SUPPORT FOR ARTS MAY RISE WITH SPLIT ADVOCATES POINT TO LARGE TAX BASE.

Byline: James Nash and Holly Edwards Staff Writers

Measured by the traditional yardsticks of grants for cultural activities and the numbers of performing-arts centers and museums, the San Fernando Valley ranks as one of the most culturally deprived urban areas in the country.

But some Valley secession advocates say that would change if it became its own city.

Cityhood could mean a burst of support for arts and culture since the Valley would no longer merely be a residential appendage of Los Angeles, they say, pointing to the Valley getting less than 20 percent of city arts funding although it has 37 percent of the population of L.A.

Phoenix, which the Valley would displace as the nation's sixth-largest city if secession passes Nov. 5, has 43 performing-arts theaters, compared with a dozen in the Valley portion of Los Angeles.

Phoenix gave local arts organizations $801,939 in the past fiscal year, while Los Angeles spent $133,335 of its $400,000 arts grant budget in the Valley, according to figures provided by both cities.

Some Valley arts advocates say the area has long been an afterthought in the city's planning and spending for arts.

And while a new city wouldn't bring an overnight renaissance of arts and culture in an area stereotyped as a cultural backwater, some say a new city leadership would marshal energy for cultural facilities and activities in the Valley.

``It's a huge area we're talking about,'' said Roslyn Wolin, board president of the San Fernando Valley Arts Council.

``With a population and a tax base that large, (the Valley) should be recognized apart from L.A. artists. Our tax money is not coming back to us.''

Valley's suburban origins

While many arts advocates readily concede that the Valley has less than its share of cultural facilities, some are more reluctant to assign blame.

Alfred Foung of Granada Hills, a recent appointee to the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Commission, pointed out that the Valley originally developed as a bedroom community, not a metropolitan area with its own cultural institutions.

``The Valley was a farm town. We have a lot of catching up to do.''

Foung is one of two Valley residents on the seven-member Cultural Affairs Commission, which oversees the city's Cultural Affairs Department. The Valley, with 37 percent of the city's population, received about $2.3 million this year from the Cultural Affairs Department - less than 20 percent of the department's $12.1 million budget.

Wolin said the Cultural Affairs Department shortchanges the Valley in another way: By doling out money for ``politically correct'' programs that highlight specific cultures, the department ignores the melting-pot sensibilities of many in the Valley.

Many candidates for city council and mayor of a San Fernando Valley city say they would strive for more public-arts funding. But for most candidates, arts and culture rank far lower than basic services such as police and fire protection and roads.

``For the first 120 days, the new city council would be tied up with reviewing, accepting or changing existing city ordinances, but after that, wow, look out,'' said Wilma Bennett of Reseda, a candidate for Valley city council. ``I think we have a wonderful opportunity to develop a cultural identity in the Valley by focusing on the Valley's diversity and beauty.''

The call for more cultural programs comes as the Valley takes stock of itself as an urban area distinct from the rest of Los Angeles, said Joel Kotkin, a longtime Valley resident who teaches a class on local history and culture at Pepperdine University.

``Valley secession is part of a process of the Valley coming to a consciousness of itself - culturally and politically,'' he said.

``Historically, the Valley developed as a colony and as a place to 'dump the slumps,' so to speak, and slumps aren't supposed to have culture. Only now are people here saying, 'Hey, there's gotta be more to the Valley than strip malls and the Galleria.'''

Much of Southern California's cultural development was based on the idea that people in the region would hop on a freeway and drive to downtown Los Angeles or the Westside for serious theater and arts, said Robert Scales, a professor of theater at the University of Southern California.

``The leadership in the community probably doesn't have that much interest in something local, thinking they can be on the freeway and be at the Getty (Museum), the Westside or UCLA, which aren't that far away,'' Scales said.

Of the five performing-arts theaters with 500 seats or more in Los Angeles, none is in the Valley.

And while smaller theaters have blossomed in cities such as Costa Mesa, Pasadena and Thousand Oaks, the Valley never developed an identity as a hub of performing arts, he said.

Even with political will and money, the Valley probably will never have cultural institutions rivaling those of Los Angeles or other major cities, some arts advocates concede. The nearly built-out Valley doesn't have room for large cultural institutions, said Foung, whose San Fernando Valley Chinese Cultural Association is searching for a five-acre site for a cultural center.

New city could nurture

But Foung and others say a new city could nurture theater and cultural activities and provide a boost for plans to build a large performing-arts center at California State University, Northridge.

According to the Local Agency Formation Commission, the state agency that crafted the secession plan, a new Valley city could maintain the current level of funding for cultural arts.

State Assemblyman Keith Richman, R-Granada Hills, a candidate for mayor of the Valley city, said he would push for additional money for smaller cultural venues in the Valley, as well as the creation of a large performing-arts center to draw big-name acts.

``There is no question we are going to need to pay attention to the basic needs of the new city. But the point is the status quo is not satisfactory - including the status quo of culture in the Valley,'' Richman said. ``We need to expand concerts in the park in Woodland Hills and the North Hollywood theater district to the rest of the Valley.''

Richman said he would also work with CSUN on its proposal to build a 1,600-seat performing-arts center, which is part of a $250 million bond to fund cultural improvements countywide.

The bond would provide $15 million of the estimated $75 million of the cost of building the 163,000-square-foot venue, the first major concert hall in the Valley. University officials are exploring ways to generate the remaining $60 million.

``The audience is here and I think the Valley could support it,'' said William Toutant, dean of CSUN's College of Arts, Media and Communication. ``I think the Valley deserves a performing-arts center, whether we're part of L.A. or not.''

Despite the potential for continued arts funding, some fear that the grass-roots cultural organizations that have struggled for years would vanish in a new city preoccupied with providing basic services.

Elaine Weissman, executive director of the California Traditional Music Society and Folk Music Center in Encino, fears that her organization would lose its funding in a new Valley city, and would have to close.

``I have a personal conflict when it comes to secession,'' said Weissman, whose group hosts the annual Summer Solstice Folk Music, Dance and Storytelling Festival in Calabasas.

``I believe the Valley should secede because we've been treated poorly. But I also believe every organization like mine will get axed because all of the money will have to go for basic services.''

Los Angeles spends about $438,000 annually on five Valley cultural centers - the folk music center, the Lankershim Arts Center in North Hollywood, the McGroarty Cultural Arts Center in Sunland-Tujunga, the Canoga Park Youth Arts Center and the Madrid Theater in Canoga Park.

The city has also donated land and contributed $15 million for a new children's museum at Hansen Dam, said City Council President Alex Padilla, who pushed for the museum to be built.

``The Children's Museum will be one more of the Valley's hidden jewels,'' Padilla said. ``Someday, I'd like to see the Valley have something for everyone - libraries, parks, museums, after-school programs. You can never have too many cultural opportunities.''

But Kotkin, the Pepperdine instructor, said he's skeptical of city promises to enhance Valley culture, saying the city generally gives cultural resources to those who give them the most money.

Kotkin also said the Valley can find its own identity in a decentralized, middle-class culture.

``We have a large creative community and ethnic diversity. Now we just have to work on putting our cultural institutions in the right areas and doing a better job of supporting them.''

CAPTION(S):

3 boxes, map

Box:

(1) VALLEY SECESSION: WHAT'S THE TRUTH?

(2) LOS ANGELES

(3) SAN FERNANDO

Map:

CULTURE IN AND AROUND L.A.