County set to fund an eclectic mix

FREE concerts get a boost. So does a self-described “risky� stage venture, a Hollywood bus tour and aspiring Native American theater artists.

The Los Angeles County Arts Commission’s appropriation for grants to nonprofit arts organizations for fiscal 2006-07 -- a record amount at more than $4.5 million -- was announced in June. Specifics, released this month, show dramatic increases for many organizations over last year’s awards.

Among the eclectic recipients: “Native Voices at the Autry,� the theater initiative at the Autry National Center, will receive $143,000 over two years to support new work for the stage by Native American writers, up from last year’s $52,900.

Downtown’s Colburn School awarded $18,000 for 2005-06, will receive $92,600 over two years to support more than 100 free concerts; the Skirball Cultural Center’s free “Sunset Concerts� world music series will receive $108,600, also over two years.

Meanwhile, a one-year grant of $26,500 goes to the Hollywood Entertainment Museum for “a bus tour of movie-related cultural sites, lectures and film rights.� And Long Beach-based International City Theatre will receive $50,800 over two years, up from $15,500 last year, to support production of what it called “a relevant but risky new play with special artistic requirements and nontraditional forms of reaching audiences.� The play is likely to revolve around Long Beach’s Cambodian immigrant community, one of the largest in the U.S.

-- Lynne Heffley