Arts Recovery Program to Award $200,000 in Grants : Healing: City’s Cultural Affairs Dept. general manager vows to raise $1 million by year’s end.

The L.A. Arts Recovery Program, announced by the Cultural Affairs Department in the wake of the recent riots, has now taken a concrete form with more than $200,000 in grants for special recovery projects to be awarded in early August.

The L.A. Arts Recovery Fund, which began with $100,000 scrounged shortly after the riots from the department’s current budget, has already nearly doubled. Contributions to the fund include $50,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts, $25,000 from the California Arts Council, $10,000 each from AT&T; and the California Community Foundation, and $1,700 from the L.A. Art Assn.

In addition, the City Council will be asked to approve $250,000 from the L.A. Endowment for the Arts in the coming weeks (from funds outside the city’s grants budget), the California Arts Council is considering a second large grant, and several corporations are interested, said Adolfo V. Nodal, the Cultural Affairs Department general manager.

“We’re really moving forward; this is happening in record speed,” said Nodal, who has vowed to raise $1 million for the fund by the year’s end.

“I see this as becoming a united fund for the arts,” he said. “We’re there to support what (Peter V. Ueberroth’s Rebuild L.A. program) is doing, but quite frankly, the Arts Recovery Program is it as far as cultural healing. Even if all the economic and rebuilding efforts are successful beyond our wildest dreams--if the buildings are all rebuilt, the kids all have jobs, and everybody has $100 in their pockets--it’s still not going to make a difference until we rebuild the spirit. And we need the arts to do that.”

Nodal said the most difficult part of his program will be reaching minority artists and organizations outside of the department’s usual grants structure. To do so, he is distributing 40,000 applications for the first batch of grants, which have a deadline of July 15. Additional grants pools--expected to total a few hundred thousand dollars each--are scheduled to be announced in January and March.

While the grants will generally be limited to $250 to $3,000, a few larger grants may be awarded, Nodal said. Applicants for ongoing projects can apply in all three grant cycles and will also be eligible for the department’s regular 1993-94 grants program.

While noting that the program’s guidelines are “deliberately ambiguous” to allow a wide range of projects, Nodal gave examples of what will be given top priority: programs that work with youth and seniors, such as music workshops or dance classes; projects that encourage exchange and partnerships between differing cultural communities, such as Latino groups performing in the African-American community; and programs that symbolize healing and cooperation, such as public monuments or community-based murals.

“We’re not saying that the programs have to happen in burned-out storefronts,” Nodal said. “We were all affected by this, and all kinds of programs can help the healing.”

Nodal’s other Arts Recovery plans include: revamping the department’s community arts centers to become tools in the healing efforts, a progress that begins with a two-day planning retreat for 30 staff members next week; upgrading the department’s youth programs, for which he has established committees of arts administrators, educators and youth to survey existing programs and recommend additions and priorities; having the department become an official liaison between federally funded job programs, and groups to create jobs for minorities in the arts.