December 5, 2024

Hilbert Museum Named by LA Times as

One of the Eight Best New Architecture Projects for 2024 

The newly renovated Hilbert Museum in Orange has been recognized by the Los Angeles Times as one of the eight best new architecture projects for 2024. On February 23 of this year, the Hilbert Museum’s spaciously reimagined new home officially opened to the public, capping an ambitious three-year project to expand the facility from 7,500 to 22,000 square feet. The LA Times explained in their December 1 article that the region’s best projects are as clear and practical as they are creative and striking, and that they also lift our spirits, breaking from convention.

Read more here.

Orange County Artist of the Year

Will Continue

2024 Artist of the Year Mckenzie Cahill, a graduate of Capistrano Valley High School.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts has generously joined Chapman University's College of Performing Arts as a major sponsor of the Orange County Artist of the Year program for the 2025 and 2026 seasons. Arts Orange County is providing additional support. More than forty individual donors have also contributed. Junior or senior students who live in or attend school in Orange County are nominated for this program by arts teachers and private instructors because they represent excellence in their respective artistic genre.

To learn more about the program, click here.

Museum of Teaching and Learning to Move

The Museum of Teaching and Learning (MOTAL) has announced that it will soon be relocating to a new home in Fullerton. It will be one of many organizations at First Lutheran Church's new nonprofit hub at the western edge of the city's downtown.

Read more here.

Edmund Velasco Elected as

California for the Arts Treasurer

Edmund Velasco, President of the American Federation of Musicians, Local 7 Orange County, has been elected treasurer of California for the Arts, the statewide arts advocacy organization. He had previously served as a member of the organization’s finance committee. Velasco also serves on the Arts Orange County board of directors.

Read more here.

In Memoriam

South Coast Repertory has announced that co-founder and co-artistic director Martin Benson died peacefully in his sleep on Friday, November 29 at his Huntington Beach home at the age of 87. A pioneering and visionary leader who served SCR with fellow co-founder and co-artistic director David Emmes for 46 years, Benson was also an award-winning director of 119 SCR productions. Together, Emmes and Benson established SCR as a regional theatre powerhouse that helped define the American theatrical canon through its championing of new plays and world-class productions. Benson won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Distinguished Achievement in Directing an unprecedented seven times, including for the world premiere of Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Wit,” which Benson also directed at Seattle Repertory Theatre and Houston’s Alley Theatre.

Read more here.

The University of California, Irvine has announced the passing of Robert Cohen, Claire Trevor Professor of Drama Emeritus and a member of UC Irvine’s founding faculty. A transformative leader in the world of theatre education, direction and scholarship, he passed away peacefully on November 15, 2024 at the age of 86. Joining UC Irvine in 1965, Cohen played an integral role in shaping the university’s identity as a beacon for creativity and innovation. As the founding chair of the Department of Drama, a position he held for 25 years, Cohen developed programs that set national benchmarks, making UC Irvine’s drama program a preeminent training ground for actors, directors and scholars.

Read more here.

ArtsOC Leads Major Planning

and Public Art Initiatives

Arts Orange County has recently worked with the cities of Irvine, Newport Beach and Placentia, as well as Contra Costa County, on a number of public art initiatives for which it was or continues to be under contract. Click on the links below to read more.

Irvine Public Arts Master Plan

Newport Beach Sculpture Exhibition in Civic Center Park Shifting to a Three-Year Rotation

Placentia Gateway Sculpture Installation Completion 

Public Art Policy for Contra Costa County Approved by County Board of Supervisors on December 3 

ArtsOC, your officially designated nonprofit arts council, relies on philanthropic support to help sustain its programs and services, including this informative newsletter.

Your gift of support now will help give ArtsOC a strong start in 2025 and will contribute valuably to our ability to serve our community in the year ahead and to ensure Orange County’s creative ecology thrives. Make a gift here.

Thank you for supporting your local arts council and the arts in Orange County!

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