Arts Organizations

When it comes to his future arts giving in today's economy, even Eli Broad, perhaps Los Angeles' most generous arts supporter, is looking at the bottom line. "The value of the Broad Foundation is down 18%," says Broad, who can count among his latest contributions $56 million for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Broad Contemporary Art Museum, $10 million to the new Broad Stage at Santa Monica College and $6 million for Los Angeles Opera's coming production of Wagner's epic "Ring" cycle.

Unprecedented spending is the Bush administration's plan to avoid the worst or something like it in the American economy. But many arts organizations can quip that they were way ahead in the rush to embrace Mother Necessity in hopes of begetting Invention. What many of them called "the perfect storm" hit in 2001.

The Summer Olympics are over, but L.A. arts organizations could be in a sprinter's stance Sept. 23, when the starter's gun will sound in a competition for $935,000 in federal arts-grant money. The winners will stamp an Angeleno imprint on next year's annual International Book Fair in Guadalajara. The fair, billed as the world's largest event for Spanish-language publishers, invites a country, state or region to create and program a special pavilion as guest of honor. L.A. is the first municipality ever chosen.

At a time when the California Arts Council is handing out only one-tenth of the grants funding it did a decade ago, and when the city's Department of Cultural Affairs will take a 6.1% hit to its 2008-09 budget, the race to succeed retiring county Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke is of intense interest to the local arts community. That's because L.A.

THE Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has provided leadership in arts education, an area much discussed in "The City's State of the Arts," [March 23]. In 2002, the board adopted Arts for All, a regional blueprint to achieve quality arts education for all 1.7 million students in public school in L.A. County. Now six years into implementation, 29 of the county's 80 school districts are actively working toward this goal, reaching more than a quarter-million students. LAUSD, which serves 700,000 students, has committed more than $40 million to continue building its extraordinary arts education services in elementary schools.

ARMANDO DURON rushes out of court one day last week after dispatching another divorce case in his lucrative family law practice. The silver-haired lawyer and art collector is running late for a noon appointment, but not at some chic downtown restaurant. He's heading to East Los Angeles, where he spends his spare time trying to rescue the chronically struggling community arts collective Self Help Graphics. The agency on Cesar Chavez Avenue, considered the heart of the Chicano art scene, was close to closing its doors three years ago when Duron decided to volunteer to help turn it around.

When it comes to campaign themes, the arts can't compete with healthcare reform, national security, the sluggish economy -- just about anything you might name. But this presidential primary season, people who work at the crossroads of politics and culture say the arts have attained a higher profile than usual -- and the push for an arts agenda has established a foothold in the campaign landscape.

HOW IT WORKS: Lauri Firstenberg founded the nonprofit LAXART two years ago to help both new and midcareer artists produce and showcase their work. Artists who collaborate with LAXART have had their work installed in LAXART's gallery-style space on La Cienega Boulevard and as temporary projects atop billboards, across freeway walls and, in the case of Joel Tauber, surrounded by pavement in the Rose Bowl parking lot.

The beauty and emotionality of opera sometimes bring tears to the eyes of Plácido Domingo, but never more so than when it's a family affair. In June, when Los Angeles Opera presented the zarzuela, or Spanish operetta, "Luisa Fernanda," the tenor performed a role originally created by his father, who was a zarzuela singer, as was his mother. Joining him onstage in a supernumerary role was his 5-year-old granddaughter, Nicole Domingo.

More news from the controversy-mired Barnes Foundation: Officials of the suburban Philadelphia institution, which holds a world-class trove of Cezannes, Picassos, Renoirs and Van Goghs, last week rejected a $50-million offer to keep the gallery in Lower Merion Township, saying it came far too late to be taken seriously. Montgomery County officials who made the offer say they will take the Barnes to court in a final effort to prevent the move.