"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still."

--Dorothea Lange

ArtsOC & Pacific Chorale Win National Endowment for the Arts Grants

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $82 million to fund local arts projects and partnerships in the NEA's second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2016. Included in this announcement is an Art Works award of $20,000 to Arts Orange County to support its 6th Annual Dia del Nino/Day of the Child festival in Santa Ana's Birch Park, April 30, 2017.
The annual festival celebrates the artistic and cultural heritage of Orange County's Latino community, and consists of interactive arts workshops and performances by numerous selected regional artists. Pre-event workshops will culminate in the exhibition and presentation of participants' work during the main festival. Artists presented in the 2016 festival included Grammy Award winning musical artists Mariachi Divas and Trio Ellas.

Also receiving support in this round of grants is
Pacific Chorale - $15,000 - To support a music education program with community outreach. The Pacific Chorale Academy will provide a free vocal educational program with intense choral instruction, based on the primarily orchestral El Sistema program, to elementary school students. Piloted in 2014, the Academy provides vocal music education to fourth through sixth graders at Rea and Pomona Elementary Schools, both Title I schools in Costa Mesa, California. It will be expanded to an additional school, Mariners Elementary, in Newport Beach, California.

Developer Plans to Revive Seal Beach's Bay Theatre with Film & Arts

Paul Dunlap, an Orange County developer, is buying and planning to revive the iconic 1947 building which has been closed since 2012. Dunlap is known as an arts lover and preservationist who was part of the effort to save the historic Fox Theatre in Fullerton and who redeveloped the California Hotel there into the Villa del Sol shopping and dining center. Read more in this Orange County Register article.

31st ANNUAL IMAGINATION CELEBRATION CONTINUES THROUGH MAY 29TH

Over 50 free & affordable arts events for the entire family are featured.

Listings may be found here.

RESOURCES FOR ARTISTS & ARTS ORGANIZATIONS - ArtsOC.org

ARTS & CULTURAL EVENTS + CALLS FOR ARTISTS + AUDITIONS + JOBS + CLASSES + VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES - SparkOC.com

Arts Orange County is supported in part through funds from

Zoot Velasco Leaving The Muckenthaler to Lead Kern County Museum Complex

The flamboyant and energetic leader of Fullerton's Muckenthaler Cultural Center for the past nine years, Zoot Velasco, has announced that he is departing for Bakersfield to become CEO of the Kern County Museum Complex. Zoot is credited by many for having transformed the Muckenthaler into an active hive of creative programming and guiding projects that went beyond the footprint of the historic home and gardens to serve other communities in north Orange County. In Bakersfield, he will lead a larger organization: a museum of 51 historic buildings on more than 16 acres. He will depart the Muckenthaler center at the end of June.

"Hamilton" Creator & Star Captured on Video Celebrating OC's Modjeska Playhouse

Last month, Modjeska Playhouse co-artistic director Joshua Stecker was in New York City and caught the musical everyone is talking about, 'Hamilton.' (It was his fourth time seeing it.) That day was also the day 'Hamilton' writer/actor Lin-Manuel Miranda won the Pulitzer Prize for the musical. After that night's performance, Joshua got an opportunity to meet Miranda and asked the star to record a quick video wishing the theatre a happy first anniversary in its permanent location on Bake Parkway in Lake Forest.

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For more information, contact Karen Ahola.

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

It is a powerhouse in advancing Orange County's arts ecology, a trailblazer in advocating workforce development through arts education, a leader in building future audiences and a trendsetter in the world of nonprofit arts councils.

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