6 O.C. Arts Groups Plan AIDS Awareness Event

Six of the county’s major performing arts organizations are joining forces to present free lunchtime entertainment Dec. 1 to observe the fourth annual Day Without Art, a nationwide event intended to point out the destruction AIDS has wrought in the arts community.

The cooperative effort--the first time all six organizations have collaborated on anything artistic, as opposed to social or corporate--will result in an outdoor concert by the Pacific Symphony, the Master Chorale of Orange County, the Pacific Chorale, Opera Pacific’s Overture Company and musicians sponsored by the Orange County Philharmonic Society, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Pavilion on the Lakes, according to Opera Pacific spokesman Tim Dunn. At noon, nearby South Coast Repertory will stage “Vital Readings,” a series relating to AIDS issues.

Originally, Dunn said the Orange County Performing Arts Center--at at which the five musical groups perform, and which is within walking distance of SCR and the Pavilion--was not participating. But later, after center officials were contacted by The Times, a spokesman said the hall does plan to join the event in some fashion, although nothing has been finalized.

A Day Without Art coincides with the World Health Organization’s World AIDS day. Last year, 4,200 visual and performing arts institutions nationwide took part by offering presentations or other activities, by waiving admission or by covering artworks to illustrate how the world would look if there were no artists. Other goals are to honor artists who are suffering or have died from acquired immune deficiency syndrome and to “celebrate these artists’ contributions,” Dunn said.

At the concert, members from each group will perform on a rotating basis; specific programming has not been set, Dunn said.

Concert-goers and those attending SCR will be encouraged to make donations to the AIDS Services Foundation of Orange County and may bring brown-bag lunches. The Pavilion on the Lakes is at Anton Avenue and the Avenue of the Arts.

“It’s the first time we’re all coming together on this,” Dunn said. Some of the groups taking part in the concert also will offer other Day Without Art events, he added. Other groups in the county also are planning Day Without Art activities.