1991 ORANGE COUNTY YEAR IN REVIEW : Checks, Balances for the Arts : Red Ink, Final Curtains and Cutbacks Dominated Local News

If 1990 was the year of porn and scorn, perhaps this was the year of cash crises and budget blues in Orange County arts.

Where headlines last year revolved around public funding and allegedly obscene or sacrilegious art, in 1991 the bottom line stole center stage. Arts institutions axed concerts, shortened gallery hours, furloughed staff members and, in one case, uttered the “M” word: merger.

The county wasn’t alone. The recession, plus cuts in federal, state and private contributions, forced theaters, dance troupes and museums across the country to take cost-cutting measures. Some state arts councils’ budgets were drastically slashed, although the California Arts Council made out better than many. Despite the CAC’s 11% budget reduction, Orange County received roughly the same amount it got last year.

Within the classical music community, hard times reverberated like a cymbal crash.

The Pacific Symphony, the county’s biggest orchestra, and the Orange County Philharmonic Society, which books major touring orchestras into the Orange County Performing Arts Center and the Irvine Barclay Theatre, both ended the 1990-91 fiscal year with deficits.

Just before posting a $275,000 deficit--its largest ever--the Philharmonic Society in June canceled a major three-day program of Tchaikovsky symphonies performed by the Moscow State Symphony because of insufficient ticket sales. The Pacific Symphony, meanwhile, closed its fiscal year with a $200,000 shortfall, upping its accumulated deficit to more than $800,000.

Fund-raising difficulty was one factor cited by both groups in explaining the red ink. It also gave rise to renewed talks among board members of a potential merger of the groups, although the discussions remain in the preliminary stage.

Performing Arts Center officials said they expect to finish 1991 in the black once again, but economic difficulties facing performing groups nationwide are being felt there too. That was most dramatically illustrated when the New York-based American Ballet Theatre canceled the world premiere of its new production of “The Nutcracker,” slated for the Center in December.

Citing lagging ticket sales, South Coast Symphony canceled three concerts at Orange Coast College, and the Orange County Chamber Orchestra nixed half of its six concerts at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. Just last month the Mozart Camerata canceled all four of its remaining performances at the Irvine theater, citing a loss of subscribers from the previous season, though the orchestra retained its programs at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach.

Visual-arts venues issued some dim financial news as well.

A much anticipated exhibit and a performance art presentation, rare in these parts, fell victim at the Laguna Art Museum, which also gave its entire staff Thanksgiving week off--without pay.

Unable to find an underwriter, Laguna museum administrators in September canceled “The Transparent Thread: Asian Philosophy in Recent American Art,” a show that had been set for October featuring such major artists as John Baldessari and Jasper Johns. Then, off the schedule came a performance-art presentation by Dan Kwong of Los Angeles, as most employees were given the unexpected weeklong holiday. The moves were made in an attempt to end the fiscal year in the black, officials said, a strategy that apparently worked: The museum expects to end the year with a small surplus.

Also last month, the Modern Museum of Art in Santa Ana closed without plans to reopen anytime soon. “Right now it’s a real bad economy,” museum co-director Robert Abbott said.

Just last week, officials of the planned Huntington Beach Art Center once again put off the center’s opening, bumping it from next fall to February, 1993. So far, officials have raised more than half its goal of $700,000 to renovate an existing structure in downtown Huntington Beach to house the center.

City funding for the Irvine Fine Arts Center’s exhibitions was trimmed by $50,000, or 50%, over the next two years. The cut also brought about a reduction in IFAC’s hours of operation and some programming changes.

On a more positive note, the Newport Harbor Art Museum filled long-vacant key personnel slots this year, even while experiencing a period of consolidation.

After 14 months without a director, Michael Botwinick was given the reigns in January. Former director of New York’s Brooklyn Museum and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., Botwinick then hired as chief curator Bruce Guenther, who began that job this month after the post had been vacant for 17 months. Guenther came from a four-year stint in the same post at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art.

