Orange County Philharmonic Society Wins NEA Grant : The society board will meet over the weekend to discuss whether to accept the $3,500 award.

The Orange County Philharmonic Society has won its first grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, although society Executive Director Erich A. Vollmer said Thursday that the organization’s board will meet this weekend to decide whether to accept the $3,500 award.

Some arts organizations have recently rejected or threatened to reject NEA grants, objecting to congressional attempts to regulate artistic content.

If it is accepted, the grant will be used for the society’s 1990-91 “Festival Series” of work predominantly by young American artists, Vollmer said. The series is planned for the new Irvine Theatre scheduled to open this fall.

“We are very pleased our first (NEA) application was awarded a grant,” Vollmer said. “Though it’s small, it is a beginning.”

The society also recently received a $2,000 first-time grant from the Western States Arts Federation, a nonprofit programming and support organization serving 13 Western states. That money will help support a 1991 appearance by the Billy Taylor Trio with the Juilliard String Quartet.

The society has also reapplied for second-year funding from the E. Nakamichi Foundation. The foundation gave the presenting organization $75,000 for its 1989-90 season, but it recently turned down the society’s application for a grant for the 1990-91 season. The foundation does not discuss reasons for refusing grants, according to society development director Eve Henderson, who would not disclose the amount requested.

Although Vollmer said he is optimistic that the second attempt will succeed, he said that should it fail, “we might set our sights a little lower regarding our goals for corporate and foundation giving . . , and one or two new staff positions may have to be deferred for a while.” He added, however, “I certainly don’t see that it will make too much of an impact on our overall budget.”

The society’s current operating budget is $2.4 million; its goal for corporate and foundation donations is $400,000, Vollmer said.

The society also learned recently that second-year funding from the Lexus division of Toyota Motor Sales would not be forthcoming. But that was expected news, Henderson said, because the support, totaling $100,000, required display of a Lexus automobile during concerts at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

“We understood when we went into that sponsorship arrangement that it probably would not be renewed a second year,” Henderson said, largely because Center officials do not “philosophically support” sponsorship that involves marketing promotion and made a one-time only exception last year for the Philharmonic Society.

Craig Kiplin of Irvine will be recommended for a California Arts Council Artist-in-Residence grant to teach art at the Orange County High School of the Arts. Michael Bacich, who lives in Long Beach, will be recommended for a similar grant to teach art for the San Juan Capistrano Unified School District. The arts council is scheduled to vote on these grant requests June 1. The Laguna Poets and Pacific Writers Press, based at UC Irvine, will be recommended for arts council organizational grants for literary groups. The grants will be determined in August.