State Funding of Arts Groups in O.C. Rises 22%

State funding of arts organizations based in Orange County has increased by 22.5%. Three groups have received grants for the first time.

California Arts Council grants to groups here had declined from 1994 to 1995, when $259,534 was given to 13 local groups. But in awards announced this month, $318,103 is being given to 15 groups. Council officials attribute the jump to an increase in recipients’ budgets.

According to Scott Wm. Heckes, who manages the council’s organizational support program, this year three of the O.C. groups were given higher council rankings, which range from 1- to 4+ based on artistic and administrative integrity: Pacific Symphony (4- to 4), the Philharmonic Society of Orange County (3+ to 4-) and the Fullerton Civic Light Opera (2+ to 3-).

The overall increase in awards “is certainly an indication that Orange County’s arts organizations continue to strengthen and grow” financially and artistically “despite local economic conditions,” Bonnie Brittain Hall, executive director of Arts Orange County, a countywide service agency, said Thursday. Hall’s agency was among the recipients.

“We’re tremendously pleased at the success of the Orange County arts groups,” said arts council director Barbara Pieper.

First-time recipients are Shakespeare Orange County, the county’s only classical theater troupe; the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton; and a group called New Year’s Jazz at Indian Wells that stages an annual festival in Riverside County but works out of Huntington Beach.

As usual, South Coast Repertory (with a rank of 4) won the county’s largest grant.

One organization received less money this year, the former Laguna Art Museum (now part of the Orange County Museum of Art). Heckes attributed the drop to the museum’s decreased budget.

Absent from the list was the Bowers Museum, which won $12,102 in 1995. Spokesman Brian Langston said the museum did not apply this year.

The council awarded $5,116,000 to 572 groups statewide.

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The grants to groups in Orange County:

* Arts Orange County: $27,000 (from $15,000 for ‘95-96).

* Ballet Pacifica: $4,453 (from $3,230).

* Fullerton Civic Light Opera: $3,042 (no grant last year).

* Laguna Art Museum: $8,767 (from $9,313).

* Laguna Playhouse: $8,810 (from $8,687).

* Muckenthaler Cultural Center: $2,000 (no grant last year).

* New Year’s Jazz at Indian Wells: $2,000 (no grant last year).

* Opera Pacific: $36,011 (from $34,279).

* Pacific Chorale: $23,133 (from $14,016).

* Pacific Symphony: $78,118 (from $54,123).

* Philharmonic Society of Orange County: $31,636 (from $19,050).

* Shakespeare Orange County: $2,000 (no grant last year).

* South Coast Repertory: $78,908 (from $78,729).

* St. Joseph Ballet: $8,537 (from $7,445).

* William Hall Master Chorale: $3,688 (from $3,560).