The Celebrity Benefit at the Festival of Arts and Pageant of the Masters, the most star-studded night of the summer art season, will be held in Laguna Beach on Saturday, Aug. 24. This red carpet one-night affair will offer guests an evening of fine art, entertainment and a special Pageant of the Masters performance.
The event begins at 5 p.m. with a private viewing of the Festival of Arts Fine Art Show and red carpet arrivals walked by attending celebrities, including the evening’s Pageant host actor John O’Hurley. Other guest celebrities scheduled to appear are Jonathan Adams (Last Man Standing), Ginger Chan (KTLA 5), Shawn Christian (Days of our Lives), Kate Flannery (The Office), Robert Hays (Airplane!), Gregory Itzin (24), Eva LaRue (All My Children), Jerry Mathers (Leave it to Beaver), Joe Mantegna (Criminal Minds), Lea Thompson (Back to the Future), McKenzie Westmore (Face Off), Arianne Zucker (Days of our Lives) and many others.
The Festival of Arts Celebrity Benefit Night includes a concert by singer/songwriter Melissa Manchester and the Citrus College Blue Note Orchestra. Photo courtesy of Festival of Arts.
Guests will enjoy an intimate concert on the Festival green at 6 p.m., performed by Grammy-winning, Oscar-nominated singer/songwriter Melissa Manchester and the Citrus College Blue Note Orchestra. Manchester has recorded over 20 albums across her four-decade career, releasing her most recent album, The Fellas, in 2017.
After the concert show, award-winning actor, best-selling author and TV host John O’Hurley will draw the winning ticket for a 2019 Acura RDX ($38,295 value). This is the conclusion of a summer-long raffle. Raffle tickets will continue to be sold up until 8 p.m. that night: $5 for one ticket, $20 for five tickets (winning ticket holder need not be present to win).
Culminating the evening, guests will enjoy a performance of the 2019 Pageant of the Masters production of “The Time Machine,” introduced by the celebrity host John O’Hurley. O’Hurley won a Screen Actors Guild Award for his role as “J. Peterman” on Seinfeld. In 2012, he was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in recognition for his accomplishments in the Arts and Philanthropy.
Tickets are on sale now and range from $50–$240. There will be limited and open seating for Melissa Manchester’s performance and assigned seating for the Pageant of the Masters. To purchase tickets, go online to www.PageantTickets.com or call 1-800-487-3378.
For more information, call 949-494-1145 or visit LagunaFestivalofArts.org. The event is located at 650 Laguna Canyon Road. Proceeds support the arts and art education in and about Laguna Beach.
Jan Maarten Voskuil Exhibit Opens this Weekend
An opening reception will be held from noon to 2 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 18, at the Peter Blake Gallery, 435 Ocean Avenue, to kick off an exhibit of works by the Dutch artist Jan Maarten Voskuil.
The abstract, wonkily geometric paintings-cum-sculptures are full of rigor and humor. His works are oriented on the circle and the rectangle, whose forms he alters and distorts using mathematical principles. These calculations guide the shape of his wooden frames, across which he stretches monochromatic canvases, presented singly or combined into multipart works. At once austerely minimal and exuberant, Voskuil’s compositions often appear to be in the process of shape-shifting—peeling off of the wall, stretching, or collapsing in on themselves—as if imbued with minds of their own
Drive, drive, drive to Laguna Beach, where everyone is an *environmentalist* bent on *saving* Mother Gaia from evil, nasty fossil fuels which are raising the sea level and killing polar bears. But keep on driving, driving, driving because Laguna Beach Eco-Hypocrites want your money while they pat themselves on their own backs for preaching the evils of fossil fuel while continuing to burn it at every greater rates! Thanks, suckers.