October is Arts & Culture Month. UC Irvine is proud to announce the completion of its acquisition of the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA). This is a bold new chapter for the arts in our region. As alumnae, we celebrate this milestone moment for UCI.
With the transaction complete, UC Irvine assumes stewardship of OCMA’s 53,000-square-foot, $98 million facility within the Segerstrom Center for the Arts campus. Since opening in its current location in 2022, the Costa Mesa-based museum has quickly become a destination for contemporary art enthusiasts around the nation. Moving forward, the space will also showcase UC Irvine’s celebrated Gerald Buck Collection and Irvine Museum Collection.
Book of the Month
Ryan Foland is the authority on entrepreneurship and public speaking. He helped us launch 70° over a decade ago. His sage advice from sailing to speaking is by far the best we’ve received! – 70 Degrees
SpeakerShip: Command Your Stage. Steer Your Impact by Ryan Foland.
He is the Director of UCI’s UCI ANTrepreneur Center where students launch businesses and learn AI. This book will transform your presentation skills and make you a better public speaker. Ryan shares practical advice to hone your storytelling skills on stage. Meet him in person at the UCI Santora Pitch Lab on Thurs., October 2nd 5:00 – 6:30pm & purchase your signed copy.
Artist of the Month
Arthur Beaumont was classically trained as an artist. His fascination with the sea and the vessels led Beaumont into affiliation with the U.S. Navy which lasted nearly five decades. Watch the Arthur Beaumont: An Artist’s Interpretation of the Navy to learn more.
Ask us how to preserve your family’s, community’s, or museum’s collection. We collaborate with UC Irvine, UCLA, CSUF, Soka University, and Cal Poly Pomona.
Their Finest Hours: Winston Churchill and The Queen Mary | Visitor’s Center D-Deck (Ongoing)
Learn about Winston Churchill’s connection to The Queen Mary, which served as his seaborne war room during WWII. It is thought that Churchill traveled aboard The Queen Mary at least to times in both war and peace time. This exhibit includes original set pieces from the award-wininng film “Darkest Hours.” It is an in-depth look into the person many consider to be the greatest statesman of the 20th century. The exhibit is located at the Visitor’s Center on the D-Deck Stern.
Prepare for a spectacular nine-day art festival as the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association (LPAPA) presents its 27th Annual Laguna Beach Plein Air Painting Invitational, taking place from October 4th to the 12th, 2025. This highly anticipated event will see thirty of the nation’s top award-winning plein air artists transform Laguna Beach into a vibrant outdoor studio, competing for prestigious prizes while capturing the town’s iconic beauty on canvas. The Invitational week culminates in the highly anticipated Collectors Gala pARTy on Saturday, October 11th, at the Laguna Beach iconic Festival of Arts grounds.
The Dana Point Film Festival is a four-day ocean-inspired film festival held from October 9 – 12th. Films and music that celebrate the tides of life, from surf and education to conservation and adventure will be presented. Alongside film screenings, DPFF offers free outdoor movies and concerts, cultural events, and educational talks with renowned global oceanographic experts. Films are set against the beautiful backdrop of Dana Point’s coast.
Newport Beach Film Festival | October 16-23, 2025
This event will feature eight days of cinema, including red carpet premieres, film screenings, fashion events, culinary tastings, and conversations with filmmakers.
In partnership with the film festival, StyleWeekOC® will be held at Fashion Island, Newport Beach.
The City of Dana Point Arts & Culture Ambassadors & Dana Point Historical Society invite you on a trolley tour to appreciate art in Dana Point on Saturday, October 18th. The tours will be narrated by trained docents and will start and conclude at Dana Bay Gallery on Del Prado (24682 Del Prado Ave, #100). RSVP for $20 for the 10am tour with activity code 9250 and the 12pm tour with activity code 9251 here.
Habitat: Making the California Environment
September 20, 2025 – January 10, 2026
In a first-time feature at Langson IMCA, the exhibition includes a newly commissioned sound work, Landscape Hocket (Orange County). This immersive audio installation draws on early 20th-century California landscape paintings from the IMCA collection—specifically, coastal works by Curtis Chamberlain and Frederick Melville DuMond. Using field recordings, electromagnetic and subsonic audio capture, and sonified plant data, the piece listens to the original sites of these paintings more than a century later. The result is a layered sonic portrait that traces the transformation of these landscapes’ soundscapes and ecologies over time.
13 Women: Variation VI – October 19, 2025
On October 8, 2022, OCMA opened the brand-new building with 13 Women, an exhibition paying homage to the thirteen women who founded the museum in 1962. Curated by former CEO and Director, Heidi Zuckerman, 13 Women has been presented with multiple rotations over the course of a year, with works from the 1950s to the present by artists central to the museum’s collection. Each of whom shares the visionary qualities of the museum’s founders.
Casa Romantica is currently exhibiting The Studio:
Fay Wyles on view from September 18 through November 23. Dreamscapes and Dream States by Christopher Allwine is on view from September 26 through November 16th. Casa Romantica is providing complimentary admission on October 5th from 10am-2pm to celebrate Hispanic History Month.
GW Contemporary is a gallery based in Laguna Beach, California. Located at 305 N Coast. Hwy. Meet
Genevieve Williams, the curator of Nobuhito Nishigawara on October 2nd during 1st Thursday Art Walk. Nobuhito Nishigawara was born in Nagoya, Japan and immigrated alone to North America as a teenager. He is Head of the Ceramics Program at Cal State Fullerton. In his series Qualia, he draws on the Japanese concept of Ma (間) – the space between – bridging memory and material to reflect on identity, duality, and the places he calls home.