Advocates Say Lack of Local Arts Agency Hurts County

Orange County, one of a handful of counties without a local arts agency, suffers financially and culturally as a result, the head of a national arts advocacy group and a top state arts official said Friday.

While the arts attract private contributions here, a local arts agency would draw additional state and federal money as well, said Jonathan Katz, executive director of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies in Washington, D.C. An agency also could foster cultural diversity by supporting various art forms and ethnic groups beyond those supported by private money, Katz said.

Katz spoke after a meeting here of the California Arts Council, one of 50 state arts councils served by his agency.

Joanne C. Kozberg, newly named director of the California Arts Council, agreed that the county would benefit from a local arts agency.

“We’re trying to create broad support for arts organizations. A local arts agency can do that,” Kozberg said.

The 11-member California Arts Council, which met at the Newport Harbor Art Museum, awarded about $460,000 to 24 Orange County arts groups this year. Its statewide grants budget is $13 million.

All but six counties in California have local arts agencies supported by county governments, with assistance such as office space or by direct funding.

A committee of county arts administrators has been working since 1989 to establish an agency here. But negotiations with county officials have been stalled for about six months while the Orange County Board of Supervisors has struggled to deal with the county’s budget crisis, said Joe Felz, chairman of the ad hoc Committee for an Orange County Arts Council and director of the Fullerton Museum Center.

In addition, the supervisors have said that, at least in the near future, no county dollars will be allocated to an arts agency.

Ironically, Katz praised as “exemplary” the California Arts Council’s support of local arts agencies. California, he said, “is a leader.”