$180,000 in Fellowships, Grants Given : Arts: Nearly half of the money awarded from the J. Paul Getty Trust Fund goes to Westside artists and organizations.

The J. Paul Getty Trust Fund has awarded $180,000 in grants and fellowships to Los Angeles County artists and art organizations. Nearly half of the grants went to Westside artists and organizations.

The fund gives special consideration to artists whose work reflects the diverse cultural and ethnic communities of Los Angeles County, to either help them with new ventures or to keep their current projects going, said Lauren Kay, director of public relations for the California Community Foundation, which determined the recipients.

* Brentwood-based Peter Reiss, a photographer who works on projects with physically and developmentally disabled subjects, was awarded a $15,000 fellowship. Reiss is planning to use the award to finance a series on people with epilepsy . The exhibit will have portraits accompanied by text from personal interviews with each subject.

* Michael C. McMillen, another $15,000 fellowship recipient, uses “castoff junk of our culture” that he finds in industrial areas. He mixes these materials with sounds, smells and lighting to create his sculptures. McMillen will use the award to develop a new installation called “The Secret Studio.” The artist plans to mount the exhibit on a truck and tour California, eventually producing a chronicle of the journey.

* The 18th Street Arts Complex, a Santa Monica organization that helps struggling artists, was itself helped with a $15,000 grant. The complex provides subsidized housing and studios for artists, said Steve Durland, executive director of the complex. It publishes High Performance, a quarterly magazine covering experimental art.

* Beyond Baroque, a 23-year-old Venice organization that builds its base on literature, was awarded $15,000, said Susan Braig, the organization’s development assistant . Beyond Baroque plans to use the award to fund some of its newer ventures, including a gallery program and film series exploring the literary component in other arts, Braig said.

* Highways, a group of experimental performance artists, will receive a $10,000 grant to support 10 exhibitions and 200 performance art events, said Linda Burnham, director of the group.

* The Santa Monica Museum of Art’s aggressive programming to help struggling artists of diverse origins was rewarded with a $10,000 grant. The museum will use the grant to compile a documentation of the first three years of its commissioned projects.