Laguna College

The City Council went on record with its opposition of a proposed ban on fire pits on Orange County beaches. A letter will be sent to the Air Quality Management District suggesting that the fire pits should be left up to local governments. The letter came in response to a request from resident and local businessman Billy Fried, who asked the council to take action before the AQMD votes on the proposed ban. "It is specious to say (the ban) is a deterrent to air quality in light of other issues," said Fried, who writes a column for the Coastline Pilot.

Laguna College of Art & Design will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year, and the college is already abuzz about its many accomplishments and plans for an even brighter future. During a well-attended President's Circle breakfast on Sept. 29 at the Hotel Laguna, college President Dennis Powers outlined some impressive achievements. The college is in the "top three" nationally for its figurative and representational drawing and painting program, Powers said. Moreover, the college is boasting what may be its largest student population ever — 426 full-time students.

Artist Greg Spalenka has joined the Laguna College of Art & Design as the new professor of fantasy art. Classes began Monday. The course is an advanced and comprehensive study of fantasy art as it relates to the entertainment and print media fields, Jennifer Daniels, media relations manager for the college, said. ?Science fiction and fantasy art will be studied and its context through historic and contemporary periods. Students will conceptualize, design and produce fantastic and fictional content using a variety of drawing and painting methods.

Three key players in the evolution of the Laguna College of Art & Design were honored recently at the 45th anniversary gala of the founding and flowering of the art school. Special recognition was given at the festive black-tie event to David Young , 94, Roger Armstrong , Nancy Lawrence and Jonathan Burke , representing the many contributors to the success of the school over the years. Young, 94, only recently retired from the board of the Festival of Arts, which joined with the then-Laguna Beach Art Assn.

It was showtime for artist Colleen Police and her classmates, as they exhibited their work at local galleries during the December First Thursdays Art Walk. Police joined other seniors from the Laguna College of Art & Design in a unique mentoring program, now in its sixth year, that pairs students with gallerists to teach them about the business of art. Police said program leader Robin Fuld has equipped her students to go into the art world with confidence. The program, which dovetails with the skills students learn in Fuld’s class, allows students to learn about everything from framing to business forms firsthand.

Many art students are gearing up for their first professional gallery show, through the benefit of a one-of-a-kind mentoring program. Fourteen senior fine arts majors from the Laguna College of Art & Design's professional studies course will exhibit their work at 14 galleries during the December First Thursdays Art Walk, held from 6 to 9 p.m. Dec. 7. The professional studies class is taught by Robin Fuld, a 22-year art-business veteran, currently...

For Laguna College of Art and Design senior Mallory Rose, dreams of pursuing her passion for drawing and painting became a reality unexpectedly, when she received a generous donation from a high school classmate’s family to attend art school. “Their daughter, Amy, was killed in a car accident on her way home from a portfolio day at an art college she planned to attend in the fall,” Rose said. “Since she no could no longer fulfill her dream of going to art school, her family wanted to honor her memory by helping someone else live out that dream.

After two weeks of pressure to restore a beloved mural painted by Laguna College of Art & Design students and faculty, the Laguna Canyon Winery has announced it is raising funds to replace the public art. This could mean "goodbye" to what remains, a plain gray wall on Laguna Canyon Road. The winery has called the situation a misunderstanding. They believed the mural, said to be the largest in Orange County, was on private property. Property owner Steve Henry said previously that their lease agreement noted the dual ownership of the mural by Henry, the city and the college.

The people who make the trek to Main Beach will now be immortalized in a mural just a few blocks away. The Community Art Project (CAP), a local nonprofit dedicated to public art, commissioned Laguna Beach artist Sandra Jones Campbell for the mural at 248 N. Coast Hwy. Known for her whimsical acrylic paintings of cowboys, dinner guests and others, Campbell was excited to take on her first exterior mural. In her distinctive style, the mural chronicles the diverse people who create downtown's unique environment as they make their way to the beach.

Forty freshmen got a nice surprise when they moved into the newly remodeled student housing Saturday at Laguna College of Art & Design's South Campus. The student dorm studios, at 795 Laguna Canyon Road, all featured a modern, edgy and urban feel. "It's actually pretty impressive," said Donna Vu, 18, from San Jose. "It's much more than I thought. " She discovered LCAD through a college website. "It seemed like a interesting place ... like a gem in the cloud of big campuses - magical and surreal," said Vu, who plans to study animation and game art. LCAD converted previous teaching and art studios into the extra student housing, which now accommodates 40 students and also has two apartments for resident managers.

Laguna Art Museum 307 Cliff Drive (949) 494-8971 http://www.lagunaartmuseum.org Open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays and Fridays through Sundays; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays; and closed Wednesdays. Admission is $7 for adults and $5 for seniors, students and active military. Children younger than 12 are admitted for free. The museum is closed on the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's days. Through Sept. 29: "Faux Real," sculptures by 19 artists, and "ex•pose: beatriz da costa," a multimedia exhibit by the late artist.

Laguna Beach residents all believe they are art critics, which is why the real experts on the city's Arts Commission are in a no-win situation. Loved or hated, every piece of public art in Laguna gets judged - every single day. And now, the commission has two more members joining the fray. David Emmes and Suzanne Mellor were added recently by the last City Council, making it a nine-member commission. The extra members, however, are not working artists. Both are professional board members of various groups.

A plan to better manage parking in downtown Laguna Beach and the canyon was praised Tuesday by the council but not adopted. The City Council voted unanimously for Mayor Pro Tem Elizabeth Pearson's motion to only consider the information provided in the Downtown Specific Plan Area and Laguna Canyon Road Parking Management Plan, prepared by RBF Consulting. "I don't know how many studies I have seen in the last 20 years, but this is the first one that makes sense to me," Councilman Steve Dicterow said.

City officials were more than happy to renew the Business Improvement District, the financial program initiated by local hotels to fund art projects and organizations that bring tourists to town. The BID has bumped up the city budget by millions since it was founded in 2001. In the current fiscal year, the BID is contributing $1.67 million, a 10% increase over estimates. The money is generated by a 2% levy skimmed off the top of the city's regulated bed taxes and must be renewed annually by the hotels, motels and the city.

Kevin Cartwright joined the Laguna College of Art & Design as its new director of development. With a track record that includes stints at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, Chapman University and MIND Research Institute, Cartwright has experience with capital and endowment campaigns. At the college, he has assisted development staff on issues like the annual fund and a strategic development plan. The position was advertised nationwide, and Cartwright emerged the frontrunner from a list of 50 applicants, according to a news release.

The City Council went on record with its opposition of a proposed ban on fire pits on Orange County beaches. A letter will be sent to the Air Quality Management District suggesting that the fire pits should be left up to local governments. The letter came in response to a request from resident and local businessman Billy Fried, who asked the council to take action before the AQMD votes on the proposed ban. "It is specious to say (the ban) is a deterrent to air quality in light of other issues," said Fried, who writes a column for the Coastline Pilot.