Top Story: Arts

Arts internships still up in the air

The curtain could come down on L.A. County’s long-running arts internship program this summer, after the Board of Supervisors, wary of an impending fiscal crunch, voted Tuesday to move consideration of the program’s fate into upcoming budget deliberations unless money can be found to support it in the county’s civic art program.

Because of the short timetable for placing interns in summer arts jobs, supporters say that moving the program into budget talks for next fiscal year would effectively kill it.

Supervisors asked the Chief Executive Officer to report back next week on the possibility of using money to fund this year’s internships from the county’s Civic Art Program, which allocates 1% of the budget of new capital projects for the installation of art in and around them.

The CEO had recommended that the board adopt a stripped-down version of the program that would have put 75 college undergrads to work this summer. The program’s funding–$500,000 last year–was to have been cut in half, with concessions and contributions required from participating arts organizations.

But coming up with $250,000 from county reserves was too much for the board majority in the current economic climate.

“It’s going to be a very tough year for us,” board chair Gloria Molina said. “We’re going to be facing some unbelievable challenges.”

She, like other supervisors, praised the internship program. But she suggested that the arts commission and the organizations that employ arts interns needed to do more to tap into Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) welfare funding to fill their positions this summer.

Molina said the TANF recipients include single mothers getting back into the work force, with children depending on their paychecks. “They might not be the bright young college interns,” Molina said. “They are needy families…who need some help.”

She said the TANF program has created 4,566 temporary subsidized jobs in the private and public sector–more than 1,100 of them in Los Angeles County workforce, from the parks department to the Registrar-Recorder.

“I do hope that the arts community will step up and take advantage of this wonderful program,” Molina said.

Searching for compromise, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky briefly suggested that the county put up $125,000 for this summer’s program, with another $125,000 coming from TANF. Then Supervisor Don Knabe offered a motion to investigate using funding from the civic arts program, and, if that proves impossible, including the program in the overall budget debate. That motion passed 3-2, with Supervisors Yaroslavsky and Mark Ridley-Thomas voting against it.

In its 10 years of existence, more than 1,100 college undergrads have taken part in the summer arts internship program. Many of the participants are pursuing studies they hope will lead to careers in the arts. Some end up being hired by the organizations for which they interned.

In the Hall of Administration lobby after the vote, supporters of the internship program, many wearing red-and-white stickers reading “Art Feeds LA,” said they were disappointed and puzzled.

“It’s a little bit head-scratching,” said Cynthia Campoy-Brophy of The HeArt Project, which provides arts education for teens in continuation high schools. “We know there’s a budget crisis, but this is such a win-win project that leverages such great benefits for the entire community.”

Danielle Brazell, executive director of the nonprofit organization Arts for L.A., which mobilized former and potential interns to speak out in favor of the program, said floating the notion of using TANF for arts internships “is really positioning apples and oranges.” The CEO report to the board had said that the TANF option was not an ideal fit for the arts internship program because of limitations it placed on which students could take part, and complications involving their compensation.

Immediately after the vote, Laura Zucker, executive director of the County Arts Commission, said she needed more time to reflect on the board’s decision before commenting. “OK, to be continued,” she told the group in the lobby.

Reached later, she said, “I think that we need to weigh the options that the board put forward.”

Posted 3/2/10

Encore for summer arts interns… maybe

Here’s what Lisa Dring got out of her arts internship at Circle X Theatre last summer: The chance to produce a reading of a work called “punkplay.” Some grant-writing experience. An associate producer’s credit on the one-man show “Violators Will Be Violated.”

Here’s what else she got: a job.

Dring was one of more than 120 paid interns who worked in Los Angeles arts and cultural institutions last summer, part of a long-running county program that has been targeted for closure due to budget constraints.

Now it looks as if the program—cut from this year’s budget—could get a one-year reprieve.

Under a plan being presented to the Board of Supervisors on March 2, a stripped-down version of the program would put 75 college undergrads to work this summer. The program’s funding would be cut in half—to $250,000, transferred from county reserves—and concessions and contributions would be required from participating arts organizations. The interns would be paid $3,500 for 10 weeks of fulltime work.

