South Jersey boasts a burgeoning arts community. Symphony orchestras, theater companies and art centers dot the cultural landscape.

What's missing? A strong corporate base to provide the funding groups like the Haddonfield Symphony, the Ritz Theatre and Wheaton Village need to grow and thrive.

"It's a battle," says Anne Knoll, the Ritz's development director. "We're all fighting for the few corporate dollars available here."

The statistics offer stark evidence. The draft of a finance study of New Jersey arts groups sponsored by the South Jersey Cultural Alliance shows that 94 percent of the $12 million in corporate arts funding in 1998 went to North Jersey cultural institutions.

The problem of arts funding will be the focus of Friday' s South Jersey Summit on Arts Funding, sponsored by the Courier-Post. It will be held at the Ritz Theatre in Oaklyn.

While the New Jersey Performing Arts Center garnered $2. 69 million and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra snared $1. 1 million from corporations, 61 South Jersey groups combined received only $769,637 in corporate grants.

"The problem is real," says Dorothy Rivers, executive director of the Haddonfield Symphony. While arts groups in the North routinely receive about 25 percent of their funding from corporations, the Haddonfield Symphony can count on only half that much.

Arts administrators like Rivers salute Campbell Soup Co., Subaru of America, Lockheed Martin Technology Services, Commerce Bank, PNC Bank and other local businesses for their generous support.

In the same breath, they complain about the dearth of corporations in the region. While giving $750,000 to the Philadelphia Orchestra and $500,000 to Freedom Theater in Philadelphia, the Delaware River Port Authority has provided much less to South Jersey cultural institutions. According to spokesman Joe Diemer, the DRPA has given support to the Stedman Gallery at Rutgers-Camden, the South Jersey Performing Arts Center and to other arts groups through Cooper's Ferry Development Association.

When South Jersey arts groups turn to statewide corporations based in the North for help, they usually receive the same response. "Don't waste your stamp!" has greeted more than one South Jersey development officer seeking help from corporate foundations based in North Jersey.

"We focus primarily on communities where our employees live," explains Michael Bzdak, contributions officer of Johnson & Johnson, based in New Brunswick. Johnson & Johnson funds the George Street Playhouse and American Repertory Ballet in Middlesex County, but not the Haddonfield Symphony.

Bzdak says his company occasionally provides support for individual arts groups in South Jersey but prefers to put its corporate dollars in support groups like the Mid Atlantic Art Foundation and the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, which provide some grants for the southern region of New Jersey.

Like most corporations, Public Service Electric & Gas restricts its donations to specific areas of interest: children's issues, community and economic development, and the environment.

"Arts and culture is not an area of giving priority for PSE&G," explains Maria Pinho, general manager of corporate responsibility. Pinho adds PSE&G only supports arts institutions "when their program focus is aligned with one of our three areas of giving priority."

In recent years, PSE&G has supported the educational programs of the Perkins Center for the Arts in Moorestown, the Walt Whitman Cultural Arts Center in Camden and the Camden School of Musical Arts.

Unlike Johnson & Johnson and PSE&G, most large corporations channel their philanthropy through foundations they have created. Prudential, based in Newark, sells insurance policies throughout New Jersey. The Prudential Foundation, however, focuses its grants in Essex County.

The foundation has showered $14.7 million on the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark in recent years. To celebrate Prudential's 125th anniversary last year, the foundation gave $7.5 million to arts and cultural organizations. All were based in Newark.

"We have supported the Appel Farm (in Elmer, Salem County) and Wheaton Village (in Millville, Cumberland County)," explains Mary Puryear, program officer of the Prudential Foundation. "They do fabulous work. We wish we could do more (in South Jersey), but they are far removed ( from Newark) and it's hard to set up a relationship."

Explanations like that concern Barry Taylor, president of Wheaton Village. Taylor says his surveys show 40 percent of the visitors to Wheaton's American Museum of Glass come from Philadelphia and North Jersey. Wheaton is unable to leverage that statistic into increased corporate donations from those areas.

Corporate grants matter a lot, says Knoll.

After Commerce Bank awarded the Ritz Theatre $10,000 to renovate its gallery space, other local corporations took notice. That grant, Knoll says, should attract more support for the under-funded theater company.

PNC Bank has taken a leadership role in funding the arts since it expanded into South Jersey in the mid-1990s. PNC annually grants $1 million, one-third of which finds its way to South Jersey. PNC's first move was to support the Appel Farm Arts and Music Festival.

"That put our name out there," explains Kate Moore, PNC' s public affairs manager. "We've always believed helping the arts makes good business sense."

Subaru of America Foundation and Campbell Soup Foundation have provided major support for South Jersey arts groups for many years. Both foundations focus on educational issues. Campbell emphasizes Camden as well.

"We get requests from everywhere, but our focus has to be on Camden City," explains Lisa Rouh, program director of Campbell Soup Foundation. "It falls to companies like ours to step up and help."

Community service manager Sandra Capell says Subaru has a commitment to support arts groups in a variety of ways. Support varies from an educational grant to the Haddonfield Symphony to buying tickets for staff members to attend Appel Farm's festival.

"We do not make donations," explains Capell. "We are making an investment in arts groups and the people who live here. It's our responsibility as a good corporate citizen."