Area Won 8% of City Arts Grants : Government: San Fernando Valley applicants also received only 5% of money awarded by the Cultural Affairs Department this fiscal year, The Times finds.

Only 8% of cultural grants awarded this fiscal year by the city of Los Angeles went to San Fernando Valley-based organizations and individuals, according to a Times study.

In dollars, the Valley, home to about one-third of the city’s residents, did even worse. Valley applicants received $130,570--only 5% of the $2.73 million awarded.

The study was sparked by comments made last month at a City Council meeting by Councilwoman Joy Picus. Picus, who represents parts of the West Valley, said she was “suspicious” that the Valley was not getting a fair share of arts funding.

Several long-established groups in her district had complained to her that they had applied for grants but were rejected.

However, Adolfo V. Nodal, general manager of the Cultural Affairs Department, which oversees the grants, said the Valley derives considerable benefits from the grants program.

“There are many groups outside the Valley that do projects that serve the Valley,” he said in an interview. “We also tried as much as possible to promote the idea of arts institutions doing work outside the areas where they reside.”

According to a Cultural Affairs study, 21% of the grant money will directly benefit the Valley this fiscal year, which began July 1. But that percentage is based on broad assumptions about which parts of the city will be served by the 252 grants awarded.

For example, the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, located in Little Tokyo, received $102,000 toward support of several programs at its theater, gallery and classroom complex. Although all the programs will take place there, the group’s application said people from all 15 council districts would attend or participate.

The Cultural Affairs Department, therefore, claims each council district will benefit equally, to the tune of $6,800 per district. The department credits the Valley, with its four council districts, with receiving $27,200 worth of benefits from the grant, even though Little Tokyo is miles away.

Several non-Valley groups are indeed planning to have performances, workshops, exhibitions and in-school programs in the Valley. For example, Music Center Opera received a grant of $102,000 toward several projects, including a seven-week residency at the Valley Shelter to work with children in composing and producing their own opera.

But Picus still says the Valley’s artists are not getting a fair shake.

“I believe the whole process of giving out the grants needs review,” Picus said in response to The Times’ study. “My fear is that politics have become part of the process in giving out the grants. And the Valley gets cut out.”

Grant applicants from the Valley fared less well than those from other parts of the city. Of the applications submitted from the Valley, 35% received funding. But among non-Valley applicants, 58% were successful.

Valley Councilman Joel Wachs, who chairs a council committee that oversees arts matters, also expressed concern.

“I helped set up the arts endowment,” Wachs said. “It is to benefit people in all parts of the city.”

Wachs’ committee has asked Cultural Affairs to prepare a study on geographical distribution of the grant funds.

At least part of the problem lies in the Valley’s having fewer artists and arts institutions applying for grants than other parts of the city. This year, Valley-based applications accounted for only 12% of the total.

But this represents an improvement over past years, according to Nodal. “Even as recently as 1987 and 1988, we got virtually no applications from the Valley and no funding at all went there,” he said. “It was all going to downtown and the Westside, where the cultural infrastructure was.”

Nodal credited his department for the improvement. “We changed the rules to allow individuals and non-arts organizations to apply,” he said. This “opened it up” to areas that did not have a Museum of Contemporary Art or a Music Center.

“We still have a long way to go,” he said. “Building cultural organizations is a complicated process. You can’t just all of a sudden blanket the city with grants. You have to find an organization that will make a program happen.”

Picus said the department missed a chance to fund two established organizations when it turned down applications from the Valley Cultural Center and West Valley Symphony. “These groups came to me to complain because they felt they had fulfilled all the requirements.”

But the judging panels, made up of artists, performers and administrators, disagreed.

The Valley Cultural Center, which promotes numerous projects in Woodland Hills, including an annual series of free outdoor concerts, requested $9,000. It was to go toward hiring a music teacher who would conduct a student orchestra in a public elementary school.

The panelists were sympathetic, judging from their written comments.

“It is sad that the school system has degenerated so badly that good people have to create something so normal as a school orchestra by raising funds outside of the system,” one wrote.

But the comments went on to note that the request was ineligible under department rules. “This is a project that should be funded by the educational system since teachers, not artists, are involved,” the comment sheet said.

The West Valley Symphony applied for about $10,000 toward a series of concerts and an outreach program. The panelists found the application unclear and “filled with outreach jargon without specific plan.”

Picus said the department should strive to help groups in the Valley, which she considers underserved by cultural grants.

“These groups are very high-quality groups,” she said. “Turning them down because the applications aren’t quite right is shortsighted. Maybe they need to get the chance to rewrite them.”

Help in filling out applications is offered by the department. It held 12 grants workshops last summer, including three in the Valley.

Competition for Cultural Grants

* Grants Approved

Out of 252 grants totaling $2.7 million awarded to Los Angeles groups and individuals by the city’s Cultural Affairs Department this fiscal year, only a handful went to applicants based in the San Fernando Valley. The Valley is home to about one-third of the population of Los Angeles. Grant Applications Valley: 12% Non-Valley: 88% Grants Approved Valley: 8% Non-Valley: 92% Money Approved Valley: 5% Non-Valley: 95% *

* Grant Applications

Non-Valley groups and individuals applying for grants from the city’s Cultural Affairs Department this fiscal year had a higher success rate than Valley applicants. Accepted Valley: 35% Non-Valley: 58% Rejected Valley: 65% Non-Valley: 42%