Community Symphony, $3,000.

East Wind Youth Foundation, $4,200.

Khmer Women Weavers, $4,200.

Korean Traditional Folk Dance, $4,200.

Los Angeles Metropolitan Performing Arts Academy, $2,500.

Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles, $3,500.

Rhapsody in Taps, $4,200.

Rhythms of the Village Inc., $4,200.

San Pedro Croatian Kolo Dancers, $2,200.

Theatre Worker’s Project, $2,200.

Trinidad & Tobago Society for Culture, $2,200.

United Latinos for the Arts in Los Angeles, $4,200.

FELLOWSHIPS ($2,500 each)

Michiko Akao, musician/new genre.

Luis Alfaro, new genre/performance art.

Janet Carroll, choreographer.

Michael Kearns, actor/playwright.

Mohammad Khordanian, choreographer.

Daniel Kwong, new genre/performance art.

Tim Miller, new genre/performance art.

Jude Narita, actor/playwright.

Souphalack Oudomhack, dancer.

Young-Ae Park, choreographer.

John Pickett, choreographer.

Yinn Ponn, musician.

Carlos Rodriguez, composer.

Linda Sibio, new genre/performance art.

Roger Guenveur Smith, multidisciplinary.