Quake-Affected Arts Groups Stranded by Campaign’s Failure : Fund-raising: A statewide program for 20 Bay Area organizations has produced only about $10,000 of a projected $550,000.

Individual artists who suffered losses in last October’s Northern California earthquake have all received emergency grant assistance from the National Endowment for the Arts, but 20 Bay Area arts organizations have been caught up in the failure of a statewide fund-raising campaign.

Moreover, according to an analysis partly made public here Friday but primarily conducted by arts-quake recovery officials in the San Francisco area, a statewide grass-roots fund-raising program that had been intended to bring in $550,000 in matching funds has produced only about $10,000 so far.

The status of arts earthquake-assistance grants was discussed here at a meeting of the National Council on the Arts, the NEA’s advisory board. Separate analysis was supplied to The Times by John Kreidler, program executive for the San Francisco Foundation, who is overseeing the quake recovery program in the Bay Area.

In the weeks after the earthquake, the NEA authorized an emergency grant of $550,000 for artists and art organizations whose buildings and equipment were destroyed. Payment of the NEA total, however, is predicated on the raising from private sources of $1.65 million in matching funds.

Kreidler said Bay Area arts recovery officials have another 14 months to work on reaching the total. And Kreidler said that foundation officials overseeing the project had anticipated the failure of a statewide campaign organized by the California Arts Council to raise $550,000.

“I think they (the California Arts Council) may have made some mistakes,” Kreidler said, “but I can’t be critical of the effort. It’s clear now in hindsight that (by the time the campaign began after dozens of other quake-assistance fund-raising programs had already started) there just wasn’t that much interest left to tap.”

Large foundation and other supporters produced the first $1.1 million in matching funds almost immediately after the program was announced, Kreidler said, and individual artists received priority funding. So far, NEA officials said, $353,647 has been distributed to 107 eligible individual artists--representing virtually 100% of artists who have applied for aid.

However, said Kreidler, the situation is less sanguine for a total of 20 larger arts organizations that have suffered revenue losses, building and equipment damage or other quake-related problems. Kreidler said that, while he expects the full amount of the required matching funds will be raised by the cutoff date in June of next year, the failure of the statewide program may mean that some arts organizations will be forced to seek loans to carry them over at interest rates that, alone, may cause financial hardship.

“They may be disadvantaged in carrying some debt right now,” Kreidler said of the affected organizations, “but it doesn’t mean they’re out of business, even if their operations are in some way impeded.”

The California Arts Council program relied on distributing thousands of donation envelopes to arts venues all over the state in the hope that museum patrons, theatergoers and others would send in small contributions.

The most significantly affected arts organization is the American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco’s premier stage company. The Geary Theater, ACT’s headquarters, sustained immense damage when its entire ceiling and lighting grid collapsed in the quake. ACT must produce its plays in alternative quarters for at least another year.

When color slides of the theater interior were shown to national members, gasps at the extent of the damage filled a darkened meeting room.

Kreidler said ACT has already received $573,640 from the arts quake-recovery fund, but that it is scheduled to get another $340,000 to complete the repair work that was to have been supplied by the ill-fated California Arts Council fund-raising program.

Kreidler said the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Magic Theater, the Oakland Ensemble Theater, the Oakland Ballet, the Mexican Museum and the San Jose Symphony Assn. also are affected by the shortfall. George Coates Performance Works, which was staging a play at ACT when the quake struck and had to cancel its sold-out final three weeks, is also on the shortchanged list, Kreidler said.