State Aid Denied to County Arts Panel : Culture: The group loses $1.48 million in grants. The state says it suffers from poor organization.

The Ventura County Arts Alliance, set up to boost cultural activities in the county, has been denied state funding and warned that it suffers from poor organization and weak commitment to promoting the arts.

In an evaluation disclosed Wednesday, California Arts Council officials cut the Arts Alliance out of $1.48 million in grants distributed statewide and gave the group the lowest ranking possible in the council’s State Local Partnership program.

“It’s tough news,” said Patricia Olney, a member of the Arts Alliance Board of Directors. “There are going to have to be some immediate decisions made.”

Without the grant, Olney and others said, the organization, the county’s lead agency in seeking state funds and promoting the arts, will face a struggle to raise enough money to sustain a staff and continue to act as a resource for local arts groups.

Only five of the state’s 58 counties were judged unworthy of support: Glenn, Kern, San Luis Obispo, Solano and Ventura. Orange County also did not receive state funds but did not apply.

The grants, awarded annually, require that recipients raise a matching amount in contributions. This year’s awards varied from $5,000 in Butte, El Dorado, Mariposa, Placer and San Mateo counties, to $78,354 awarded to the Yuba-Sutter Regional Arts Council.

From 1980 to 1988, the Ventura County Arts Commission served as the county’s contact agency with the state in the grant program. The Ventura County Arts Alliance was created three years ago by the private, nonprofit Ventura County Community Foundation to take the commission’s place in fund-raising efforts.

The decision to withhold state funds was the first time in 11 years that no Ventura County arts agency was selected for a grant under the program.

As a program of the Community Foundation, the Arts Alliance was designed to serve as a clearing-house for county cultural groups, passing along state grant money, sharing administrative expertise and shaping the county’s various arts groups into a cohesive community. Between 1988 and this year, the group took in $45,336 in state grants.

The organization’s top goal is commissioning a consultant to develop a countywide cultural plan. Officials say money for that project, estimated at $35,000, has been set aside. Completion of the plan is expected by next year.

Because Sonia Tower resigned her administrator’s post last year to take a position with the city of Ventura, the Arts Alliance has had no paid staff. It has instead depended on the Community Foundation for office space and borrowed staff time. Earlier this year, foundation leaders urged the Arts Alliance to work toward independent status, a potentially costly move that probably would require increased volunteer time and the hiring of staff members.

“For the last year, they’ve been in a struggle over their direction,” said Gloria Woodlock, a program manager for the state Arts Council who has worked with county arts officials.

In its evaluation of the Ventura County grant application, the state Arts Council’s panel “sensed that the foundation lacked real commitment” to building a successful arts program, Woodlock said. “The present structure and commitment must be re-examined.”

Still, Woodlock said, “I don’t see this as an ending of the relationship with Ventura County at all.” If the Arts Alliance can make its way as a separate entity or strike a more solid new partnership, she said, “it could be a good thing.”

Tower, who now serves as cultural arts coordinator for the city of Ventura but who collaborated on the Arts Alliance’s application, said the decision did not surprise her.

“The important task at hand,” she said, “is really going after some solidity for the Arts Alliance, and finding a strong organizational structure.”

Tower said next year’s funding will depend heavily on the success of the cultural plan now in the works, and the ability of the Arts Alliance to establish itself as an independent organization. For now, she acknowledged, the group’s physical existence amounts to a file drawer and desk in space borrowed from the Community Foundation.

Harvey Roth, volunteer acting director of the Arts Alliance, was on vacation and unavailable for comment Wednesday. Kate McLean, president of the Ventura County Community Foundation, called the decision a surprise and “a disappointment. We’re all going to have to take a hard look at how to climb above that.”

The Arts Council rebuff follows two other recent upheavals among Ventura County cultural groups.

* The Ventura Arts Council, a private, nonprofit organization that is largely supported by the city of Ventura, is searching now for a director. The former director, Maureen Davidson, left last month, saying that “paternalistic” city officials had reduced the organization’s independence.

* The Ventura County Symphony disclosed last month that founding conductor Frank Salazar will relinquish his baton after the 1991-92 season--a year earlier than he had initially planned. Symphony Executive Director Karine Beesley said a search for Salazar’s successor will begin soon.

“The next year or so,” Tower said, “is going to be very interesting.”