Art & Nature Gala Comes To Laguna Beach In November

LAGUNA BEACH, CA—Laguna Art Museum's annual Art & Nature Gala will be held outdoors at the Sherman Library and Gardens in Corona del Mar on Saturday, November 6, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., with a VIP reception starting at 6 p.m.

Set up as a cocktail party, the fundraiser includes free-flowing libations, garden-inspired hors d’oeuvres and the live music of singer-songwriter Jason Feddy, Laguna Beach Arts Alliance’s 2019 Artist of the Year.

“We’re thrilled to welcome guests in person to this year’s Art & Nature Gala at the beautiful Sherman Library and Gardens,” said Julie
Perlin Lee, executive director of Laguna Art Museum. “The gala will bring the arts community together again and celebrate the ninth annual
Art & Nature festival, as well as support the museum’s education programs and exhibitions of California art that are an important
representation of the life and history of the state."

This year's recipients of the Anna Hills Awards are curator emerita Janet Blake, and Louis and Laura Rohl.

Lou Rohl has served on the museum's board of trustees or advisory circle for more than 15 years, working with directors Bolton Colburn and Malcolm Warner. “It has been my honor to serve this remarkable and historic institution in the company of so many outstanding and generous members of the LAM community on every level,” he notes.

Laura Rohl has sat on fundraising and development committees since the couple returned to Laguna Beach in 2003 after years living in the Bay Area. She continues to feed her long-held passion for art history as a member of the collections committee.

“LAM has played an enormous role in our life here in Laguna Beach," she says, "and continues to enrich us with world class exhibitions, outstanding education programs, fine art and lasting friendships.”

Janet Blake (Dominik), Curator Emerita of Historical Art, retired at the end of 2020 from nearly 40 years of service to Laguna Art Museum. Her expertise is on the history of California art from 1900 to 1950, with a focus on American impressionists in California and the American Scene artists of the 1930s and 1940s.

Janet curated a host of exhibitions over the years, including the centerpiece of the museum's centennial celebration in 2018: Art Colony: The Laguna Beach Art Association, 1918 to 1935 (with Deborah Epstein Solon).

Art & Nature featured artist Rebeca Méndez will join the party as well. Her multimedia installation "Any-Instant-Whatever" is a day-in-the-life contemplation of the cloud-rich sky over Los Angeles. See Patch's preview of the work, for more on what went into the creative process.

Méndez is the chair of the Design Media Arts department at UCLA, where she is also director of the CounterForce Lab. Her research and practice investigate design and media art in public spaces, critical approaches to public identities and landscape, and artistic projects based on field investigation methods.

"Any-Instant-Whatever" opens November 4.

Learn more about the gala, and how to reserve your tickets for the November 6 show.