NEA: O.C. Museum Must Pay Its Debt

NEWPORT BEACH —  The National Endowment for the Arts has told the Orange County Museum of Art that it must pay a 3-year-old debt of $47,729 by May 7.

The debt dates back to the failure of the former Newport Harbor Art Museum to raise its share of funds for a $300,000 matching grant. It will be paid “in the next week or so,” O.C. Museum director Naomi Vine said Friday.

The O.C. Museum, which has an operating budget of $2.3 million, was formed when the Newport Harbor and Laguna Art Museums merged last year. The debt delinquency stemmed in part from Newport Harbor’s well-publicized money woes, said its former president, James V. Selna.

NEA spokeswoman Cherie Simon said museum officials have told the NEA that they intend to meet the May 7 deadline and that therefore the NEA doesn’t “anticipate having to take legal action.”

Such delinquencies occur “infrequently,” Simon said, but “as long as [the museum] pays back the money or is working with us to repay the money, this would not affect [its] ability to apply for and get future NEA grants.”