County Art Museum Tops Southland List of NEA Grants

The National Endowment for the Arts has awarded California artists and arts organizations a total of $4.78 million in its most recent grant round, with $115,000 of that going to visual arts projects, and $899,500 going to art museums.

In Southern California, the L.A. County Museum of Art is by far the biggest winner, with four grants totaling $260,000. The upcoming LACMA projects winning NEA support are exhibitions and catalogues focused on “The American Discovery of Ancient Egypt,” the work of L.A. ceramist Adrian Saxe, modernism in American sculpture from 1890-1945 and the relationship between “mainstream” and “outsider” artists.

In comparison, the Museum of Contemporary Art won two grants totaling $80,000. One will support the museum’s “Territory of Art” audio programs and another will go toward an exhibition and catalogue examining the evolution of Pop Art painting from 1955 to 1962.

Other Southland multiple winners are the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, which won four grants totaling $100,000; USC’s Fisher Gallery, with two grants combining for $45,000; Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, with two grants totaling $15,000, and Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, with two grants totaling $12,500.

Receiving single grants were Venice’s Social and Public Art Resource Center, $27,000; Long Beach Museum of Art, $25,000; Self-Help Graphics, $21,500; Cal State Long Beach University Art Museum, $20,000; San Diego’s Museum of Photographic Arts, $20,000; Irvine Fine Arts Center, $15,000; UCLA’s Wight Art Gallery, $7,500; Laguna Art Museum, $7,500; L.A. Center for Photographic Studies, $6,000; and the Santa Monica Museum of Art, $5,000.

BACK ON THE SCENE: Assemblage artist John Schroeder, who “retired” from the art world 10 years ago to pursue his passion for paleontology, is returning to the scene with a show of new works opening today at the downtown American Gallery. Schroeder showed at a number of galleries, including Jan Baum, Orlando, Arco and Cal State L.A., before his departure and says now that he’s decided to return, “I’m back till the end of the trail.”

BENEFITS: “Hard Times,” a three-day exhibition of male erotic photographs at La Brea Avenue’s Jack Glenn Gallery, will be held Friday through next Sunday to benefit the nonprofit organization PAWS L.A. (an acronym for Pets Are Wonderful Support for People With AIDS/ARC). Tickets to Friday’s 7-10 p.m. reception are $10, and general admission Saturday and Sunday (11 a.m.-4 p.m.) is $5. Information: (213) 874-5161.

Works by seven artists will be on sale at Venice’s Market Street Studio Aug. 24-29 to benefit the Pediatric AIDS Foundation. A black-tie optional opening will be held Aug. 24 from 7 p.m. to midnight and the suggested donation is $10. Information: (818) 791-2048 or (213) 396-2121.

FOR SALE: Works in a variety of media by local artists will be on sale today and next Sunday during the Barnsdall Art Center’s annual Summer Arts Festival and Art Sale. Outdoor concerts, free children’s art workshops, and tours of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House will also be held. The event runs 11 a.m.-5 p.m. at Barnsdall Art Park, 4800 Hollywood Blvd. Information: (213) 485-2116.

ARCHITECTURE FILM: “The Spirit in Architecture,” a documentary chronicling the life and work of architect John Lautner, will be premiered tonight at 5 and 7 at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The film--written, directed and co-produced by Bette Jane Cohen--includes never-before seen footage of Lautner’s years studying with Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin, as well as other insights into his 50-year career. The event is timed to celebrate the artist’s 80th birthday. Tickets are $25. Reservations: (213) 394-5344.

MORE EVENTS: The Municipal Art Gallery will screen Art Nomura’s 1989 video, “las palmas de los angeles” this Friday and Saturday night in conjunction with the current “Urban Landscape II” exhibition. Also included on the 8 p.m. programs will be Luis Alfaro and Tom Dennison’s performance of their collaborative work, “Urban Landscape.” Information: (213) 485-4581.

The Craft & Folk Art Museum is holding an informational meeting Thursday for artists and others interested in participating in the Oct. 27 Parade of Masks which will be held during the upcoming International Festival of Masks. The 6:30 p.m. meeting will be held at the museum, on the fifth floor of the May Co. Building, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. Information: (213) 315-9444.

DEADLINES: Applications are due Sept. 20 for the 1991-92 California Arts Council Fellowship program, which are being offered this year in the categories of media arts (including audio and video works) and new genre (including conceptual art and installations). Visual arts fellowships will be offered in 1993-94. A number of $5,000 fellowships, which need not be applied to a specific project, will be awarded in mid-1992. Information: (916) 739-3186.

Oct. 12 is the entry deadline for the James D. Phelan Art Award in Photography, which consists of three cash awards of $2,500 and is open to all California-born artists doing photographic-related works. Information: (415) 621-1001.

ETC.: Santa Monica’s Richard Kuhlenschmidt Gallery will be closed for a summer break today through Sept. 4. The gallery is scheduled to reopen Sept. 14 with a four-person exhibition featuring Karen Kilimnik, Liz Larner, Collier Schorr and Anne Walsh. . . . The wrong Sunday hours for Santa Monica’s Bess Cutler Gallery were printed in the last Art Notes. It is open on Sundays 1-5 p.m.