Poll Shows Orange County Supports Public Arts Funding, Especially for Kids

A survey of Orange County voters showed that most would approve spending tax money to support the arts, especially educational programs for children.

The public poll, released by Arts Orange County, a nonprofit arts council, sampled 500 registered voters on what they thought about being taxed to fund the arts.

The results showed that 70% of registered voters would support a small portion of local taxes being allocated to the arts. Of this group, 28% said they were willing to spend from 11 cents to $3.99 per capita, and 42%, most of whom were from south Orange County, said they would pay $4 or more per capita, although the survey results did not specify if the arts funding would come from existing taxes or a new one. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4%.

The county’s current contribution to the arts is 5 cents per capita.

The poll also showed that people attend arts events for personal growth and to spend time with friends and family. Most prefer to attend arts events in the county, but 29% look to Los Angeles for additional events and 2% travel to San Diego.

The poll also said that 95% of those surveyed believed that money should go to children’s arts programs, as part of youth development and education.

“There’s a consensus in public funding for the arts in children’s education,” said Bob Meadow of Decision Research, the Washington, D.C.-based research firm that conducted the survey.

The findings were based on 500 phone interviews conducted in English and Spanish of voters selected at random. Most of the respondents were older, with incomes of $100,000 or more.

The survey was commissioned by Arts Orange County on behalf of the county Board of Supervisors as part of a three-year marketing and development project of the county and the arts community.

The outcome coincides with results from the first statewide public opinion survey presented by the California Arts Council last year, said Arts Orange County executive director Bonnie Brittain Hall.

Paul Minicucci, deputy director of the California Arts Council, agreed that the results could help the art councils develop long-term strategies. “Both surveys show public support is deeper than we expected,” he said.

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Three very different nonprofit arts institutions in Laguna Beach have become fund-raising allies, sharing a $60,000 grant aimed at improving their chances of being remembered in donors’ wills and trust funds.

The Laguna Playhouse, Laguna Art Museum and the Art Institute of Southern California, a 300-student undergraduate college, will receive the money--a grant from the Newport Beach-based Pacific Life Foundation--over the next two years. They jointly will hire a consultant to help them set up programs designed to make it easy for donors to make death bequests. The consultant also will help solicit prospective donors.

Each of the three will approach its established contributors in hopes of boosting income through “planned giving” programs. But they also are interested in launching a new fund for bequests to benefit them jointly.

“It’s more effective than if all three of us are trotting around at the same time,” said Alan Barkley, president of the Art Institute. “It can look sort of as if we’ve got our act together.”

None of the three Laguna Beach institutions is large enough to afford its own donation expert. The grant allows them to share one. The consultant also will help the organizations do the legal paperwork for receiving bequests, said Bolton Colburn, director of the art museum. Now, Colburn said, people who want to leave money to the museum must have their own lawyers handle the bequest. “A lot of people would consider giving a gift if they knew we had a program that makes it easy for them.”

The Laguna arts troika collaborated last year in pushing for a 20% local hotel tax increase to benefit the city’s arts organizations and promote tourism.

Richard Stein, the Laguna Playhouse’s executive director, expects the tax will yield about $50,000 this year for the theater. The combined efforts have been possible, Stein said, because he, Colburn and Barkley cooperate well. “We like each other and we get along.”

--Mike Boehm