O.C. AIDS Giving Is Found Wanting : Funding: Although some activists and officials express gratitude for money-raising projects and the support of local groups, others say the arts community lags in its approach.

When participants in Sunday’s AIDS Walk Orange County end their trek at the Irvine Marketplace, they will find themselves just a few feet away from an exhibition also meant to draw attention to the epidemic. AIDS activist and artist Mark Alan Smith planned it that way.

Smith says art reaches people’s hearts and minds like nothing else, and can be tremendously “effective in approaching the problem” of AIDS. He has been the main force behind Art for Life’s Sake, a two-month series of local AIDS awareness events that concludes Sunday with the closing of “The First Exhibition,” a show at the Marketplace of AIDS-related works by 28 artists from throughout Southern California.

Smith, who lives in Laguna Beach, also is one of the members of the art community around the world who have been raising cash and consciousness to combat the disease, which has ravaged the arts and entertainment world.

In December, about 4,500 arts institutions in the United States and abroad took part in the fourth annual A Day Without Art, an AIDS awareness campaign. More recently, David Bowie and Elton John headlined an AIDS benefit concert in London that drew 70,000 and was televised worldwide. Just last month, nearly 30 art galleries in Los Angeles raised $70,000 for AIDS Project Los Angeles, a service group, through a raffle of donated artworks, some by world renowned artists.

The arts and entertainment community in Orange County has staged a number of AIDS-related events in the past few years. But how does its degree of participation stack up in the eyes of local AIDS officials?

Do local arts groups that take a stand on the issue risk alienating supporters--patrons, donors, trustees--in a county known for its conservatism? Are leaders of these organizations wary of taking a stand? Some people, after all, still think that AIDS is exclusively a gay disease, or a result of promiscuity, drug use or lifestyle choices.

Some AIDS officials are impressed with what’s been done locally to help the cause.

“I think there has been a definite attempt by the arts community to participate,” says Judith Doyle, executive director of Laguna Shanti, an AIDS service organization in Laguna Beach. “I know of a lot of (instances) where it is involved.”

But others would like to see much more.

“Frankly, I think we here in Orange County are very behind in getting involved,” says Patrick Jager, director of development for the AIDS Services Foundation of Orange County, another leading service organization.

Jager and others say that the county’s conservative leanings have had an impact.

Cal State Fullerton assistant professor of art Mike McGee, who last month moderated an Art for Life’s Sake panel on the arts and AIDS from which representatives of the Orange County Performing Arts Center and South Coast Repertory were conspicuously absent, says he was “shocked” to learn that while today’s contemporary art virtually is defined by references to social or political issues, some of his students believe that individual artworks should be devoid of references to AIDS or other topics and that arts institutions shouldn’t become involved.

“It’s archaic thinking about what role art should play in the community,” says McGee, adding that he thinks anti-gay “feelings that are not being stated” lie under such beliefs.

“There’s a certain amount of homophobia out there,” McGee says, “and the misconception that AIDS is related to a gay lifestyle.”

Several officials of local arts groups who have offered AIDS-related activities were asked if they had received any negative feedback. They all said no, though some said they suspect that some of their supporters don’t approve.

Mark Moore, who owns the Works Gallery in Costa Mesa, is convinced that strong anti-gay feelings in the community deter greater participation by arts groups in AIDS events.

Moore says he recently overheard a conversation in which someone expressed support for allowing gays in the military because, the person said, “a bullet to the back of the head” of a gay soldier would solve the problem.

“Do you really feel these same people who voted (Robert K.) Dornan ((R-Garden Grove)) into office have AIDS as a high priority?” asks Moore, whose gallery has taken part in several AIDS events.

“Things that are urgent and important to this community get done,” he added, citing the recently constructed $121-million Anaheim Arena. “But things like raising money for AIDS drag along because it’s not really important to the average guy on the street.”

Jager says he commends all local efforts and doesn’t care to shame anyone into action. And it’s not fair, he says, to compare the county to such other, far more involved cities as San Francisco and New York, which he calls “meccas of compassion.”

