O.C. Groups Fail to Bid for State Funds : Grants: Laguna Art Museum applied, but Newport Harbor and the Irvine Fine Arts Center declined to seek state awards.

Though a state official says all it required was an update, the financially strapped Newport Harbor Art Museum has declined to apply for annual state funding, claiming that the paperwork isn’t worth the expected return.

The Irvine Fine Arts Center, which has received California Arts Council grants annually since 1990, also failed to apply this year, complaining that its application arrived too late. The Laguna Art Museum applied for $71,946.

Newport Harbor spokeswoman Maxine Gaiber said Thursday that it would have taken a week or so to fill out this year’s CAC application and that officials feel that amount of time wasn’t worth the likely award of $10,500, the amount the museum was given last year.

But Laguna Art Museum officials, likely to receive about $15,000 from the CAC this year, spent only about 20 hours on their application, according to director Charles Desmarais, who said a $15,000 grant “is a great deal of money to us and I think we can use it very effectively.”

In any case, Newport Harbor director Michael Botwinick “decided, and the board concurred, that (applying to the CAC) was not a good expenditure of staff time,” Gaiber said. Botwinick was unavailable for comment.

Last year, the museum laid off its associate development director--who had overseen CAC grant requests--along with eight other employees as part of an effort to cope with an accumulated deficit of more than $700,000. No further lay-offs or budget cuts are planned “at this time,” Gaiber said.

The decision to forgo the CAC grant, she said, “is a reflection of our working leaner. We have to be much more careful about how we allocate our time.” This is the first time in at least four years that the museum has not asked for state funds.

The number of visual arts institutions statewide applying for CAC grants dropped this year from 112 to 94. CAC official Scott Heckes said it is not unheard of for a major arts institution such as Newport Harbor to forgo a grant.

“Organizations fall out (of the grant process); they come and go,” said Heckes, manager of organizational support. “And this year, because many institutions’ staffs are shrinking, I think we’ll find many organizations will choose not to apply.”

Still, Heckes said he made an extra effort with Newport Harbor, calling officials twice to make sure they understood that all their application needed was an update.

Toni Pang, cultural affairs superintendent for the City of Irvine, said the Irvine Fine Arts Center’s application arrived only two weeks before the CAC deadline and couldn’t be filled out in time. Last year, the center received $4,353.

Heckes said all applications were mailed out first class a month in advance. “If it took (the Irvine Center) that long to get theirs, I’m sorry, but I have 90 some odd groups that made the deadline and our policy, set by executive staff, is not to give any extensions.”