An upswing in L.A. arts grants

Los Angeles’ nonprofit cultural organizations have received unaccustomed cause for optimism about government funding from a county decision to more than double arts grants in the coming fiscal year, from $2.2 million to $4.5 million.

In addition to that increase, the county Board of Supervisors on Monday gave cultural institutions $20 million of a $400-million surplus that built up during the expiring 2005-06 budget year, as state revenue-sharing and interest income exceeded expectations.

The Music Center, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the fledgling La Plaza de Cultura y Artes will each get a one-time infusion of $5 million.

“During tough budget years, arts programs are oftentimes the first to endure cuts. Given that we are in the midst of much rosier fiscal circumstances, it is entirely appropriate that we augment our arts program,” Supervisor Gloria Molina said in a statement issued after the supervisors unanimously approved a $20-billion budget for fiscal 2006-07 that includes $62.9 million for arts and culture.

The increase in the county’s arts grants program “is a step down an important road,” said Laura Zucker, executive director of the county Arts Commission.

She added, however, that “we’re not yet where we need to be” in matching leaders such as New York City and San Francisco in per capita government support for the arts.

The doubling of arts grants is especially significant, Zucker said, because it establishes a new baseline for the program: $4.5 million rather than $2.2 million will be the annual starting point for discussion, and the grant totals are likely to be maintained or enlarged in future years unless harsher fiscal realities intrude.

In 2005-06, the county made 199 grants to arts organizations, ranging from $2,000 for the smallest to $97,000 for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The Arts Commission is proposing 228 grants for 2006-07.

Zucker declined to specify the dollar range until they come before the Board of Supervisors for approval next month.

The biggest chunks of the entire $62.9-million arts and culture appropriations will go to three large county-owned but privately operated nonprofit institutions. They receive some government funding to cover maintenance, security and some other costs but also rely on ticket sales and private donations to make their annual budgets.

For 2006-07, LACMA will receive $20.1 million; the Music Center, $19.3 million; and the Natural History Museum, $12.6 million.

The Arts Commission budget of $8.5 million includes the grants program, educational internships, free concerts and a Christmas Eve telecast from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Separate funds for the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood and a new art-in-public-places program account for an additional $1.2 million each.

As for the one-time bonanza from the county’s surplus that is going to big arts institutions, officials said that LACMA plans to put its $5 million toward planning the second phase of its ongoing renovation; the Natural History Museum will reserve its $5 million for earthquake retrofitting and renovation of its original 1913 building; and the Music Center has an assortment of capital improvements in mind, including reupholstering the seats and upgrading the heat and air conditioning in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

La Plaza de Cultura y Artes aims to renovate county-owned buildings into a downtown center devoted to Mexican American contributions to Los Angeles culture.

Things have not been so rosy, budget-wise, for the city of Los Angeles, where Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s $6.7-billion budget proposal, not yet acted on by the City Council, offers only a $200,000 boost in funding for the Cultural Affairs Department. Funding for that agency over the last four years has fallen from $13.3 million to $9.6 million.

The city’s arts grants would decrease from $2.5 million to $2.1 million under Villaraigosa’s proposal. The mayor wants to divert $150,000 from the grants budget to launch a three-year effort to devise a new cultural master plan for the city.

On the state level, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed a $5.1-million budget for the California Arts Council -- a $1.8-million boost that relies on projected income from arts lovers’ voluntary purchases of special license plates. Since budget woes reached crisis dimensions in Sacramento several years ago, the state government’s per capita spending on the arts has dropped to last in the nation.