Both cities boast vastly more developed arts communities--and more AIDS cases: The number of people who have died from AIDS since record-keeping began in 1981 in San Francisco and New York is 32,907 and 8,982 respectively, versus 1,572 in Orange County, according to health officials.

“But,” Jager added, “it is fair to say we should be looking to these other communities, to say (to ourselves), ‘What have they done successfully and what is it we can and should be doing here?’ ”

The O.C. arts community’s most visible and unified AIDS efforts have taken place during A Day Without Art. Conceived in 1989 as a way to symbolize what the world would be like if all artists died of AIDS, the annual Dec. 1 observance was first marked largely by the draping of artworks or the cancellation of performances. Now a variety of activities, such as exhibits of AIDS-related paintings, take place.

Last Dec. 1, a record number of arts groups in Orange County--about 18--participated. Among the more ambitious efforts were a free outdoor music and dance concert in Costa Mesa involving six leading organizations--that drew only about 200 people--and the performance of an original revue, which raised $15,000 for Laguna Shanti.

Art for Life’s Sake events in April and May included a gala fund-raiser at Metropolis, a nightclub in Irvine. About 600 people attended the gala, which included a glittery fashion show and raised roughly $25,000 for AIDS Services Foundation of Orange County through admission charges and an auction of artworks and apparel donated by local designers.

However, Art for Life’s Sake founder Smith, whose brother is HIV positive, agrees with Jager that the arts community here lags in its activism, and says he had hoped for greater participation in AFLS.

“Looking back, it’s pretty frustrating,” Smith says. “We put out 8,000 invitations and 20,000 flyers” announcing the gala and other AFLS events. Many of the 600 gala-goers who did show up, he noted, were “familiar faces,” the people who typically attend AIDS-related events, rather than the “new faces from the art community” and elsewhere that AFLS had targeted.

Several artists from the county (including Smith) contributed work to AFLS’ “First Exhibition.” And representatives of three leading local arts organizations--the Laguna Art Museum, the Newport Harbor Art Museum and the Stop-Gap theater troupe of Santa Ana--took part in the AFLS panel. Some groups left AFLS event flyers in their lobbies.

But Smith says not a single local arts organization took out a $100 ad in an AFLS AIDS information brochure (San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet bought an ad).

“We got more response” overall from Emporio Armani Costa Mesa, the high-style apparel boutique in South Coast Plaza, Smith said. For two weeks, the store displayed in its conspicuous expanse of window space--equivalent to six store fronts--panels from memorial quilts made by people who have lost loved ones to AIDS and large letters spelling out AFLS’ name.

(Magan Thompson, a spokeswoman for the store, said, “We didn’t receive one negative comment--and we have gotten negative comments when we’ve (displayed designer) underwear.

(Reaction to the display was “very moving,” Thompson added. “People would just stand there looking at the AIDS quilt panels and you could see them start to cry.”)

Giorgio Armani himself donated three original design sketches, one of which drew $900 at the auction, and the store placed an ad in the AFLS brochure.

“None of the arts organizations came close to that” degree of participation, Smith said.

Certainly, he acknowledged, no nonprofit museum or music or dance troupe enjoys the resources of an internationally renowned clothing concern. And, as Smith suggested, many arts organizations said that they have enough to deal with in trying to fulfill their chief objective--maintaining artistic excellence in financially trying times.

“Like most nonprofit organizations, we’re struggling to accomplish our own organization’s mission in a time of diminishing resources,” said Richard A. Stein, executive director of the Laguna Playhouse.

Still, in December, Laguna Playhouse staged “Lagunatics,” an original revue, for A Day Without Art, raising roughly $15,000 for Laguna Shanti. Before that, it had not taken part in the observance.

Jager, who helped organize the AFLS gala, says that other factors may explain the area’s degree of involvement. The county is less “ethnically, financially and socially diverse” than other metropolitan areas, making contact with those with AIDS--and thus activism--less frequent. Also, he said, the local arts community lacks cohesion (in fact, it is one of a handful statewide lacking a countywide arts council).

