Newport Art Museum Gets $10,684 Grant : Culture: State Arts Council overrides panel’s recommendation that it get nothing. Two other groups are less fortunate.

Financially strapped Newport Harbor Art Museum was awarded $10,684 by the California Arts Council on Thursday, having persuaded the council to ignore an advisory panel’s recommendation that the museum get no state money this year.

Two other Orange County arts groups weren’t so fortunate. The council upheld panel recommendations that no funds be granted to the Orange County Symphony of Garden Grove, and it failed to raise a panel rating or increase the $19,313 grant for the Orange County Philharmonic Society. Officials from both organizations say they plan to appeal the council’s action.

In all, grants totaling $213,522 to 15 Orange County arts groups were approved Thursday in highly competitive CAC organizational grants. That total is down about 25% from last year’s total of $285,409. South Coast Repertory Theatre received $55,187, the largest grant to an Orange County group, but even that amount was down from the $76,797 grant the company won last year. Statewide, 637 organizations were awarded a total of $5.4 million.

A council advisory panel earlier this year gave the Newport Harbor Art Museum a 2+ rating on a scale with a low of 1 to a high of 4. All grants are based on arts organizations’ ratings. Typically, only groups that are rated 3- and above get grants.

The panel found that the museum, which has a $768,702 accumulated deficit, is in “a grave financial crisis indicative of a lack of planning and follow-through” and that it is suffering from low membership and attendance. The institution has “no staff (ethnic) diversity” and “needs to reach its community more effectively,” the panel said.

According to council and museum officials, after the rating was given, museum officials lobbied the council. The CAC responded by requesting that a “site visit” be made to the museum in July for further evaluation.

Council members said Thursday that after studying the site-visit report, they could not find “compelling” support for the initial rating and raised it to 3-.

The museum is a “fine facility and an important part of the community and (director Michael Botwinick) seems to be making a real effort to make things work out,” council member Edward Cazier Jr., counsel for the Morgan Lewis & Bockius law firm in Los Angeles, said during a break.

Ronald B. Bratton, chief deputy director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, wrote in his site-visit report that when Botwinick took the job in 1990, “he promptly took measures to prevent any further deficit and to pay back the deficit to the museum’s reserves.”

Before Bratton’s site visit, the museum in February eliminated four full-time and two part-time positions. Last week, three senior staff members were laid off and all museum departments were asked to trim their budgets by 15% to cope with the deficit.

Botwinick said in a phone interview Thursday that he feels “vindicated” and that “life is too short” to be disgruntled that the museum will this year receive only about half the money it got last year with a $20,895 grant and a 3 rating.

Two years ago, at the request of council member Harvey Stearn of Irvine, the council also overrode one of its panels, granting the museum roughly $20,000, nearly twice the amount it had been recommended for.

The council on Thursday raised the ratings of six other organizations in the state, but not the Orange County Philharmonic Society’s, which was ranked 3+. The organization on Wednesday faxed the council a letter in protest. It was awarded $19,313, but for the past six years, it has received five ratings of 4 and one of 4-. Executive director Erich A. Vollmer wrote that he was “outraged” by a panel’s comment that the group’s community-outreach programs were “insular” and that the panel questioned whether the programs were reaching a wide ethnic diversity of school populations.

Vollmer further wrote that “it appears that the CAC staff failed to provide the necessary information” to panelists that “is crucial” to a successful grant application.

Gary Mattison, the Philharmonic Society’s development director, told the council Thursday that the rating was “unfair.”

“I feel we do more for students than any other (nonprofit arts) organization in the state,” Mattison said, pointing out that the group reaches roughly 30,000 annually through 13 outreach programs involving more than 400 Orange County schools in every school district.

Mattison said after the meeting that the Philharmonic Society plans to appeal the rating, and council director Joanne C. Kozberg said in an interview that “it certainly sounds like” the organization has grounds to appeal.

Kozberg, however, said she did not know whether the Orange County Symphony of Garden Grove, which was rated 2+ and received no funds, would be successful should that group appeal.

Nevertheless, said Lorraine Reafsnyder, symphony board president: “We are just going to see if there’s any other recourse to take, and still try to appeal.”

The orchestra received $3,387 last year. It was rated 3-. Two years ago, its rating was also raised at Harvey Stearn’s request. Stearn did not attend Thursday’s meeting.

In addition to the organizational grants awarded Thursday, the council gave South Coast Repertory a $50,000 Challenge grant for its planned Nexus Program to develop multicultural plays. Also, artist Mary-Linn Hughes won $10,400 to teach visual arts workshops at La Casa, a residential facility for abused, neglected and abandoned children in Orange, and Hernan Pinilla won $10,400 to teach music of the Andes at the San Juan Capistrano Regional Library.

Grant Decline

The $213,522 granted to 15 Orange County groups by the California Arts Council fell 25% short of last year’s total to 20 organizations. Just four of this year’s recipients were awarded amounts larger than in 1991.

1992 1991 South Coast Repertory $55,187 $77,813 Pacific Symphony 39,344 35,523 Opera Pacific 24,627 43,153 Orange County Philharmonic Society 19,313 23,665 Laguna Art Museum 14,923 8,117 Newport Harbor Art Museum 10,684 21,141 Pacific Chorale 9,769 9,939 Laguna Playhouse 8,476 9,514 GroveShakespeare Festival 8,446 9,276 Fullerton Civic Light Opera 4,916 4,545 St. Joseph Ballet Company 4,599 9,946 Master Chorale of Orange County 4,422 9,939 Irvine Fine Arts Center 4,353 4,545 Multicultural Arts Council of Orange County 2,463 N/A Laguna Poets 2,000 1,000 Orange County Symphony of Garden Grove 0 3,387 Total grants $213,522 * $285,409

% Change South Coast Repertory -29 Pacific Symphony +11 Opera Pacific -43 Orange County Philharmonic Society -18 Laguna Art Museum +84 Newport Harbor Art Museum -49 Pacific Chorale -2 Laguna Playhouse -11 GroveShakespeare Festival -9 Fullerton Civic Light Opera +8 St. Joseph Ballet Company -53 Master Chorale of Orange County -56 Irvine Fine Arts Center -4 Multicultural Arts Council of Orange County -- Laguna Poets +100 Orange County Symphony of Garden Grove -- Total grants -25

N/A: Amount not available

* Includes groups that did not receive or apply for grants this year

Source: California Arts Council