$3 Million in Endowment Grants to Be Announced : Arts: The 252 grants to individual artists and organizations highlight the Cultural Affairs Dept.’s $10.3-million budget.

An even $3 million in cultural grants from the Los Angeles Endowment for the Arts will be announced today by Mayor Tom Bradley and City Councilman Joel Wachs, highlighting a $10.3-million 1992-93 Cultural Affairs Department budget that goes into effect Wednesday.

The 252 grants (out of 600 applicants) will be split among 168 arts and community organizations and 84 individual artists, with an additional $200,000 to be awarded later to organizations that provide technical assistance to artists and arts groups; $75,000 has been set aside for appeals. The grants are split among nine artistic disciplines and range from $108,000 to the Los Angeles Philharmonic to $1,500 each to the Collage Dance Ensemble and several individual artists.

The cultural grants and other arts programs had been severely threatened this year when City Council members warned that the Cultural Affairs Department could be the target of large budget cuts. But the council approved intact the arts budget proposed by Mayor Bradley after it elected to use $25 million in Community Redevelopment Agency funds to help make up for projected shortfalls in the city’s overall 1992-93 budget.

“This budget is much better than we thought it would be,” said Adolfo V. Nodal, general manager of Cultural Affairs. “The city had to take a lot of lumps this year, and we had to make some difficult cuts along with everybody else, but because of the Endowment, we’re able to keep the same level of service and in many circumstances it’s even increasing, like with the Public Art Program.”

New this year is the $1.7-million Public Art Program, funded by a fee on non-residential construction projects. While many builders fulfill a requirement to provide a “percent for art” by adding their own on-site art components such as murals or sculpture, others opt to place a percent of their construction costs into a public art trust fund. Because of the trust fund, the $1.7 million budgeted for the Public Art Program is already in hand--in fact, it is projected to draw an additional $4 million by June 30, 1993.

The Public Art Program will monitor on-site art projects and help developers select artists and complete plans for those projects. The department will also use $1.35 million of the trust fund monies for regional and citywide arts support programs, such as Materials for the Arts, which distributes art, building and other supplies to artists and arts organizations ($60,000); the start of a multi-year stabilization grant program for a handful of mid-size multicultural organizations ($194,000); the Los Angeles Theatre Center, which will be used as a venue for various performing groups ($250,000), and the L.A. Festival, which Nodal sees as “becoming a key part of the city’s arts infrastructure” ($250,000).

In addition, Nodal said that City Council members have proposed using $1 million of the projected trust fund for the department’s new L.A. Arts Recovery Program, started in the wake of the Los Angeles riots. Nodal is working on this proposal, which would include $250,000 for direct grants for recovery projects, which he expects to present to the council in about a month.

The most touted part of the L.A. Endowment, the annual cultural grants program, includes among its 84 individual awardees the controversial artist Robbie Conal ($7,300). Other well-known names on the list include theater and performance artists Jude Narita ($15,000), Linda Sibio ($15,000), Dan Kwong ($12,000) and Theresa Chavez ($11,250); and visual artists Gilbert (Magu) Lujan ($15,000), Jacqueline Dreager ($5,800) and Manuel Ocampo ($5,000).

Among the largest organizational grants are $102,000 each for the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center and the L.A. Music Center Opera, $85,000 for CalArts, $67,757 for the Craft and Folk Art Museum, and $50,000 for the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum.

‘92-’93 Cultural Funds

This year’s $3 million in cultural grants from the Los Angeles Endowment for the Arts, announced today, will be allocated in 10 categories. In addition, the $10.3-million 1992-93 Cultural Affairs Department budget will be allocated as follows:

Cultural Affairs Department Budget: $10,319,957

Cultural heritage and Watts Towers: $372,656 (3.6%)

Performing arts: $2,236,126 (21.7%)

General administration and support: $1,025,626 (9.9%)

Exhibitions: $526,801 (5.1%)

Public arts: $1,713,504 (16.6%)

Art instruction: $1,154,837 (11.2%)

Cultural grants: $3,290,407 (31.9%)

Total: $10,319,957

L.A. Endowment Grants: $3 million

Theater: $442,817 (14.8%)

Media arts: $270,206 (9.0%)

Technical assistance: $200,000 (6.7%)

Appeals: $75,000 (2.5%)

Literary arts: $57,000 (1.9%)

Interdisciplinary arts: $652,596 (21.8%)

Music: $565,600 (18.9%)

Visual Arts: $332,750 (11.1%)

Dance: $220,750 (7.4%)

Folk arts: $118,315 (3.9%)

Urban & design arts: $64,966 (2.2%)

Note: Already announced is $1 million in grants available for the Arts Recovery Program.

Source: L.A. Cultural Affairs Department