Arts Groups Rally to Map Out Survival Strategies : * Economy: Conference will attempt to develop long-range plans to help organizations weather the recession.

Of the 700 arts organizations funded by the California Arts Council, almost 300 are operating in financial deficit, says arts council president Joanne Kozberg. “It is alarming,” she said in a telephone interview earlier this week. “These are large, mid-size and small organizations. Not only are private contributions down, but government funding has been cut back.”

Some California arts institutions--most visibly the Los Angeles Theatre Center--have already succumbed to the weak economy, Kozberg said. And to prevent California from losing more of its arts resources, the California Arts Council, CalArts and the National Endowment for the Arts have planned a daylong conference to hammer out long-range plans to help arts organizations weather the recession.

The conference will take place Friday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills and is being held in conjunction with Friday night’s Governor’s Awards for the Arts.

Kozberg said she hopes the effort will prevent California from experiencing the loss of dance companies, theaters and other arts groups that has already hit the East Coast.

“When we first started talking about it, it looked like we were a step ahead of the curve; now it looks like we are right in the middle of it,” Kozberg said. “We hope to make it a model program they would then replicate in other regions of the United States.”

Kozberg said the meetings will stress that long-range planning is imperative to survival in the ‘90s, and must become a requirement for government grants. “(Arts organizations) can’t keep moving from one crisis to another,” she said. “It’s burning good people out, it’s burning out professional board (of directors) people, it’s burning everybody out.”

Participants will include Suzanne Sato, associate director of arts and humanities, Rockefeller Foundation; Leonard Vignola, president of the National Arts Stabilization Fund; John Kriedler, program executive, San Francisco Foundation; and Margaret Wyszomirski, director of policy, planning, research and budget for the National Endowment for the Arts. California Arts Council executives Kozberg and Juan Carillo, and CalArts president Steven D. Lavine will moderate the sessions.

Information and reservations: (805) 255-1050 or (916) 739-3475.