Opening Week November 3-6, 2022
Art & Nature’s featured outdoor installation Pyramidion is on display all day and during the First Thursdays Art Walk. Robert Young’s The Big One also opens for display. Laguna Art Museum will offer free admission from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Laguna Beach First Thursdays Artwalk featuring local galleries art-and-nature themed exhibitions.
- Participating galleries:
- Wax & Wood Gallery
- Dawson Cole Fine Art
- Gallery Q at Susi Q
- Las Laguna Art Gallery
- BGC Laguna Beach
Dr. Sylvia Earle, the National Geographic Society Explorer in Residence, will give this year’s Art & Nature Keynote Lecture at the Art & Nature 10th Anniversary Celebration from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. Following the keynote lecture, the museum will reveal The Sea Around Us by artist Rebeca Méndez and welcome opening night guests to experience the immersive exhibit at 7:00 p.m.
Along with light bites and libations, the event will give guests the opportunity to get a first look at select Art & Nature exhibitions, to meet the artists behind this year’s festival and to help the museum raise much needed funds for future programs and exhibitions. LAM’s partnership with MacGillivray Freeman Films and Coast Film Festival, Five Summer Stories: The Exhibition, will also debut during the anniversary celebration.
Art & Nature fans of all ages can join Laguna Art Museum and its partners during the Art & Nature Family Festival at the Main Beach Cobblestones and the museum from 9:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. The event will include a docent-guided tour from the Main Beach Cobblestones through Heisler Park to view Pyramidon and back to the museum. There will be fun, enriching hands-on activities and educational stations set up throughout the museum that explore art, climate, science, animal welfare, and environmental education.
The Art & Nature Family Festival and all-day museum admission will be free.
As part of the 10th Annual Art & Nature Celebration, join artist Jane Lee McCracken, founder of Drawing for the Planet, as she leads a drawing workshop for all ages. Inspired by the ocean, this workshop will teach you how to draw some of your favorite marine animals while also inspiring empathy for the animals that share the planet with us.
Laguna Art Museum will host a Panel Discussion: The Sea Around Us moderated by Los Angeles Times environment reporter Rosanna Xia at 3:00 p.m. Join featured artist Rebecca Méndez as she delves into the process of making The Sea Around Us and its important message of ocean preservation. Panelists will include University of California, San Diego Professor of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry Lihini Aluwihare, University of California, Santa Barbara Professor of Geochemistry and Microbiology David Valentine, and more.
Join Curatorial Fellow Rochelle Steiner as she and Art & Nature featured artist, Kelly Berg, discuss Berg’s multi-location installation piece, Pyramidion. Sprinkled throughout Laguna Beach, the pyramids of Pyramidion vary in sizes and colors to reflect the ever-shifting nature of the landscape. The temporality of the installation parallels much of the earth’s landscapes that shift and change due to weather, geology, and the effects of climate change.
As part of the Art & Nature Celebration, join Curatorial Fellow Jean Stern as he explores the varied landscapes of California and the art inspired by it. California is a large state that consists of seven distinct and different ecological regions: the North Coast, Central Coast, South Coast bordering on the Pacific Ocean, the Shasta-Cascades, the Central Valley, the Sierra Nevada, and the Mojave Desert. Mr. Stern will discuss what makes these regions unique and show and discuss historical paintings from each region.
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the classic surf film, Five Summer Stories, a panel of notable surfers will come together to discuss the film’s influence on the sport, their lives, and careers. Panelists include Jeff Booth, Hans Hagen, Ryan Hitzel, Bob McKnight, Alisa Schwarzstein, and distinguished guest, and director of Five Summer Stories, Greg MacGillivray.
