In the Arts
Colburn to surfing foundation
Bolton Colburn, the 56-year-old former head of the Laguna Art Museum, is riding a different kind of cultural wave. The Surfing Heritage Foundation in San Clemente has named the ex-U.S. Amateur Surfing champ as its new executive director.
“The job that the board has sketched out for me is my dream job,” Colburn said in a prepared statement.
In a news release issued on Monday, foundation officials announced that Colburn would work with the nonprofit’s trustees and staffers to develop and implement its programs and “raise the profile of the Surfing Heritage Foundation in the museum world.”
The museum, at 110 Calle Iglesia in San Clemente, opened eight years ago.
It exists “to preserve, present and promote surfing’s heritage for the appreciation and education of current and future generations,” the release said.
It noted that during his time at the Laguna Art Museum, Colburn, a U.S. Amateur Surfing champion in the 1970s, had put on an exhibition there in 2002 examining the surfing culture’s art history. For more information about the Surfing Heritage Foundation, go to https://www.SurfingHeritageFoundation.org.
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Museum happenings
The Laguna Art Museum will host an auction appraisal event next week and hold its annual fundraising auction on Feb. 4, museum officials said in a news release.
On Tuesday, appraisers with the Bonhams auction house will be at the museum, at 307 Cliff Drive in Laguna Beach, to give people a verbal auction value appraisal for art pieces they own. The appraisals will cost $10 per item, and will go from 10 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 3 p.m.
According to the release, Bonhams representatives will only appraise art pieces that fall under these categories: oil and watercolor paintings, drawings and sculpture; fine prints and photography; European and American Furniture; decorative art objects, such as bronze, ivory, wood and silver items, as well as ceramics, glassware, tapestries and clocks; jewelry and watches made of precious gems or metals, and diamonds, platinum or gold; and Asian works of art.
Last year’s appearance at the museum by appraisers with Bonhams revealed some valuable works, including a painting by William Joseph McCloskey (appraised at $150,000 to $200,000) and a work by Jasper Johns (appraised at $5,000 to $7,000), the release said.
And, from 6 to 9 p.m. on Feb. 4, the museum will stage “Art Auction 2012: California Art Lounge,” the museum’s annual benefit auction. Works from more than 100 California artists will go on the auction block. The evening will also features samplings of food from Laguna- and Newport Beach-area restaurants.
Auctioneer Jim Nye along with the museum’s new president, Malcolm Warner, and Grace Kook-Anderson, its curator of exhibitions, will preside over the live auction. The museum’s website is at lagunartmuseum.org.
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Laguna Beach Live! receives grant
The Laguna Beach Community Foundation has granted Laguna Beach Live! $5,000 to help with the upcoming 10th annual Laguna Beach Music Festival.
The Feb. 6 to Feb. 12 festival will feature acclaimed violinist Joshua Bell serving as guest artistic director, and the grant will allow the festival to add one concert this year at the Laguna Playhouse, as well as free activities citywide, according to a festival news release.
The grant will also cover the cost of hiring Sandy Robertson as the festival’s director.
“It’s not just the quantity of events, it’s also the profile of artists involved in the festival this year that increases the need for strong management and organizational support: managing a greater demand for tickets, recruiting additional volunteers, steering a larger ship,” Laguna Beach Live! President Lucinda Prewitt said in a prepared statement.
For ticket information, go to https://www.LagunaBeachMusicFestival.com or phone the Philharmonic Society of Orange County at (949) 553-2422.
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Bluebelt Photo Contest winners
The Laguna Bluebelt Coalition has named Patsee Ober, Eddie Yerkish and Billy Fried as first-place winners of its Bluebelt Photo Contest, which was held to mark Laguna’s new Marine Protected Areas and Underwater Parks Day.
Ober’s photograph of a sea anemone took the top prize in the Under the Water category; Yerkish’s panoramic shot of Heisler Park and Main Beach won first place for the Open category, and Fried’s photo was judged the best in the On the Water category.
According to the coalition’s website, it groups organizations and people who share a common goal: protecting and restoring marine life, conserving biological diversity and keeping healthy habits that can be sustained. For a full list of contest winners and to see various winning shots, go to lagunabluebelt.org.
—Imran Vittachi