Each week, Arts Orange County and Culture OC deliver you this look at the stories and events happening in our arts and cultural community.

First Thursdays Art Walk

The monthly gallery walk in Laguna Beach offers visitors an opportunity to take in a wide variety of art styles while enjoying live music and artist meet-and-greets MORE

OC Arts Awards Recognize 26 Years of Creativity and Community

The 26th OC Arts Awards, celebrating outstanding local achievements in the arts, were held Tuesday night at Samueli Theater in Costa Mesa, in the heart of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

Arts Orange County, the county’s nonprofit arts council, produced and hosted the event, which was attended by current and former ArtsOC board members, sponsors, artists and supporters of the county arts scene.

The masters of ceremonies for the evening were Patrick Brien, president and CEO of Arts Orange County, and Anne Hogan, dean of the College of Performing Arts and Musco Center for the Arts at Chapman University.

The 2026 Helena Modjeska Cultural Legacy Awards went to Ann Phong for Visionary Artist, Eli Simon for Visionary Arts Leader and Janet and Walkie Ray for Visionary Arts Patrons. A special Modjeska Cultural Legacy Award went to Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy Brings Gothic Tales and Cocktails Back to a Santa Ana Cemetery

In what’s becoming an annual tradition, Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tales will fill the darkened chapel at Fairhaven Memorial Park & Mortuary in Santa Ana for a few October nights of Gothic vibes and cocktails.

The Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy returns to the Fairhaven cemetery Oct. 8-10 for 90-minute theatrical readings featuring four Poe stories and four paired cocktails. The speakeasy has developed into an international tour that first came to the Orange County cemetery in February 2024, after the concept’s original launch in January 2023.

Shelley Debuts as Pacific Symphony’s Music Director

REVIEW: He welcomes violinist Joshua Bell in a sampler program that mostly works.

Each week, we recommend a variety of events and experiences from the listings at SparkOC.com, our free website for Orange County's arts and cultural community.

Cultural Hub Opening Celebration

Come to Triangle Park on Main Street to honor the 75th birthday of Huntington Beach's beloved Main Branch library as well as the opening of their new downtown Cultural Hub MORE

Grrrl Germs: Punk feminism goes viral, 1991–2026

Irvine's Great Park Gallery presents a multimedia exploration of the music, activism, and cultural impact of the Riot Grrrl movement MORE

Alice in Wonderland

The Frida Cinema's tour through classics of Disney animation presents a restored print of the 1951 classic Lewis Carroll adaptation, with author and Disney scholar Jeff Kurtti providing an introduction that traces Walt's lifelong admiration of Carroll's work MORE

Broadway Showstoppers

Westminster's Rose Center Theater presents a unique mashup combining musical highlights from two recent productions: Fiddler on the Roof and Jekyll & Hyde MORE