NEA sets $66 million in grants

The National Endowment for the Arts, working with slightly more money than it had in 2002, today will detail most of its grants for the year, a $66-million batch of contributions to arts organizations nationwide.

The program includes such new efforts as development of a public television series, “The Music Show,” to feature conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, which is to receive $200,000 in NEA funds.

Among other California grants:

The Los Angeles Philharmonic will receive $90,000 to help pay for commissioned works by composers John Adams, Tan Dun, Liza Lim, Magnus Lindberg, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Steven Stucky.

The Santa Monica-based American Film Foundation will receive $45,000 toward production of a documentary film on playwright Tony Kushner. The San Francisco-based Independent Television Service Inc. will receive $100,000 to support “Independent Lens,” a public television series of dramatic, animated and documentary works by independent filmmakers.

Venice-based L.A. Theatre Works will receive $40,000 for “The Play’s the Thing,” a weekly radio theater series (intended for public stations nationwide) that will include up to 17 new radio plays, recorded before audiences in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. The Los Angeles County Arts Commission will receive $42,000 to support an arts-marketing workshop and a small-grants program.

Fresno-based Radio Bilingue Inc. will get $46,000 to support a mariachi festival.

Overall, the 903 grants announced this week make up most of the agency’s $115.7 million budget for the year. That marks a slight uptick from the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2002, during which the NEA’s budget amounted to $115.2 million. In the incomplete skirmishing over spending in the 2004 fiscal year, President Bush has asked Congress to give the NEA $117.5 million.