Beloved Museum Event Returns This Fall
Performance art by Elizabeth Turk will be the centerpiece of the Laguna Art Museum’s sixth annual Art & Nature exhibit Nov. 1-4. The event will also feature a keynote lecture by Jane Munro of the Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge, a film screening, a panel discussion, and a free family festival exploring art and the natural world.
Turk’s “Shoreline Project” will be an outdoor, site-specific performance staged on Main Beach during sunset. The project will bring together 1,000 volunteer performers to execute the commissioned work, using LED-illuminated umbrellas designed as an evolution of the artist’s “Seashell X-ray Mandala” series.
Elizabeth Turkis a California artist who was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship and the Annalee & Barnett Newman Foundation award in 2010. Born in Pasadena and raised in Orange County, Turk received her Master of Arts from Maryland Institute College of Art and her bachelor’s degree from Scripps College. She has had a distinguished career internationally and bi-coastal
Jane Munro will give the keynote lecture, “Charles Darwin: Art, Nature and Beauty,”on Friday, Nov. 2. Munro is the keeper of paintings, drawings and prints and acting assistant director of collections at the Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge. Her research interests and publications have focused on British and French art from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, much of it interdisciplinary in nature.
The Art & Nature exhibit is intended to providea festival of art and ideas for the community, inspire artists to develop connections between art and science, raise awareness of environmental issues and celebrate Laguna Beach as a center for appreciation of art and nature.
“The theme of Art & Nature speaks particularly to the identity of Laguna Beach, which for over a hundred years has been a center for art, the appreciation of nature, and environmental awareness,” said museum executive director Malcolm Warner. “In 1929, when the Laguna Beach Art Association built an art gallery to show and sell their work, they chose a commanding location on the coastline close to the natural wonders they loved to paint. The present museum occupies the same site. There could be no more appropriate venue in which to explore the art-nature connection.”
Monster Madness Resurrected at Festival Grounds
The Pageant of the Masters brings a monster of a good time back to Laguna Beach with the Pageant of the Monsters, presented only once every five years, offering a frightfully fun time with ghoulish tricks, treats, and spook-tacular art surprises from 6-9 p.m. Friday-Sunday, Oct. 26- 28, and Wednesday, Oct. 31.
The pageant’s backstage will transform into a haunted house with an artistic twist. The Festival of Arts grounds will be filled art activities, live music and wandering zombies.
This event is not recommended for children under 5 years of age. Tickets are $10-$20 and will go on sale Sept. 1 at www.foapom.com.
Nutcracker Tickets Available Now
Tickets are now on sale for American Ballet Theatre’s “The Nutcracker,” to be performed at Segerstrom Center for the Arts Dec. 14-23.
Choreography is by ABT Artist in Residence Alexei Ratmansky. Artistic director, Kevin McKenzie, has announced principal casting, including Hee Seo as Clara the Princess and Cory Stearns as the Nutcracker Prince on opening night, Dec. 14.
Additional cast includes Stella Abrera, Misty Copeland, Sarah Lane, Gillian Murphy, Christine Shevchenko, Herman Cornejo, Thomas Forster, Blaine Hoven and James Whiteside.
Pacific Symphony will accompany all performances. Single tickets start at $29 and are now available online at www.SCFTA.org; at the box office, 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa; or by calling 714-556-2787.
OCAPICA Hosts Third Annual Culinary Event
Tastemakers of Orange County comes to the Argyros Plaza at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, hosted by the OC Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA), on Wednesday, Sept. 5, from 7-9 p.m.
More than two dozen chefs will present Asian and Pacific Island-inspired cuisines and beverages for tasting, including Driftwood Kitchen’s executive chef/partner Rainer Schwarz.
The celebration also includes entertainment and live and silent auctions benefitting the OCAPICA to support mental and physical health, workforce, youth in education, and civic engagement opportunities for low-income families throughout Orange County
More information and tickets ($85-$125) can be found at www.tastemakersofoc.com or by calling 714-636-9095.
Surf & Sand to Host Harvest Dinner
As Napa’s wine harvest kicks off, the Surf & Sand Resort, in collaboration with Napa Valley vintner Nickel & Nickel, presents Seaside with Sommeliers at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 13, at 1555 South Coast Highway.
Attendees will delight in a four-course dinner paired with wines from Nickel &, Nickel. Highlights will include scallop and lobster mousse, roasted guinea hen beet root and almond gelato. A reception precedes dinner with passed bites. Tickets, $150 per person, can obtained by calling 877-741-5908.
