Arts

'Criminal Minds' cast attending Festival of Arts TV's favorite FBI profilers will be spending an evening at the Festival of Arts. The cast of the CBS show "Criminal Minds" is will be at the festival from 7 to 8 p.m. Saturday. The actors will greet fans, take photos and sign autographs before attending a performance of the Pageant of the Masters. Visitors who want a picture or autograph should bring their own camera and paper. Cast members scheduled to appear areJoe Mantegna, Matthew Gray Gubler,Shemar Moore,A.J.

Forget high fashion. Reused and recycled couture were the talk of the town Saturday at the Festival of Arts' fourth annual fashion show. Twelve artists created dramatic fashions out of cardboard, newspaper, old pot scrubbers, CDs, music tape - just about any recyclable item. Festivalgoers were stunned with the finished creations and were often heard murmuring "wow" and "oh" throughout the show. There was the "Light Bulb Moment" design, which was made from "corrugated cardboard found in a local dumpster at midnight," according to the artist, Dagmar Chaplin.

Sawdust Art Festival artist Linda Pirri remembers one of the first times she came to Laguna Beach. She was 18 years old, studying art and told herself if she ever was going to pursue her art, she would do it here. More than 20 years later, at 40, she did just that. She left a successful career in Los Angeles in real estate to devote her life to her art in the historic arts colony. Pirri, now 59, has been at the festival 15 years. This year will be her last for a while, she said, because she's moving to the Kohala Coast in Hawaii with her husband this week.

The Laguna Beach Festival of Arts has appointed Ron Morrissette as its new exhibits director, the nonprofit announced in a release Wednesday. Morrissette, who previously worked for the Walt Disney Company and Holland America Line, among other companies, will be responsible for the development, implementation, coordination and scheduling of summer and off-season exhibits and arts education programs, according to the release. "We are very pleased to welcome Ron to the Festival of Arts management team," Festival of Arts President Fred Sattler said in a statement.

Age: 67.  Education: University of San Francisco.  Top issues: environment/sustainability, community character, arts.  Website:   www.VernaRollinger.com .

The glowing sense of excitement this year at the Festival of the Arts/Pageant of the Masters media preview Monday night was palpable. “This is a very significant year for us because this is the 75th birthday of the Pageant of the Masters,” festival President Wayne Baglin said. “It’s hard to say that we could outdo ourselves, but it’s going to be absolutely incredible,” board member Anita Mangels said. This year’s theme, “All the World’s a Stage,” pays tribute to the performing arts, with nearly every tableau containing a stage element.

The Laguna Beach-based Passport to the Arts team, which provides a summer pass to the city's art institutions, recently announced that the 2013 offering is on sale. At $21.50, the package, provided in collaboration with the Laguna Beach Visitors & Conference Bureau, allows unlimited entry to Art-A-Fair, Festival of the Arts and Sawdust Art Festival, which last from June 28 through Sept. 1. Passport holders can also take advantage of discounts from local stores, hotels and restaurants, along with a one-time free parking allowance at the Act V lot, 1900 Laguna Canyon Road.

Summer treats at the Laguna Art Museum include three new exhibitions: "Faux Real," "Sea Change: Tanya Aguiñiga's Bluebelt Forest" and "ex•pose: beatriz da costa. " The season begins with an opening reception from 6 to 9 p.m. June 1 at 307 Cliff Drive, Laguna Beach. Curated by Grace Kook-Anderson, the museum's curator of contemporary art, "Faux Real" features artists Michael Arcega, Sandow Birk, Libby Black, Julie Bozzi, Amy Caterina and others from June 2 till Sept. 29. Infusing daily household items with a twist, this display is a commentary on culture and consumerism.

The city of Laguna Beach is poised to dedicate four public art installations at 5 p.m. Thursday. Of the four works on Broadway, three are permanent and belong to the Broadway Streetscape Improvement Project, while the last has been borrowed from the Festival of Arts. Lodging establishments and the city contributed funds for this initiative. "We are very excited about this project," Arts Commission Chair Pat Kollenda said in a news release. "This is a beginning of a definitive and stunning entrance to our city.

A storage unit, a garage, a car, a professor's office and a tent on a campsite. These are only a few of the 24 Irvine spots where Richard Newton bunked over two years in the early 1970s. This nomadic life - the yearning to feel out new surroundings - sparks inspiration. "The seed of my ideas comes from other places and, I suppose, works with my restlessness - I'm always going somewhere," he said. "I have personally found that the most interesting part of life is to be exposed to other people, cultures and places - to somehow step completely out of where you come from and immerse yourself in someone else's world.

The Laguna Playhouse has been awarded a $6,000 grant for its year-round youth education programs, Executive Director Karen Wood said. The grant, provided by the Festival of Arts Foundation, will offer general support for the theater's youth programs, which include stage productions, school visits and a repertory and conservatory. The foundation has supported the playhouse every year since 1994, according to Wood. "It's so lovely of them to do this every year," she said. "It's so important for the kids.

Thomas Jefferson Kitts is inspired by nature. Also, given a choice, he prefers not to rely on memories, photographs or drawings. The result? A prolific 30-year career as a plein air painter. An avid follower of John Singer Sargent, Joaquín Sorolla and Anders Zorn, the Portland resident is driven by the challenges posed by this style of painting. He stands in agreement with Paul Cézanne's words: "Nature is the best instructor. " "It simply comes down to the fact that the world is more complex a place than anything I can make up in my head - I become lost in it as I paint," said Kitts, 52. "It's the closest I can come to God. " Kitts is one of 40 plein air painters who donated original work to the Laguna Plein Air Painters Assn.

The Laguna Art Museum dismissed a volunteer film curator last month after finding "financial irregularities" in her work, according to a museum official. Sharon "Keiko" Beatie, who curated films that were showcased by the Laguna Beach Film Society, received an email from the museum's executive director, Malcolm Warner, that the nonprofit museum, which receives some city funding, was severing its relationship with her March 3, according to Beatie. Warner said he and George Weiss, head of the film society, made the decision to cut ties.