Karen Drews, an account executive for Nappi/Eliran...

Karen Drews, an account executive for Nappi/Eliran Advertising Ltd. in New York City, has been named the new marketing director of the Irvine Barclay Theatre, effective Aug. 15. Her duties will include setting sales, marketing and public relations goals.

Before working at Nappi/Eliran, whose clients include the Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Roundabout Theatre Company, Drews was an assistant professor of theater in lighting and scenic design at Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama. She holds a BFA from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, and an MFA in performing arts management from Brooklyn College.

South Coast Repertory has won the largest of three grants--$200,000--awarded to Orange County organizations by the National Endowment for the Arts. SCR’s grant will support its 1994-95 season. The Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, awarded $50,000, will use the money to curate “Between Empires: The Artistic Legacy of Pre-Hispanic Panama,” an exhibit slated to open in January. Laguna Art Museum will use its $35,000 grant to organize a retrospective show of work by contemporary Los Angeles artist Llyn Foulkes. Curated by independent curator Marilu Knode, it is slated to open in October, 1995, and is tentatively scheduled to travel to Honolulu’s Contemporary Museum and Northern California’s Oakland Museum. It is Foulkes’ “first major retrospective,” according to Laguna museum acting director Susan M. Anderson. Nationwide, the NEA conferred a total of $31.5 million in 1994 third-quarter awards.