Torana Bids Fund Farewell to Community : Art: The league will end 30 years of education support by donating all its remaining money to various O.C. projects.

The Torana Art League, a philanthropic-minded group of artists that has supported art education in Orange County since 1962, plans to dissolve by the end of the year--but not without a bit of fanfare and a final act of community generosity.

At a luncheon celebration today, the league will distribute $15,500--essentially all the money left in its treasury--to support innovative educational projects at six Orange County art institutions where Torana members have exhibited their work over the years.

The group is disbanding, said league treasurer Betty Murrill, because, “mostly, our purpose has been accomplished: To offer the opportunity for the public to view fine art, the encouragement for artists to continue their education . . . and basically to encourage public interest in the visual arts.”

At one time, the group boasted 350 members, but in recent years the number has dropped to fewer than 100, Murrill said.

“We’re getting old. Interest dwindles. There is illness. There have been five deaths this past year. But we have wonderful memories. There’s a certain sadness, but it won’t stop our socializing.”

The largest single grant--$4,000--goes to the Irvine Fine Arts Center to establish the Torana Art League Memorial Fund, which will support the annual All Media Juried Exhibition as well as a five-year program of lectures and other assistance (including professional photographs of art work) for emerging artists entering the competition.

A $2,500 grant to Irvine Valley College will be used to endow the student art acquisition program. Begun last year with a $1,000 gift from Jeff Horn, professor of drawing at the college, the program received matching funds this year from the Irvine Valley College Foundation. Four works are selected each year. Each winning student receives $150 plus $100 for framing costs.

The works are hung in public spaces on campus, Horn said, “as an advertisement for (art) classes, to build self-esteem among students and to beautify the campus.” He said the Torana grant will allow the acquisition program to be self-sustaining, “rather than just evaporating every year. . . . It’s a little legacy. I hope (the members) will feel honored by that.”

A $2,000 award will fund administrative costs and prizes for a statewide college art-writing competition based at Rancho Santiago College. Art instructor Mike McGee has selected Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight, San Francisco Chronicle art critic Kenneth Baker and Los Angeles County Art Museum contemporary art curator Howard Fox as jurors for the contest, to be held next spring. Winners will be announced in the fall.

The league’s other award to an educational institution--$2,000 to the Chapman University art department--will fund art scholarships, fees for visiting lecturers and a four-week critics’ symposium, to be held next year. The symposium--whose participants have not been picked yet--will include critics from a local newspaper and a national journal as well as a critic representing a minority viewpoint and an artist who does critical writing.

The Fullerton Museum Center received $2,000 for Project Discovery, the center’s education program. According to director Joe Felz, the money will pay for supplies for school tour programs and fund family workshops, storytelling sessions and lectures accompanying a Haitian folk art exhibit opening in March.

Bowers Museum in Santa Ana received $3,000, which will be used for educational programming, according to public relations director Brian Langston.

“When Bowers closed for renovation, we ceased business,” Murrill said. “Our last exhibit there was in 1987. We functioned as the first group (in Orange County) that sponsored juried art exhibits.”

League members made up the name Torana to represent Tustin, Orange and Santa Ana, but they subsequently--and serendipitously--discovered the word was Hindi for gateway , Murrill said. Beginning with exhibits at Bullocks in Santa Ana, the group went on to renovate Torana House, a small house on the grounds of the Bowers--demolished during the museum’s renovation--where members held art classes.

“If there’s an odd amount left (in the treasury, after final expenses), maybe we’ll add it to scholarships we have or (leave it) in someone’s memory, or give a special grant,” Murrill said, adding with a laugh, “you don’t want it lying around for your heirs to dispose of!”