The Newport museum didn’t cancel any exhibits, reduce its hours or increase admission fees, but the recession may yet make its mark in a concrete way--literally and figuratively. The museum’s long-stalled, multimillion-dollar building project will be a “principal item” on trustees’ January board meeting agenda, a spokeswoman said, and Botwinick has recently sounded a sobering note or two on the subject.

“Our perception of our ability to raise enormous amounts of funds necessary” for a new building has changed, he said at a November CAC meeting. He added in a phone interview last week: “If there’s a prolonged recession, it will keep us in a deep freeze. You can’t do a major capital campaign without capital. There’s no question in my mind it will affect the timing of our campaign.”

Likewise, still a question mark is the impact on the Security Pacific Gallery in Costa Mesa of one of the nation’s highest-profile corporate mergers, that of BankAmerica Corp. and Security Pacific Corp. What is known is that a merger of the banks’ art programs won’t occur until after the banks legally become a single entity some time in 1992, according to Security Pacific gallery curator Mark Johnstone.

It was curtains for other local arts and entertainment centers, although administrators did not site the recession as a cause.

After operating for less than a year, Peppers Golden Bear in downtown Huntington Beach closed in May, abandoning its hopes to become a major concert spot for pop, rock and jazz. Despite their efforts, club officials couldn’t stop sound from blaring through the ceiling into an upstairs six-screen movie theater at the new Pierside Pavilion retail center.

The Balboa Cinema in Newport Beach closed early this month when the company that had operated the theater since 1979 said it couldn’t afford the price of a new lease. That leaves the county with only one full-time art movie house, the Port in Corona del Mar. The Balboa has since been reopened to show mainstream movies. Gone are its glory days, or midnights rather, of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” cult film.

The county also lost one of its leading poetry groups, Poets Reading Inc. of Fullerton, which was dissolved in August. No one stepped in to replace co-founder Michael Logue, who had served as unpaid director of the group until last May. Logue said he could not find government or private funding to pay the bills.

The fat lady sang for Spectrum News Network, after the county’s only gay-oriented cable news program had fended off threats that might have otherwise jeopardized its existence. But even after two victories in principle over cable systems that received viewer complaints over the content, Spectrum producer K. Bradley Hudson discontinued the program in August, saying he couldn’t raise enough money to keep it afloat.

Certainly all wasn’t gloom and doom. The county’s two pop and rock amphitheaters enjoyed busier outdoor concert seasons this year than last, in contrast to generally dismal pop-concert business nationwide. Irvine Meadows hosted 43 concerts in 1991 compared to 42 in 1990 and attendance jumped from about 400,000 to 440,000, officials announced in November. Similarly, Costa Mesa’s Pacific Amphitheatre staged 35 concerts this year, up from 30, and attendance rose from 325,000 to 357,000.

“Southern California is far more resilient than (nearly all) the other (pop concert) markets,” said Irvine Meadows managing partner Robert Geddes.

Also on the upswing was the coffeehouse trade, bringing the sit-and-sips to most big cities this year, many of them offering acoustic music, poetry readings or art displays as well as frothy caffeine drinks.

Then there was the Garden Grove City Council’s lease agreement with the Grove Shakespeare Festival that gives the troupe rent-free use of its two city-owned venues for five years. More important, it also means the city can’t evict the company without a year’s notice. The previous agreement required only 90 days’ notice.

And the year’s news wasn’t exclusively devoted to checks and balances or business dealings. Recalling 1990 government versus artist set-tos, there was the story of Laguna Beach photographer Marilyn Lennon, who took pictures of a semi-nude 12-year-old girl during a professional photography workshop in Santa Fe, N.M., in October. Lennon found herself the focus of local media and a police investigation after her photos were turned over to the police by an Irvine photo developer. No charges were ever filed, however.

