On July 19, Arts Orange County presented to the Fullerton City Council a report that documents the community input it gathered for more than a year with regard to future programming at the historic Hunt Library. The 60 year old Mid-Century Modern masterpiece by renowned architect William Pereira is currently under renovations and is expected to open in summer 2023. Funds for the revitalization of the building and grounds were initially secured from the State of California by Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva with an additional State grant procured by Senator Josh Newman. The study process included multilingual public visioning sessions, stakeholder interviews, and a multilingual online survey. The report presents a blueprint for programming that is multidisciplinary, collaborative and participatory, and serves the wide range of constituencies in the community. Read the report here.

These are the kind of advisory services that Arts Orange County provides to local government in the area of cultural planning. Current cultural planning clients include the cities of Irvine and Costa Mesa. Public art project management services are also offered, with current clients including the cities of Newport Beach and Placentia. To inquire about how Arts Orange County may be able to assist your city or organization, contact Richard Stein. rstein@artsoc.org

Costa Mesa Establishes Arts Commission

On July 19, the Costa Mesa City Council approved the establishment of an Arts Commission. It will be comprised of seven members, a minimum of 4 of whom must be Costa Mesa residents, chosen at large by the Council. The City has had an 11-member Cultural Arts Committee in place for many years, and in 2020 modified another commission to be Parks, Arts, Recreation and Community Services Commission.

This week’s decision fulfills one of the recommendations from the City’s Arts and Culture Master Plan approved by Council in March 2021, which was the result of a year-long community input gathering process conducted for Costa Mesa by Arts Orange County. The community felt—and the Council agreed—that the special status of Costa Mesa as “City of the Arts” called for according full and distinct Commission status to the body overseeing its arts planning and cultural programming.

Traditional Fine Arts Organization (TFAO) is interested in co-sponsorship grants to institutions in Orange County and nationwide planning American representational art special/temporary exhibitions with a special interest in intra-county collaborative and touring exhibits.

Exhibitions may be either web-based and/or in-person, featuring pre-WWII artworks based on topics such as ethnic identity, regionalism, impressionism, realism, portraits, landscapes, decorative arts and crafts, murals, art colonies, and non-journalistic photography. 

Read more here.

Americans for the Arts Action Fund has launched its ArtsVote “Make Your Vote Count” pledge campaign with artwork designed by renowned contemporary artist and Americans for the Arts Artists Committee member Shepard Fairey. Customized State Voter Factsheets for every state and U.S. territory provide the latest updates on all the new election rules and deadlines created post-COVID-19. 

Read more here.

We acknowledge with respect our presence on the ancestral lands of the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians - Acjachemen Nation and the Tongva People.