Laguna College

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.

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.

Nestled in the canyon and hidden amid hills within walking distance of the ocean, the Laguna College of Art & Design has beaconed artists to its campus for 50 years. With LCAD marking its milestone this year, faculty and graduates reflected on how the college has grown since its establishment in 1961. LCAD's new president, Jonathan Burke, came to the school 31 years ago, when it was just starting on the road to accreditation, he said. Now it has regional and national accreditation validating its liberal arts and art courses.

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 December installment of the First Thursdays Art Walk will mark a milestone for Robin Fuld, a professor at the Laguna College of Art & Design and its career services director. Thursday's Art Walk will be the 10th anniversary of a mentorship that she fostered between LCAD and Laguna Beach art galleries. A decade ago, Fuld ran an art gallery in Laguna Beach and was chatting with Jeannie Denholm, then an LCAD faculty member, about the lack of a formal relationship between Laguna's plethora of galleries and the local campus that trained future artists.

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 Sunday: "George Hurrell: Laguna to Hollywood," photographs of classic Hollywood stars.

The push is on for a stoplight in front of Laguna College of Art + Design. The college's president and a nearby building owner petitioned Caltrans to install a traffic signal where the current crosswalk - which only has flashing lights - sits in front of the main campus at 2222 Laguna Canyon Road. "I've witnessed a number of fender benders," LCAD President Jonathan Burke said. "No one has been hurt, but there have been damaged cars. " Burke is working with a consultant in hopes of getting a traffic light installed at the two-lane road.

Americans say "Bottoms up" when they hoist a few. The French toast is "A votre Sante. " When Italians raise a glass they say "Salute" or "Cin Cin," their version of a Brit's "Cheers. " In India it is "Tulleho," a combination the Raj "Talley Ho" and the colloquial Hindi word for drinking. My favorite: the Zulu "Ooogy Wawa. " The Rotary Club of Laguna Beach deserves every one of them for the successful Grapes for Grads fundraiser held on Sunday at Tivoli Too!, which showed off Laguna's community spirit to great advantage.

School district awarded honor from club The Boys & Girls Club of Laguna Beach awarded the Laguna Beach Unified School District the 2012 Outstanding Agency Partner Award, according to a news release. "The club is honored to have such a strong relationship with the school district," club President Bill Wood said in a statement. "The kids get so much more from both. " According to the club's Executive Director Pam Estes, "Our Boys & Girls Club feels so fortunate to have a such a united partnership with LBUSD, based on the shared goal of enabling young people to reach their potential.

This summer, 20-year-old Laguna College of Art + Design student Jessica Necor will do something she's never done: travel outside of the U.S. to the Philippines. On July 18, the graphic design major will join seven others on a three-week trip, where they will build homes, pass out needed supplies and interact with residents. The group is part of an international youth ministry called Couples for Christ-Youth and will also help victims of Typhoon Bopha, which ravaged the southern Philippines in December.

The city will pay a consulting firm to complete an analysis of Laguna Canyon Road and propose options for its improvement. The City Council voted Tuesday to retain RBF Consulting to analyze the road from Forest Avenue to El Toro Road, taking into consideration other projects under consideration or underway, and come up suggestions for a comprehensive plan for the entire stretch, as proposed by Councilman Robert Whalen. The $45,000 fee for the consultant will come from savings on the Downtown Specific Plan project.