South Jersey arts groups won a major victory Tuesday in their long fight for a fair share of funding from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

The region's cultural institutions claimed a $1 million increase in funding at the council's annual meeting in Trenton.

"This is the beginning of a new era," said Barbara Fenhagen, executive director of the South Jersey Performing Arts Center on Camden's Waterfront. "The arts council is is showing a new awareness of the special needs of South Jersey. This is a victory all around - for South Jersey and for the arts council."

Honoring the Legislature's stipulation that artists and arts groups in the southern region must receive 25 percent of its $20 million appropriation, the council boosted funding to South Jersey from $3.97 million to $5 million for fiscal 2002.

"I am tempted to say `hurray,'" said said Assemblyman Joseph Roberts, D-Camden. "We are only getting what we are entitled to."

Camden County arts groups share $767,625 in new funding, a boost of $168,955 over last year.

The Ritz Theatre in Oaklyn received a $15,000 special project grant to underwrite the premiere of a musical revue by Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz next month. Last year, the council denied the Ritz's request for general operating support. In Camden, grants rose by $30,000 at both the Walt Whitman Cultural Arts Center, which received $ 120,527, and the Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts, which received $175,500.

Burlington County grants jumped by $45,000 to $433,008, reflecting a special project grant to the Powhatan Renape Nation/Rankokus Reservation.

Grants to Gloucester County arts groups slipped by $10,000 to $278,978, due to the termination of a special, one-time grant to the Glassboro Center for the Arts last year.

The changes also affected organizations at the other end of the state. Eighteen North Jersey art groups lost $290, 000 - or 3.7 percent of their grants - that was awarded last year for programming in South Jersey. In fiscal 2000 and 2001, the council awarded $496,824 to North Jersey groups for activities in this region. The council previously counted such grants as part of South Jersey's 25 percent share. But the council terminated that program because it was "a lightning rod for dispute," said council vice chairman Kenneth J. Endick of Hampton, Hunterdon County.

The council awarded $4.4 million outright to South Jersey groups. It also set aside $606,576 for regional initiatives to be developed in partnership with 14 South Jersey arts organizations. For example, it awarded $40,000 to the Arts and Business Partnership of Southern New Jersey, which plans to strengthen efforts to link business volunteers with the region's arts groups. And the Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts will use a $45,000 grant to increase awareness of diversity and the quality of the arts in South Jersey.

Both Fenhagen and Roberts credited the Courier-Post for bringing to light the disparity in Arts Council funding between North and South Jersey. In a three-part series published in April, the Courier-Post showed the council had shortchanged South Jersey $2.1 million in funding over a four-year period.

As a result of the series, Secretary of State DeForest B. Soaries Jr. began a review of the arts council's funding policies. In May, the arts council held a South Jersey constituency meeting in Vineland, followed in early June by an arts funding summit sponsored by the Courier-Post at the Ritz Theatre.

"The events of the last half of our year," noted council chairman Leonard M. Fisher of West Orange, "have challenged us all to examine how we do business, how we carry out policy, how we come to understand the needs of the field, how we communicate with each other and how we ultimately make hard decisions."

Fisher and the council's staff listened to the concerns of South Jersey arts leaders and responded.

"We've been heard - not just listened to, but heard," said Bruce A. Curless, producing artistic director of the Ritz Theatre. "The council is re-evaluating the needs of South Jersey and finding ways to help."

The council's fiscal 2002 grants to South Jersey recipients include:

•$2,585,371 for multiyear operating, programming and arts education.

•$675,299 for local arts grants to be distributed by county arts agencies.

•$136,565 for seven special projects.

•$743,689 for 14 Southern New Jersey arts initiatives.

•$262,500 for arts council program initiatives in South Jersey.

Informed of the dramatic increase in arts council funding to South Jersey, Sen. John Matheussen, R-Gloucester, chairman of the Senate Legislative Oversight Committee said, "I'm pleased, obviously."

As the fight for arts funding unfolded, Matheussen's committee held hearings on the issue. Matheussen's committee determined the arts council had not obeyed a law that required the council to give 25 percent of its money to South Jersey. In the current budget, the Legislature reworded the stipulation to prevent the council from charging the South for statewide programs and for programming provided by North Jersey cultural institutions.

"As long as I am a legislator," added Matheussen, "you can be sure that we will keep the language in the budget" that requires the council to give 25 percent of its money to arts groups in the south.

Although his organization helped lead the fight against giving a special share of money to South Jersey, Jeffrey Norman, a spokesman for the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, said groups in the southern region had reason to be proud.

"Our hats are off to anybody who earned the imprimatur of the state arts council today," said Norman. "Any arts group that earns the respect of the arts council, and the funds that go with it, deserves all of our respect."

But the fight is not over. Norman said his organization will work with arts leaders throughout the state as part of a "united front" to win more money for all arts organizations.