Not to mention those conservative.

The Pacific Symphony stands out among local groups for its involvement, having presented the Southern California premiere of John Corigliano’s AIDS-themed First Symphony and having staged benefit receptions for AIDS Walk O.C. for the past three seasons.

“No one has ever said a (disapproving) word to me,” orchestra president Janice Johnson reported. On the contrary, “a lot of people have come forward and said ‘gee, I’m glad you’re doing that.’ ”

Tracie Murdock, director of the West Coast Performing Arts Center in Huntington Beach, said she got a similarly positive response when she donated $500 in proceeds from her troupe’s recent staging of “Oliver!” to Laguna Shanti.

Some who might not normally attend a play went to see “Oliver!,” the 2 1/2-year-old troupe’s first full-length production, because the performance was a benefit, Murdock said.

South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, which attained national attention in 1988 when it won a regional Tony Award, has staged AIDS-related readings during A Day Without Art for the past three years.

But it has never presented a play on its main stage directly addressing AIDS, even though the epidemic has been a dominant theme in theater for the past few years as AIDS-related plays have been making the rounds of regional theaters.

SCR producing-artistic director David Emmes said he is “proud of what we have been doing at SCR to respond to the AIDS crisis” but that often the quality of many available AIDS plays is not up to par.

“We’re looking for the best possible plays,” he said, “. . . and a lot of work out there simply doesn’t meet our standards.”

A notable exception, said SCR artistic director Martin Benson, is Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches,” which won the Tony Award for best play last Sunday. SCR attempted but failed to obtain the play, according to Benson. “And I guarantee you,” Benson said, “if another (AIDS play) by Kushner was available, we’d be moving heaven and earth to get it.”

Fear of alienating its constituency has never been a consideration, said Emmes, citing such SCR productions as “Breaking the Code,” which “dealt very sympathetically with the central character’s” homosexuality, and a recent audience development reception aimed at the gay and lesbian community. Benson said “Prelude to a Kiss” expressed an “AIDS metaphor.”

However, Tim Miller, a performance artist who is based in Los Angeles and known nationally for his AIDS- and gay-related theater works, said SCR’s failure to present plays that deal with AIDS directly has been “a fairly major omission.” He disagreed with Emmes’ contention that it’s hard to find plays about AIDS that are dramatically significant and worth doing.

“I really respect SCR,” said Miller, who grew up in Orange County and who remembers the company as exposing him to “some of the most important theater” he saw then. “But it should be a leader” among regional theaters in addressing issues facing Americans today, he said.

Thomas R. Kendrick, president of the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, said he too has heard no objection to AIDS-related efforts the center has made.

However, in almost seven years of operations, the center hasn’t done much: It presented members of the visiting Kirov Ballet during last year’s Day Without Art concert in Costa Mesa, and it has posted lobby signs and printed program information addressing AIDS for the observance.

In August, the center plans to hold a reception to benefit the American Foundation for AIDS Research and the county’s AIDS Services Foundation after a performance of Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project. However, the benefit was initiated by Baryshnikov, not the center, and tickets are $200, which means only a certain segment of the population will be able to attend.

Kendrick maintained that the whole objective of the benefit is to “reach those people who can afford to give a certain amount of money” in order to raise a lot for the two AIDS groups. It’s hoped that the event will pull in at least $70,000, Kendrick said.

“There are a million places people who want to donate small sums of money can do that,” he said.

Smith of Art for Life’s Sake says that raising money to fight AIDS is “wonderful” but simply not enough. He would like to see high-profile organizations such as the Performing Arts Center play a greater role in AIDS awareness and education by creating or presenting material that addresses AIDS, for instance.

“We’re still a long way off from a cure for AIDS,” Smith said, “so in this day and age, the only way we’re going to see any reduction in the rate of infection is through education.”

*’GIFT OF LEGACY’

Laguna Beach filmmaker wants to document life with AIDS. F3