Endowment Arts Program Approved

In an effort to boost funding at five city-owned arts centers, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a plan that would rename the facilities after million-dollar donors.

The endowment program, which also seeks $500,000 donors for each of the four theaters in the downtown Los Angeles Theater Center, was proposed by the city’s Cultural Affairs Department as a way to maintain private funding of the centers into the 21st century.

Three of the five arts centers, the Encino Media Center, the Lankershim Arts Center in North Hollywood and the McGroartyCultural Arts Center in Sunland-Tujunga, are located in the San Fernando Valley.

“It’s an old-fashioned endowment program. We are seeking donations of $1 million or more,” said Catherine Rice, director of development for cultural affairs.

“Each year, the centers could only spend the interest, and the balance would remain as an endowment in perpetuity.”

As part of the Cultural Affairs Department’s Arts Partners Program, the centers are operated as three-way partnerships among the city, nonprofit arts groups and corporate sponsors, Rice said.

The city owns the facilities and hires nonprofits to run programs paid in part by such sponsors as Sony Pictures Entertainment, Target/Mervyn’s and the Ahmanson Foundation. Currently, those sponsors contribute from $30,000 to $50,000 per year over periods ranging from one to three years.

Programming offered through the arts centers ranges from animation and photography to print-making and theater.

To find sponsors willing to invest $1 million in the cultural life of the city, cultural affairs will soon launch a letter-writing campaign targeting select corporations, foundations and individuals, officials said.

“There are a lot of people out there looking for positive things to do in the city,” said Aldolfo Nodal, general manager of cultural affairs, who added that he was confident million-dollar sponsors could be found.

“We offer the potential donor really positive, stable programs they can plug right into.”