Wylie Aitken, the Orange County attorney and arts patron, chaired his last meeting of the California Arts Council (CAC) this week in Sacramento.  In attendance, as he was for Aitken's first meeting, was ArtsOC's executive director Rick Stein, who had nominated him to the CAC five years ago.  Then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him, he was re-appointed by Governor Jerry Brown, and he was elected to two terms as Chair of the Council.  Wylie's leadership on the Council helped lead to the first increases in state arts funding in more than a decade.   

Although he is now termed out on CAC, Aitken will not be retreating from his arts activism:  next week, the Chance Theater in Anaheim will dedicate the Bette Aitken Theatre Arts Center, named for his wife through a generous personal gift, and he is working on launching the soon-to-be-completed Musco Center for the Arts at Chapman University.  He is succeeded as Chair of the CAC by Donn Harris, executive director of the Oakland School for the Arts.  (Above: Aitken, left, Stein, right, at Sacramento reception honoring outgoing CAC members.)