A bright spot during the pandemic has been the continued progress on the construction of Orange County Museum of Art's new facility on the campus of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa. Recently, it celebrated the "topping out" of the building. Read more here.

During recent meetings of a statewide task force of performing arts leaders and ArtsOC's roundtable gatherings of the leaders of Orange County's major performing arts venues, producers and presenters, there has been a growing frustration with inconsistent interpretations and enforcement of safe reopening protocols by government health officials. Most such facilities remain completely closed to activities, some have been able to host instructional activities, some have been able to present outdoor performances while others have been prevented from doing so.

"Our statewide advocacy organization, Californians for the Arts, recently formed a task force comprised of sector leaders from around the state," said ArtsOC President & CEO Rick Stein. "To join me in representing Orange County, I asked Segerstrom Center for the Arts President Casey Reitz and Pacific Symphony Senior Vice President of Artistic Planning and Production Eileen Jeanette. The task force is reaching out directly to the Governor's office on this matter. The arts community has been extremely diligent in planning and implementing operational protocols to protect the health and safety of their employees, artists, students and audiences. While none of them can produce and present or accommodate attendance at pre-pandemic levels, most have devised safe plans for live, in-person programming for small, socially-distanced audiences. Only a few have been allowed to implement these plans. Because most do not expect to resume full operations any earlier than mid-2021, they are seeking all opportunities to offer programming on a more limited, safe basis that can generate some desperately needed revenue to help them pay unemployed artists and staff and keep engaging with their patrons. Museums and other cultural centers have only recently been able to re-open within limited attendance guidelines, a much-needed respite for OC's arts-hungry residents. Government health officials were saying that museums were bigger safety risks than shopping malls, which had already been permitted to re-open. This clearly demonstrates a lack of understanding of how arts venues operate, and underscores their unwillingness to consider in a timely fashion the plans presented to them by our venue leaders. We urge them to move forward expeditiously in reviewing and approving arts venue safe re-opening plans."