Art Stars lauded for shining efforts

Between May 2011 and January 2012, Robert Hayden III wore four hats at the Laguna Art Museum.

During that seven-month stretch before Malcolm Warner settled in at LAM's helm, Hayden served as its interim director, its interim director of development and head of the search committee for a new executive director.

While he juggled those challenges, Hayden said he continued in his normal role of presiding over the museum's Board of Trustees. And he even managed to moonlight in the evenings in his regular job as chief financial officer for his family-run firm, Placentia-based Industrial Metal Finishing Inc.

All that work culminated in his being honored with the Arts Leadership award at Sunday's Art Star Awards in Laguna Beach, presented by the Laguna Beach Alliance for the Arts and hosted by [seven-degrees].

"I am really excited and honored by it," Hayden told the Coastline Pilot. "Mainly it shines a light on the positive momentum that we have going on at the Laguna Art Museum. I'm really happy about that."

The 44-year-old also noted with laughter an error in the evening's program. A line in it mentioned how he had taken a leave of absence from the family business in order to handle his burgeoning work load at the Laguna arts institution at 307 Cliff Drive.

The Art Star awarded to Hayden was among at least a half-dozen handed out by LBaa at its sixth annual awards event.

Local artist Jorg Dubin and his "Semper Memento" sculpture in Heisler Park, which memorializes the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, won two Art Stars.

Dubin was honored as Artist of the Year, and "Semper Memento" also won for Outstanding Arts Collaboration of the Year.

This year's award in that category recognized how the Laguna Beach Fire Department and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the agency that oversees the former World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, and Laguna's Arts Commission came together, along with resident Mark Porterfield, to make the project a reality.

"It was a nice honor to receive that," Dubin said in an interview. "I'm sure it's very hard for the organizers of the event to sit down and decide who's deserving."

Dubin edged out fellow Artist of the Year nominees Sandra Jones Campbell and Jon Seeman.