LOS ANGELES-The Music Center of Los Angeles County has extended its deadline for applications in the Visual Arts categories for the 19th Annual Music Center Spotlight Awards.

Visual Arts applications must be received online or postmarked by no later than Friday, December 8, 2006. The program is free and open to all students who attend high school in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties at time of deadline

The Visual Arts categories are photography and two-dimensional design. All Visual Arts participants will be invited to attend master classes and museum tours. Winners receive $6,000; runners-up received $3,000 and will be showcased in a Southern California gallery.

The Music Center Spotlight Awards program was established in 1988 and is one of the nation's most acclaimed performing and visual arts educational programs for teens. The program has launched numerous professional careers-fourteen finalists are Presidential Scholars and many have joined or performed with professional companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, Metropolitan Opera, Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic.

Fredric M. Roberts is founding chairman of the Music Center Spotlight Awards; Dennis Beck is chairman and Walter Grauman creator/executive producer. The program is a project of the Fraternity of Friends, a volunteer membership organization of men who support the Music Center.

Bank of America is the principal sponsor of the Music Center Spotlight Awards. The program is also supported by the Max H. Gluck Foundation, the Dorothy B. Chandler Program Fund, the Walter Lantz Foundation, Eloise C. Goodhew Barnett, the Young Foundation, the James B. Pendleton Foundation, and the Claire and Theodore Morse Foundation. Helen and Peter Bing provide scholarship awards for winners and runners-up in performing arts categories.

For more information about the Music Center Spotlight Awards program, call 213-972-3300 or visit musiccenter.org.