Arts Center Gets $1.5-Million Grant

COSTA MESA — The Harry and Grace Steele Foundation has awarded $1.5 million to the Orange County Performing Arts Center, the largest operating grant ever received by the center, it was announced Wednesday. The grant, to be paid over three years in annual installments of $500,000, will help underwrite the center’s dance series and other, unidentified projects.

The new grant brings the Newport Beach-based Steele Foundation’s support of the center during the past 12 years to $6 million, starting with a 1981 gift of $1 million to help launch the center’s building fund campaign.

The center’s 1993 dance series includes the West Coast premiere of New York City Ballet’s production of “The Sleeping Beauty,” American Ballet Theatre’s new production of “Nutcracker,” the Joffrey Ballet’s “Billboards,” set to music by rock star Prince, and an engagement featuring Mikhail Baryshnikov and his White Oak Dance Project.