L.A. Festival May Reject NEA Grant : Arts: The board is reported divided over whether to accept the $30,000 award because of the agency’s anti-obscenity pledge.

The financially strapped Los Angeles Festival, still short of its $4.7-million goal, may refuse a $30,000 grant from the NEA because of the agency’s anti-obscenity stance, the festival’s executive director said Tuesday.

Although the arts festival, the largest of its kind in the nation, still needs $200,000 before its slated Sept. 1 opening, the event’s board of directors is currently divided as it considers whether to accept the grant, already approved by the National Endowment for the Arts, executive director Judith Luther said in an interview with United Press International on Tuesday.

Many of the board’s 19 members, who were asked to vote on the NEA grant last week, do not want to accept the federal money because of the agency’s requirement that all recipients sign an anti-obscenity pledge, Luther said before a news conference called to promote the festival.

The grant was approved by the NEA about two months ago, Luther said, but it has not been accepted yet. “Board members are currently being polled about whether or not to accept it. . . . We just don’t know how it’s going to go yet.

“There are board members who feel we should take the money and submit a letter of protest. Then if the NEA objects to any of our performances, the burden is on them to come after us,” she said.

The NEA grant “was discussed by the board and we turned in ballots on the issue, but I don’t know what the outcome is,” board member Ira Yellin, president of the Los Angeles-based Yellin Company, told The Times on Tuesday. “We each have very strong feelings about it. There is no one on the board that agrees with the requirement . . . but people on the board differ as to whether it should be rejected outright, or whether it would be better to accept the grant at this time.”

Board member Lacy Gage, senior vice president of Focus Media, said that the “secret” ballot was faxed to the board members.

“I can’t even guess how it turned out. But I hope they do (turn it down) . . . . If they turn it down it does put them farther behind, but I would never want to be put in a position of putting money before beliefs and ideals.”

Yellin said that he expects the tally would not be released until board president Maureen A. Kindel returned from vacation later this week.

Among the events to be featured in the curated Los Angeles Festival that could be considered objectionable, said Luther, are a play by Iranian-born director Reza Abdoh that involves transvestites and body builders and an art exhibit by AIDS activist and artist David Wojnarowicz.