Increased Allegheny County sales tax revenues will translate into new equipment for the Pittsburgh Opera and a new parking lot at the Mattress Factory museum, among other artworld bricks-and-mortar projects the county Regional Asset District board funded this week.

From an overall $7.8 million granted to arts and cultural organizations, the opera will use $70,000 to buy new equipment for displaying supertitles -- subtitles of translated librettos projected above the stage -- at the Benedum Center. The Pittsburgh Opera has used the technology since the 1980s, but the new system will be brighter and easier to see through glowing stage lights, opera director Mark Weinstein said.

The RAD board increased its 2007 funding to arts and culture organizations by more than $1 million from this year, partially due to county sales tax revenues exceeding projections the first 11 months of 2006. Half the proceeds from the 1 percent tax go to local governments and half to local cultural assets, such as libraries, museums, stadiums and theaters.

"I cannot tell you what a difference RAD makes in the life of artists and those enjoying art in Pittsburgh," said Weinstein, who is also chairman of the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. "It's a wonderful, sustaining, dependable source of revenue critical to the survival of the arts. I don't know what we'd do without RAD."

RAD awarded $55,000 in a challenge grant to the North Side's Mattress Factory to replace its gravel parking lot, and other new grants, including:

$150,000 to the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust to replace Benedum Center sidewalks.

$150,000 to the Heinz History Center for various building upgrades.

$75,000 to Pittsburgh Filmmakers for roof repairs at the Center for the Arts and theater sound/projection upgrades.

$25,000 to the Afro-American Music Institute for roof repairs.

$25,000 to WYEP-FM for promoting cultural assets, especially among young adults.