“It’s a good thing, and it’s important for the economy right now,” said Arts Commission executive director Laura Zucker. “It’s jobs. Jobs, jobs, jobs…It’s saying ‘We’re not going to stop thinking about the future.’ The creative economy is at the center of Los Angeles’ economy.”

Arts for L.A., a nonprofit arts advocacy organization, is asking former interns and other supporters to write letters and attend Tuesday’s meeting to show their backing for the program.

“It was absolutely amazing. I cannot advocate enough for the program,” said Dring, 22, a recent USC grad who is now on staff at Circle X Theatre as communications director/development associate. She said that she was able to plunge into significant work—“I didn’t get anybody coffee or anything”—almost from the very start of the internship. “I got to do everything.”

“It really helps, no matter what profession someone is going into, to really see firsthand what it takes to create art in this town,” said Circle X’s artistic director, Tim Wright, who has been the company’s intern supervisor for the past 10 years. “I can’t say enough how much the L.A. County arts internship program has meant to us…I’d hate to see it go away.”

“We’ve had an incredible crop of really talented young people,” added Amina Sanchez, associate director of the program department at the Skirball Cultural Center. “They’ve enabled us to present our major summer programs. We can’t do without our interns.”

Laura Katz, a UCLA grad and an intern at the Skirball last summer, worked on its free Sunset Concerts series. She called it “a really great way to get a real work experience,” since it was a fulltime, paid position. Katz, who hopes one day to work as a film music supervisor, said she also enjoyed having contact with world musicians like Issa Bagayogo, from Mali, when they performed at the Skirball.

At Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural in Sylmar, operations director Trini Rodriguez said it was a dream come true when Stacy Valdez became an intern in the nonprofit’s bookstore last summer. Here was someone who loved books, was in touch with the community and could work with software programs to create business analysis and inventory management reports. “We just had the best fit,” Rodriguez said—such a good fit that when a staff position came open, they offered the job to Valdez. “That’s a good thing—a very good thing actually,” said Valdez, 20, who in addition to working at the bookstore is a student at Mission College.

Zucker said that many of the program’s participants, like Dring and Valdez, stay involved with the arts institutions in some capacity after their internships are up. “A few,” she said, “have become the executive directors over time.”

A Chief Executive Office report recommending restoration of this summer’s program noted that the Arts Commission had previously explored whether it could tap into Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) welfare funding to keep the program afloat. It found too many limitations on student eligibility, and complications involving compensation, to make that a feasible option. The report said that the long-term objective should be for the Arts Commission to work with local colleges to create an internship-for-credit program.

Posted 2/25/10

An “iconic” park gets ready to bloom

Construction of a 12-acre park envisioned as a “spectacular community gathering space” in downtown Los Angeles is set to begin this spring, under an agreement adopted Tuesday by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

The Civic Park, part of the stalled Grand Avenue Project, would be built on county land running from the Music Center on Grand Avenue to City Hall on Spring Street. The $56 million project will be built on land leased by the county to the developer, The Related Companies. As part of the original agreement between the two parties, Related pre-paid some of the leasehold rent on the condition that the funds would be used to build the park and not for any other purposes. Once the park is finished, the county will have the option to purchase the property back for $1.

The project “will remake an often overlooked public space into a spectacular community gathering space that will provide an iconic park for Los Angeles,” according to a Chief Executive Office letter to supervisors asking for authorization to move ahead.

Models of the planned park depict a sweeping expanse of trees and lawns, along with plaza and terrace spaces, a dramatic fountain and a striking view toward Los Angeles’ equally iconic 1928 City Hall.

“This could be the jewel for all downtown,” Russell Brown, president of the Downtown L.A. Neighborhood Council, told the board during public comments before the vote.

The board voted 4-1 to move ahead with the park. Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich objected, citing concerns about delays in the project and reservations about the county’s agreement with Related.

With their vote, the supervisors authorized CEO William T Fujioka to sign a “lease lease-back” document and other agreements with developers, and to begin discussions on programming, operations and maintenance of the park with the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County.

Construction is expected to take two years, concluding in the summer of 2012.

The park will have four distinct areas: fountain plaza, performance lawn, community terrace and event lawn.