Also, the Newport Harbor Art Museum helped keep the art funding versus free speech issue in the news when, in January, a federal judge ruled unconstitutional the attempt by the National Endowment for the Arts to require grant recipients to pledge not to produce or show “obscene” art work. The Newport Harbor had sued the NEA over the so-called anti-obscenity oath, becoming the first museum in the country to do so.

Institutional in-house wranglings added more controversy to the mix. Perhaps the most rancorous affair involved Ami Porat, founding conductor of the Mozart Camerata.

First, several Camerata musicians announced in January that they resigned over salary and artistic leadership disputes. Then Porat filed a slander lawsuit against two of them--charging that they had conspired to injure his reputation--and they in turn filed counter suits before the whole case was dismissed recently. In addition, three former musicians barred from rehearsals and performances sued the Camerata for back wages and won, a decision the Camerata has appealed.

No legal battles erupted when founding artistic-director Thomas F. Bradac left the Grove Shakespeare Festival this summer. But Bradac said he was forced to leave--first saying he had resigned--and called the ouster “a rather cold and rather callous way of dismissing someone.” A letter of protest, signed by 35 company members, followed his departure, as did Bradac’s announcement about his formation of a new professional Shakespeare troupe based at Chapman University.

Among other noteworthy personnel changes:

* Douglas Rowe retired as artistic director of the Laguna Playhouse after spending 25 years there, the last 15 as artistic director. Now pursuing his acting career, Rowe was replaced at the playhouse by Andrew Barnicle, former head of theater at United States International University in San Diego.

* Peter C. Keller was named executive director of Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana, which plans to reopen in October following a lengthy $12-million renovation. Keller had been associate director for public programs at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

* John W. Lottes became president of the Art Institute of Southern California in Laguna Beach, replacing Russell E. Lewis, who resigned in January.

* Dextra Frankel left as director of Cal State Fullerton’s art gallery after 24 years, with Daniel Sterns taking over as acting director.

As for other anniversaries, the Performing Arts Center celebrated its fifth in September with a week of “gala” events touted as fund-raisers for the Center and local groups that use the building. Although tickets for the events sold for up to $2,500 each and grossed a total of nearly $1 million at the box office, most of that was eaten up in expenses. Of the $175,000 profit, $117,000 went to the Center and the rest was split between five regional groups: the Pacific Chorale and Master Chorale of Orange County each got less than $3,000; Pacific Symphony, Opera Pacific and the Orange County Philharmonic Society collected about $19,000 each.

Also, the Irvine Barclay Theatre marked its first birthday this fall. Inaugural-year attendance averaged 64% of capacity, which fell in line with a national average of 65% capacity for similar theaters, according to Irvine Barclay President Douglas C. Rankin.

Brand new to the county was Huntington Beach’s program legalizing so-called aerosol art--the colorful, elaborate figures and block letters made with spray paint. The program allows permit holders to paint on the city’s seaside retaining wall and backers hope it will reduce unwanted graffiti there and in the surrounding beach area. Art authorities say the program probably is unique on the West Coast.

Local arts advocates were less impressed with the continuing lack of countywide arts council. Another year went by without one, leaving the county, yet again, as one of a handful statewide without a county government-supported central service agency, which could facilitate thousands of private and public grant dollars to local arts groups. The ongoing lack of county funding for the arts prompted new CAC director Joanne C. Kozberg to write an impassioned plea for public arts support as a “catalyst to increasing private donations.”

Joe Felz, who heads a committee that has been working since 1989 to establish such an agency, has said that talks with county officials have been stalled for about the last six months while the Board of Supervisors has struggled with the county’s budget crisis. The committee, Felz said recently, is considering three options: to disband, to find another organization under whose aegis the agency would operate or to maintain status quo.

“I really don’t want to see this (effort) go away, to see it end,” said Felz, who also is director of the Fullerton Museum Center. “I think there’s still a lot of energy” within the arts community to form a council.

Free-lance writer Rick VanderKnyff contributed to this article.