Arts Groups, Museums, Libraries Get $415,500 Lift

Performing arts groups, museums and libraries will receive $415,500 in grants announced Tuesday by the Pacific Life Foundation of Newport Beach.

The 33 arts and cultural recipients--26 of them in Orange County--range from the county’s mightiest to its tiniest institutions.

Overall, the cultural grants accounted for about one-fourth of the $1.5 million being distributed by the foundation, a philanthropic wing of Pacific Life Insurance Co. Other grants went to nonprofit groups in community development, health, education and environmental preservation.

The largest awards went to three museums and educational facilities. The Ocean Institute in Dana Point received $100,000 toward its $16.5-million campaign to build a new facility for research and education that will benefit students from kindergarten to graduate school.

The Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach received $60,000 to help pay for already completed renovations, and the Discovery Science Center of Santa Ana received $55,000, mostly to ensure the facility’s earthquake preparedness.

The Ocean Institute’s grant will give a boost to a project that officials hope to begin by this fall and open late in 2001, said Bill Habermehl, president of the institute’s board of directors. The donation brings the fund-raising campaign closer to its halfway mark, with $6.5 million raised so far.

“When you have Pacific Life step up and give you a grant, you have a lot of other people saying, ‘We want to get involved also,’ ” Habermehl said after an afternoon reception for recipients at the company’s headquarters.

Discovery center officials hope their grant ends up invisible to the public, spokeswoman Pam Shambra said. It will pay for first-aid supplies, stretchers, search-and-rescue equipment, emergency food supplies, and CPR and first aid training for staffers in case of a disaster.

Other Orange County arts and cultural grant recipients, according to Marie K. Connell, Pacific Life spokeswoman:

Museums, libraries, schools and arts support groups: Sherman Library and Gardens in Corona del Mar, $20,000; Newport Harbor Nautical Museum in Newport Beach, $10,000; UC Irvine School of the Arts, $9,000; Irvine Museum, $5,000; Art Institute of Southern California in Laguna Beach, $5,000; Newport Beach Public Library Foundation, $5,000; Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, $5,000. Arts Orange County in Santa Ana, $5,000; and Orange County Business Committee for the Arts in Costa Mesa, $2,000.

Performing Arts: St. Joseph Ballet in Santa Ana, $15,000; Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, $10,000; South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, $10,000; Pacific Symphony in Santa Ana, $10,000; Laguna Playhouse, $10,000; Balboa Performing Arts Theater Foundation in Newport Beach, $10,000; Ballet Pacifica in Irvine, $5,000; Mozart Classical Orchestra in Laguna Hills, $5,000; Anaheim Ballet, $5,000; Ballet Montmartre in Costa Mesa, $5,000; Southern California Children’s Chorus in Newport Beach, $5,000; Aman Folk Ensemble in Santa Ana, $5,000; Alternative Repertory Theatre in Santa Ana, $2,500; and All-American Boys Chorus in Costa Mesa, $2,500.

Cultural grants outside Orange County: Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach $10,000; Arts and Services for Disabled, in Long Beach, $5,000; Music Center of Los Angeles County, $5,000; Children’s Museum of Los Angeles, $5,000; Huntington Library in San Marino, $2,000; San Diego Performing Arts League, $2,500; and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in San Francisco, $5,000.