Laura Zucker

A $2.1-million plan to restore the historic Van Nuys Post Office for use as a theater has been given a boost with a $400,000 loan from the City of Los Angeles. The City Council on Tuesday approved the loan to help the Back Alley Theatre buy, renovate and expand the vacant building at 14530 Sylvan St. into a 368-seat proscenium theater. The loan is contingent on the theater group raising about $1.1 million within one year.

Despite the effects of Sept. 11, 2001, on the local economy, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission maintained a consistent level of funding for arts grant-making -- slightly more than $2.5 million -- from fiscal year 2001-02 to fiscal 2002-03. The picture is not as rosy for 2003-04, during which the county arts agency -- which provides grants to more than 250 arts groups in 56 area cities -- will suffer a cut of more than $300,000, down to just under $2.2 million.

The work of dancer-choreographer Loretta Livingston dominated the list of winners at the 13th annual Lester Horton Dance Awards, held Sunday at the Aratani/Japan America Theatre in downtown L.A. Presented in May at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, Livingston's "Leaving (Evidence)" -- a full-evening ensemble piece that dramatized and celebrated the impermanence of dance -- won awards in four major categories.

Laura Zucker's new office is a comfortable room at the end of the Momentum Gallery's exhibition area in Ventura. But the way Zucker sees it, it's "in the trenches," and that's its great advantage. Zucker, a free-lance arts consultant for the last two years, started work two weeks ago as director of the Ventura Arts Council, the main arts advocacy group in Ventura County. "When you're consulting, you're always on the outside," said Zucker in a recent interview.

The Santa Monica Pier will become a theater in August. The Pacific Theatre Ensemble will venture out over the Pacific, presenting a Shakespearean comedy in a 200-seat space at the western end of the pier. Admission will be free. The city is putting up $15,000 for the production, and the ensemble hopes to match that amount in a fund-raising campaign, said artistic director Stephanie Shroyer. This will be the first Actors' Equity-contract show for the ensemble, which has won acclaim for its smaller-theater productions of such shows as "Slaughterhouse on Tanner's Close" and "South Central Rain."

In addition to sports and topical issues, Californians also care about the arts. According to a study by the Washington, D.C.-based Policy Economics Group, 24 million people paid admission to nonprofit California arts exhibitions or events in 1993, generating close to $200 million in ticket sales. And in addition to the $254 million in grants that nonprofit organizations receive from the government, arts groups and audiences generate an additional $2 billion in revenue for the state.

Ah, chamber music under the moon, the natural cap to the Memorial Day weekend! That unlikely thought became reality Monday, when Ima Concerts drew a sizable crowd to the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre against the odds, opening the new "Summer Nights at the Ford" series. Chamber music and amphitheater are not words that usually go together, but the Ford has had a history of chamber music, at least since 1987.

The characters--a wealthy, eccentric white woman and her black servant--may remind one of "Driving Miss Daisy." But director Ann Bowen says that Selaelo Maredi's South Africa-set "Absalom's Song" (premiering Thursday at the Los Angeles Theatre Center) couldn't be more different. At 45, "Absalom is a simple man, an earthy man," said Bowen. "He suffers from a deep consciousness of his people's wounds." His boss, 52-year old Lynette, "is immersed in her own life.

The Ventura Arts Council has closed the Momentum Gallery--one of the major art galleries in the city--because the debt-ridden organization cannot afford to keep it operating, officials said Tuesday. Cindy Zimmerman, the council's executive director, confirmed that the private, nonprofit organization has been in debt for at least eight months, but declined to say how much it owes. Board member Denis Snow said he thinks that the amount is less than $10,000.