Arts on Green Will Expand to 2-Day Festival : Funding: Although expenses have increased and first-time benefactors are still being sought, the Costa Mesa performing and visual arts program is financially healthier than earlier thought.

The way looks clear for another Arts on the Green, despite previous concerns that insufficient funding could threaten the future of the annual cultural fete.

In fact, for the first time since its inception in 1984, the performing and visual arts festival will be expanded to two days, co-chairwoman Carol Heywood said Monday. It is scheduled Sept. 22 and 23, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day, at Town Center Park.

“It looks very good, we’re not anticipating any problems,” said Heywood, who last year expressed doubts about the festival’s continued financial health.

Expenses this year, due to the festival’s expansion, have increased from $60,000 to $80,000, Heywood said. But fund raising is ahead of where it was at this time last year.

Several Costa-Mesa based businesses have committed $20,000, and another $20,000 is expected from other local corporations, she said. Organizers have also applied for a $40,000 grant from the city of Costa Mesa, a longtime festival backer. The city, scheduled to vote on arts grants Monday night, gave the festival $20,000 in 1989, but several revenue-generating sources such as on-site concession sales would make up the difference, Heywood said.

Last year’s festival ended in the black, but new corporate donors, considered critical to the event’s survival, were virtually non-existent. “We can’t keep going to the same funding sources year after year,” Heywood said last September.

This year, no first-time benefactors have chipped in yet, but “we are confident a few new ones are coming in,” Heywood said. She added that since word went out last year that the event’s future could be in question, previous backers have shown strong support.

“We’ve been talking to a lot of community leaders, and they’re saying, ‘You’ve got to keep this going, and we’re going to help you,’ ” she said.

The festival, organized by the Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce, will be expanded to two days this year to give such donors more exposure in return for their contributions, Heywood said. Each performance platform or stage bears the name of a major corporate sponsor.

Additionally, organizers hope not to have to turn away participants as they have in the past because of a lack of stage space, said Heywood, who expects that more than 100 performances by dance, music and theater groups from Orange County and environs and exhibits by about 75 local artists will be presented. This year’s attendance is expected to double last year’s record 12,000 visitors, she said.

Artists or arts groups wishing to participate in Arts on the Green may request an application from the Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce at (714) 650-1490.