ARTS CENTER TO LAUNCH FUND DRIVE

The Orange County Performing Arts Center will launch a major new fund-raising campaign to erase its annual deficit-- projected at $4 million to $5 million--in Costa Mesa next month, Center officials said this week.

The campaign, aimed at raising millions annually for performances and daily operations, is designed to meet at least a 10-year gap in funding until the Center’s $65.7-million endowment becomes effective. The endowment consists mostly of deferred pledges that won’t come due until the donors have died.

“This is the most important new fund-raising drive we are going to launch,” Thomas R. Kendrick, the Center’s newly elected president and chief operating officer, said Thursday of the campaign to be launched at a May 21 dinner in the Beverly Heritage Hotel.

“The success or failure of this fund will determine the quality of programming this Arts Center will have in the future,” he said.

Kendrick said the campaign staff seeks to raise $1.5 million for the “Performance Fund” to offset a projected 1987 budget deficit of $4.1 million. They hope to be able to raise the remaining $2.6 million through separate contributions from individuals and companies that already have been identified as potential donors, as well as various community support groups, he said.

The timing of the fund-raising campaign is not linked to Monday night’s reshuffling of key leadership posts at the Center, Kendrick said. The changes included the election of Henry T. Segerstrom as the Center’s new chairman and chief executive officer, and Kendrick’s elevation from executive director. Segerstrom, however, is “deeply involved” in planning the campaign, Kendrick said.

While the community managed to raise $73.4 million to build the center, including a $4-million surplus that has been put in a repair and maintenance fund, Kendrick said it is often tougher to raise money for operations.

“A community sees a need to have a building,” he said. “It is more difficult to convince a community that once you have the hall, that the quality of a performing arts center is determined by the quality and range of what you present over a long period of time.”