News from Arts Orange County

Arts Orange County is the leader in building appreciation of, participation in and support for the arts and arts education throughout Orange County.

5 OC Arts Organizations Awarded Grants from the NEA

The National Endowment for the Arts has announced that five Orange County arts organizations were approved for funding in the latest round of grants from the Federal agency. They include:

Laguna Beach Live!

Laguna Beach, CA
$11,500
To support the Laguna Beach Music Festival of chamber music concerts and educational activities. With a focus on the music of Argentina, Pablo Ziegler will be guest artistic director for the festival and performances will include Ziegler's Trio for Nuevo Tango; violinist Karen Gomyo and pianist Alessio Bax; string quintet Sybarite5; and emerging artists accompanied by a variety of outreach concerts, workshops, and educational programs.

Orange County Museum of Art
Newport Beach, CA
$60,000
To support the retrospective exhibition Siah Armajani: Citizen Artist and accompanying catalogue. The exhibition will examine different aspects of Armajani's (b. 1939) career including his early conceptual works, studio-based sculpture, public art projects (bridges, reading rooms, gardens), and large-scale indoor and outdoor installations.

Pacific Chorale

Santa Ana, CA
$43,000
To support the commissioning, performance, and recording of a new Jake Heggie choral work, Acts of Creation. Featuring the 24-voice John Alexander Singers, the 140-voice Pacific Chorale, and the eight instrumentalists, the world premiere will take place in the spring of 2014 at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts and the resulting recording will be released worldwide by the record label Delos through Naxos of America, Inc.

South Coast Repertory

Costa Mesa, CA
$50,000
To support the 16th annual Pacific Playwrights Festival. The festival will feature two world premiere productions and staged readings of five previously unproduced plays, bringing leading playwrights and emerging talents from around the country together where they will share the readings and productions of new work with theater professionals from across the nation.

The Wooden Floor (formerly Saint Joseph Ballet Company)

Santa Ana, CA
$10,000
To support Transforming Lives Through Dance. Guest choreographers will create work for and with low-income youth participants, culminating in four public performances.

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There is a growing divide between the traditional programs offered by many arts organizations and the expectations of audiences, communities and artists, contributing to shrinking attendance for a majority of arts organizations throughout all disciplines. In response, The James Irvine Foundation is publishing findings from an initiative designed to help arts organizations explore ways of adapting to this changing cultural landscape.

Local business and community leaders gathered near the Great Park Balloon as the a 28-foot-long, 1,200 lb. steel beam was hoisted into place during a special "topping out" ceremony today commemorating the placement of the final beam in the steel frame of the Great Park's new 4,762-square-foot Visitors Center Pavilion. The event serves as an important milestone in the construction of the Great Park's new $22.8 million, 30-acre expansion project that launched in June.

Named the South Lawn Sports + Fitness Complex, the new 30-acre section of the Great Park will include four tournament-quality soccer fields, four basketball courts, an innovative, mile-long fitness trail developed in partnership with Kaiser Permanente, a reflecting pond and viewing pier near the Great Park entrance on Marine Way, and a Community Garden, among other amenities. Construction of the South Lawn Sports + Fitness Complex and the Visitors Center Pavilion is on schedule for completion in the summer of 2013.

Arts Orange County, 3730 South Susan Street, Suite 100, Santa Ana, CA 92704