City, County Combine on Program Assuring Stability in Grants

Up to six of Los Angeles’ midsize arts groups will be selected next month for the Arts Organization Stabilization Initiative, a new grants program operated by the city’s Cultural Affairs Department and the county’s Music and Performing Arts Commission.

The pilot program, in the planning stages for nearly a year, will offer a one-time, five-year grant to groups with budgets of $100,000-$800,000 who present multicultural, avant-garde or culturally specific work (from underserved communities).

Cultural Affairs General Manager Adolfo V. Nodal said that the program should help alleviate “the biggest problem we have in the (city’s) grants program, which is the stabilization issue. . . . Organizations can never grow because they can’t plan ahead” when the amounts of their city grants vary each year.

Each organization will receive up to $50,000 during the program’s first year, and the grants can be used for planning, technical assistance, organizational advancement or programming. Although the fear of city, county and state budget cuts mean that funding is technically only guaranteed for the first year, the program’s goal is to consistently fund the organizations for five years straight, with each organization receiving up to $350,000 in the five-year period.

Cultural Affairs and the county commission have each contributed $100,000 to the program this year, with the California Arts Council giving $75,000 and private patrons chipping in $50,000. Organizers hope to increase funding from private sources in future years.

The stabilization program is independent of other city, county and state grants programs, and does not preclude recipients from seeking additional funding from those sources.

METRO RAIL MODELS: Models, sketches and prints of public art projects commissioned for Metro Rail stations are on view through May in the lobby of the downtown Fine Arts Building, 811 West 7th St. Artists whose plans and models are featured include Francisco Letelier, May Sun, Gilbert (Magu) Lujan, Richard Wyatt, Erika Rothenberg, Buzz Spector, Elliot Pinkney, and the East Los Streetscapers muralist group. Information: (213) 244-6408.

MURALS: A new East Los Street-scapers mural at Haddon Avenue School in Pacoima will be dedicated April 21 at 10 a.m. The mural, painted by artists Wayne Healy and David Botello, along with student artist Aimee Johnson, shows children engaged in sports and computer games in an attempt to provide options for students facing gang violence in their community. The mural is produced through SPARC’s “1992 Great Walls Unlimited: Neighborhood Pride” mural program.

“Prop Quiz,” a new mural project in downtown Long Beach, depicts several movie and Hollywood scenes. Organized by a professor and mural students at Long Beach State, the mural was erected at the construction site of a 16-theater AMC movie complex on Pine Avenue.

BENEFITS: The Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles, formed in 1987 as a response to the painting over of Kent Twitchell’s “Old Woman of the Freeway” mural, celebrates its fifth anniversary April 25 with a benefit auction of cups and mugs by artists including Lita Albuquerque, Robbie Conal, Margaret Garcia and Twitchell. The event will be held at the Koplin and Sherry Frumkin galleries in Santa Monica in conjunction with “ArtScene: The First Decade,” a celebration of the 10th anniversary of ArtScene magazine. The event begins at 6 p.m. with a panel on “Southern California: A Decade of Development in Art.” Tickets are $20. Information: (213) 481-1186.

Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions takes over the Shrine Exposition Hall on Saturday when it presents “Circa 92: A Cyberdelica Eventica,” a benefit that “seeks to explore both the inter-disciplinary phenomena of the club scene and the ever-present dialogue between high art and popular culture.” Described as “the art community meets L.A.’s rave scene for a night of postmodern madness,” the 9 p.m.-5 a.m. event also features a cyberarts showcase, and is organized by club promoter Tef Foo and printer Richard Duardo. Tickets are $17 in advance; $25 at the door. Information: (213) 624-5650.

EVENTS: The Museum of Contemporary Art will hold two readings of fiction and poetry as part of “Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in the 1990s.” Michelle T. Clinton, Dennis Cooper, Jim Krusoe and Benjamin Weissman will read today, and Harry Gamboa Jr., Amy Gerstler, Bia Lowe and Rita Valencia will read on April 26. Both events will be held at MOCA’s California Plaza building at 1:30 p.m., and are free with museum admission. Information: (213) 621-2766.

VIVA!, the gay and lesbian Latino arts organization, will hold its first in a series of monthly Artists Roundtables on Saturday at the group’s Silver Lake office from 2-5 p.m. The event will include film, video, visual art, theater, performance and other work, focusing on topics including gay and lesbian representation in the arts, and postmodernism and post-colonialism. Information: (213) 953-1970.

The J. Paul Getty Museum will show three notable feature films in conjunction with its exhibition, “The Passion of Christ in Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts.” “Ben-Hur” will be screened on Wednesday, “Jesus of Montreal” on April 22 and “The Last Temptation of Christ” on May 7. The 7 p.m. films are free, although advance parking reservations are required. Information: (310) 458-2003.

The Pacific Asia Museum’s Spring Festival 1992 features a “Sotheby’s Heirloom Discover Day” of appraisals and lectures from noon-5 p.m. on April 25, and a silent auction of 200 artworks, antiques and artifacts from 1-4 p.m. on April 26. All proceeds go to the museum. Information: (818) 449-2742.

NEW STUDIOS: CalArts broke ground April 4 for the Eli and Edythe Broad Studios, a set of 20 on-campus art studios, funded by developer Eli Broad and designed by Elyse Grinstein of Grinstein/Daniels.

GRANTS: The Norton Family Foundation has awarded two 1992 Curator’s Grants of $50,000 to Kellie Jones of Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center and Ann Tempkin of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The grants go toward acquisitions of contemporary artworks of the recipients’ choosing. In other Norton Family Office news, Fran Seegull, formerly with Luhring Augustine Hetzler Gallery in both New York and Santa Monica, has been named curator, and will oversee the contemporary art activities of collectors Peter and Eileen Norton.

DEADLINES: Tapes must be sent by May 6 for consideration for L.A. Freewaves, an annual fall video festival featuring experimental narrative, documentary, art or animation work by California-based artists and video makers. There is no entry fee. Information: (213) 687-8583.

May 1 is the deadline for performance artists and others interested in taking part in “An Encounter of Cultures,” a festival to be held Sept. 12 at Paramount Ranch. Information: (818) 597-1036.