LAGUNA ART MUSEUM’S ART & NATURE ILLUMINATED MAIN BEACH WITH ELIZABETH TURK’S SHORELINE PROJECT

LAGUNA BEACH, CA (November 5, 2018) — Laguna Art Museum presented the sixth annual Art & Nature, a multidisciplinary exploration of art’s many and various engagements with the natural world, November 1-4, 2018. 

The highlight of the event was Elizabeth Turk’s Shoreline Project, specially commissioned by Laguna Art Museum for Art & Nature. The spectacular site-specific performance brought together 1,000 volunteer performers on Main Beach. With LED-illuminated umbrellas designed as an evolution of the artist’s Seashell X-ray Mandala series, they converged on the shoreline at sunset in both spontaneous and choreographed movement. Shoreline Project created a once-in-a-lifetime visual spectacle for thousands of viewers from the surrounding cliffs and buildings.

This year’s Art & Nature weekend began in conjunction with First Thursdays Art Walk on November 1, making it a community-wide event. More than 400 visitors attended the museum during Art Walk, and a number of local galleries collaborated to present their own nature-inspired exhibitions. Participating galleries and partners included Kelsey Michaels Fine Art, LCAD Gallery, Peter Blake Gallery, The Redfern Gallery, saltfineart + RAWsalt, Boys and Girls Club of Laguna Beach, Community Art Project, and Gallery Q at The Susi Q.

On November 2, the renowned British curator and art historian Jane Munro gave the Art & Nature keynote lecture, Charles Darwin: Art, Nature, and Beauty, to a full audience. Munro is the Keeper of Paintings, Drawings and Prints and Acting Assistant Director of Collections at the Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge. Her research interests and publications have focused on British and French art from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, much of it interdisciplinary in nature.

On November 3, before the sunset performance of Shoreline Project, the museum hosted a film screening and a panel discussion. The newly-released documentary Leaning into the Wind – Andy Goldsworthy, which follows the sculptor, photographer, and environmentalist, was presented in partnership with the Newport Beach Film Festival. The panel, Nature Into Art, A Conversation, included presentations by Art & Nature keynote speaker Jane Munro, UCSD evolutionary 
biologist Lin Chao, and artist and UCLA professor Victoria Vesna, followed by a conversation moderated by LAM executive director Malcolm Warner.

On Sunday, November 4, the museum concluded Art & Nature with a family festival on the theme of art’s engagements with the natural world. The museum opened with free admission, and about 300 visitors of all ages experienced a variety of hands-on art, nature, and science activities, environmental information booths, and face painting. Partner organizations included the Center for Art Education and Sustainability, Laguna Bluebelt Coalition, Laguna Canyon Foundation, Laguna Ocean Foundation, MY HERO Project, Newport Bay Conservancy, Ocean Institute, OC Face Paint, and Pacific Marine Mammal Center.

Major support for Art & Nature was provided by anonymous donors, Best-VIP, Ebell Club of Laguna Beach, Festival of Arts Foundation, McBeth Foundation, Orange County Community Foundation, Pacific Life Foundation, and William Gillespie Foundation.

Art & Nature has grown each year since its inception in 2013, and in 2018 attracted more than 1,100 visitors to museum programs and an audience of thousands to view Shoreline Project. Art & Nature 2019 is scheduled to take place from November 7-10, with a commissioned work of art by Los Angeles-based artist Yorgo Alexopoulos.
Press Images: https://app.box.com/s/dqwsdxbg1qkd0s4gzvwz3q7u7sfqhy4l

About Art & Nature
 
Art & Nature serves a number of purposes: to provide a festival of art and ideas for the community; to inspire artists; to find and develop connections between art and science; to raise awareness of environmental issues; and to celebrate Laguna Beach as a center for the appreciation of art and nature. The museum’s executive director, Malcolm Warner, explains why Laguna Art Museum is the ideal organization to conceive, develop, and present the popular program: 
“The theme of Art & Nature speaks particularly to the identity of Laguna Beach, which for over a hundred years has been a center for art, the appreciation of nature, and environmental awareness. In 1929, when the Laguna Beach Art Association built an art gallery to show and sell their work, they chose a commanding location on the coastline close to the natural wonders they loved to paint. The present museum occupies the same site. There could be no more appropriate venue in which to explore the art-nature connection.” 

About Laguna Art Museum

 
Laguna Art Museum is the museum of California art. It collects, cares for, and exhibits works of art that were created by California artists or represent the life and history of the state. Through its permanent collection, its special loan exhibitions, its educational programs, and its library and archive, the museum enhances the public’s knowledge and appreciation of California art of all periods and styles, and encourages art-historical scholarship in this field. 
Laguna Art Museum stands just steps from the Pacific Ocean in the beautiful city of Laguna Beach. The museum is proud to continue the tradition of the Laguna Beach Art Association, founded in 1918 by the early California artists who fostered a vibrant arts community. The gallery that the association built in 1929 is part of today’s Laguna Art Museum.
 
Location
Laguna Art Museum is located at 307 Cliff Drive in Laguna Beach, on the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Cliff Drive.
 
Hours
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday: 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Thursday: 11:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Closed Wednesdays
Closed Fourth of July, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day
 
Admission
General admission: $7.00
Students (18+) and S eniors (60+): $5.00
Visitors aged 17 and under: FREE
Museum members: FREE
 
Media Contact: Cody Lee, Director of Communications | 949.494.8971 x211 | clee@lagunaartmuseum.org