Peter Walker: Minimalist Landscape at OCMA

The 24-hour grand opening of the brand new location for the Orange County Museum of Art will feature this appreciation of the design and landscape work of veteran modernist Peter Walker, whose ideas have shaped many artistic spaces in Orange County MORE

♦ Visual Arts ♦

The New O.C. Museum of Art Opens in the Heart of Costa Mesa

It was once a lima bean field.

Then it was a grassy field, then a dirt lot.

Now, the new, $94.5 million Orange County Museum of Art has been completed (minus a few tiny details), sitting just east of the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, itself finished in 2006.

The 53,000 square-foot OCMA – designed by Culver City-based firm Morphosis Architects, founded by Pritzker Prize winner Thom Mayne – completes the arts and culture puzzle that is the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa. For decades, the late businessman and philanthropist Henry Segerstrom (one of the men behind South Coast Plaza) had envisioned a visual art museum as part of the Segerstrom Center campus, and finally, in October 2022, his dream is coming true.

♦ Food ♦

Panoringan: The Populaire Crowd – OCMA Chefs Pangilinan and Weber on Their South Coast Expansion

I was finishing a glass of wine at Leatherby’s Cafe Rouge across from Segerstrom Hall in the fall of 2016 when chef Ross Pangilinan stepped out of the kitchen to say hello. It was almost showtime, and the dining room was deserted except for the staff and myself. After a few minutes chatting about work, he wished me a good evening and I settled my check.

We crossed paths while leaving, and as I continued in the opposite direction the last thing Pangilinan said to me as I waved goodbye was, “What do you think of Santa Ana?” It was at that moment when I realized he was hinting at his impending departure from Leatherby’s and South Coast Plaza. He would open Mix Mix Kitchen Bar later that year, then return to South Coast Plaza with his second restaurant, Terrace by Mix Mix, in 2018. ReMix Kitchen Bar opened in Long Beach in 2020.

Fast forward to the present day and I’m drinking iced tea across from him and business partner Nick Weber at Populaire, the first of two restaurants they are collaborating on. Verdant, the second concept, is scheduled to debut across the street within the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) on its opening day, Oct. 8.

Viet Film Fest 2022

Vietnamese artists and stories are the focus in this annual cinematic celebration, which can be enjoyed at select movie theatres or streaming in your home through Oct.15  MORE

22nd Annual Elvis Festival

Garden Grove has a longtime love affair with the King of Rock and Roll, and this annual tribute is filled with musical performances, vintage cars, and other Elvis-inspired events MORE

The Pout Pout Fish

Human actors and puppetteers interact in this colorful, musical live staging of the beloved children's book at Brea's Curtis Theatre  MORE

Night of the Living Dead

The Maverick Theater in Fullerton celebrates Halloween every year with this stage version of the original zombie horror classic MORE