Winners Announced For the 14th Annual Art Star Awards

On Sunday, April 24, in true Academy-award style, 200 community and cultural leaders came together to celebrate the 14th annual Art Star Awards. The event was held at [seven-degrees] and kicked off with a red carpet reception that included champagne and hors d'oeuvres outside on the terrace preceding dinner and the awards ceremony.

Joy Dittberner, president of Laguna Beach Arts Alliance (LBAA), welcomed the guests and spoke about the importance of LBAA and how it has strengthened the arts in Laguna Beach.

Faye Baglin, Community Art Project (CAP) board member, then introduced the 2019 Honarkar Family Grant winner Allyson Allen, creator of the "Piece-ful Protest" quilt exhibit. Allen spoke about her exhibit's controversial journey from the CAP Gallery at Wells Fargo to Bridge Hall at Neighborhood Congregational Church, where it has been viewed by over 600 visitors. "Art is powerful and as artists, we have a responsibility to speak up against injustice," Allen said. "This experience has changed me, and I hope it has changed Laguna."

Next, the honored guest speaker Marrie Stone spoke about her 25+ year career as a journalist covering the Laguna arts scene and LBAA member organizations and interviewing literary luminaries as co-host of the "Writers on Writing" podcast. She regaled the audience with her interviewees' stories and her observations of the surprising commonalities shared by Laguna's artists, from their delightfully imaginative childhoods to how they view the world through their unique creative lenses to the power of their art to spur important and sometimes difficult conversations. "You are always looking for inspiration. You can't turn it off," she said. "Art creates a space for us to talk about our ideas and our disagreements. We have more in common than we might think we do, and art is way forward through the morass. This town is rich in its art and lucky through its artists."

The 2019 Art Star winners:

Best Arts Program: City of Laguna Beach - Temporary Public Art Installations

Lifetime Achievement: Bree Burgess Rosen

Individual Arts Patron of the Year: Carla and Jeff Meberg

Corporate Arts Patron of the Year: Quilter Labs

Outstanding Arts Collaboration: LOCA Arts Education/ Laguna Plein Air Painters Association (LPAPA) Workshops

Arts Leadership: Ellen Richard & Ann E. Wareham, Laguna Playhouse

Artist of the Year: Lojo Simon

Volunteer of the Year: Charlie Ferrazzi

The evening concluded with a one-of-a-kind musical tribute to lifetime achievement honoree Bree Burgess Rosen, who was recognized for her contributions to the dramatic and performing arts in Laguna. Rosen summed up the evening event as a celebration of the community's resilience, saying, "A supportive community is everything. We most certainly couldn't have survived these last two years without helping one another. I'm happy to live in a town that fully embraces the value of the arts, most certainly the performing arts, and it's gratifying to share my passion with so many other dedicated artists and supporters."

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