Art And Nature Collide At Laguna Beach Art Museum

LAGUNA BEACH, CA — Elizabeth Turk's Shoreline Project, a specifically commissioned work by the Laguna Art Museum, was highlighted at the Laguna Art Museum sixth annual Art & Nature. The multidisciplinary exploration of art’s many and various engagements with the natural world, November 1-4, 2018.

For Shoreline Project, 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.

Laguna Art Museum Courtesy Photo