The historic Arthur J. Will Memorial fountain will be restored, and, if funds permit, “multi-cultural botanic gardens” will be added in the community terrace area to showcase plants from more than 100 “biozones” around the globe—each representing a culture present in modern day Los Angeles.

The park also will include a children’s garden and an event staging area that can accommodate community markets.

“Programming for small to large events and festivals is a crucial cornerstone of the planning of the park,” the CEO’s letter said. It noted that the park must support a range of “formal” uses such as concerts, as well as informal activities like strolling, reading and picnicking.

The developer aims to turn the steep grade of the four-block site into an asset, using “generous amphitheater steps and planted terracing” to create ADA-accessible pedestrian ramps and seating spaces.

The project will require demolition and re-engineering of ramps into the County Mall garage from Grand Avenue, relocating ramps into the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, shifting the placement of flags now located in the Court of Flags, and demolishing a surface parking lot.

Civic Center coffee aficionados, take note: the project site will be largely off-limits during construction, except for emergencies, facility maintenance and “access to Starbucks.” The Starbucks stand eventually will be demolished and the cafe relocated to a new, one-story building on the fountain plaza level, along with ATM facilities, public restrooms and park support offices.

Posted 2/16/10

Multi-million dollar loan has LA Opera singing a happy aria

The operatic repertoire is full of passion, suspense and dizzying turns of fortune—kind of like what’s been going on at LA Opera, which is fending off financial uncertainty even as it gears up for its most ambitious year ever.

Los Angeles County stepped onto center stage in the hero’s role on Tuesday, guaranteeing a $14 million loan to keep the opera afloat.

“We are absolutely thrilled that the County of Los Angeles has recognized the important and prestigious role that a world-class opera company plays in our community,” said Plácido Domingo, LA Opera’s general director. The board’s support, he said, “will enable us to continue as a prominent and vital element in the cultural life of Los Angeles and in furthering this region’s stature as an international cultural center.”

The cash infusion will keep the opera going through June, 2012, when the company expects to repay the loan from more than $30 million in pledges made since June by donors responding to the opera’s urgent fundraising plea.

“They’re passionate and they put their money where their mouth is,” Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said of opera fans. As a result, the new financing arrangement carries “very minimal risk,” Yaroslavsky said, adding that the alternative simply is unacceptable. “This is one of our major tenants at the Music Center,” he said. “If they go, it sets off a chain reaction of events that could topple the Music Center.”

The financial crisis, coming at a crucial time in the 25-year history of the LA Opera, is not unique to this company, said Music Center CEO Stephen D. Rountree, who during the past year has also been serving as LA Opera’s chief financial officer. “Opera companies are always pressed but [LA Opera] had their operations in order until the recession hit,” Rountree said. “Ticket sales are down across the country.”

For example, the Washington National Opera, which also has Domingo as general director, recently announced cutbacks in staff and programming.

The LA Opera also has been scrambling to dig out of its deficit, cutting staff by 20% and administrative costs by 22%, Chief Executive Officer William Fujioka said in his letter to the board. “It also reduced the number of productions in its 2008-2009 season from 9 to 6, and gave fewer performances—48, instead of 67.”

Fujioka said the new loan arrangement “does not put the county in jeopardy whatsoever.” The county will issue bonds that will be purchased by a single financial institution, Banc of America, Leasing & Capital, LLC, which will then provide the money to LA Opera. The county itself is not putting up any cash but is guaranteeing the loan in the unlikely event that the opera’s anticipated donations fall through—something opera and county officials say as highly unlikely.

Rountree said that having Domingo—“the leading spokesman for opera in the world”—in Los Angeles, has proved invaluable in raising the donations. The county stepped in to assist in a similar manner during the construction of Disney Hall, until private donations could bridge the funding gap.

The opera company, whose musical director is James Conlon, is gearing up for performances in June of the Ring Cycle, the four operas that comprise Richard Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen.” The operatic masterwork is at the heart of the 10-week Ring Festival LA, which begins next April and is expected to draw international attention with its broad range of musical performances, art exhibits and seminars.

And on that point, art is poised to triumph over money.