Orange County Museum of Art Civic Dedication and Ribbon Cutting
Costa Mesa, CA, October 7, 2022 – A civic dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony inaugurated the highly anticipated new Orange County Museum of Art today ahead of the public opening of the 53,000-square-foot building on the campus of Segerstrom Center for the Arts on October 8 at 5:00 p.m. The event included remarks by Orange County’s civic leaders and OCMA’s leadership including Heidi Zuckerman, CEO and Director, OCMA; Cottie Petrie-Norris, Representative, California State Assembly, 74th District; Katrina Foley, Member, Orange County Board of Supervisors, 2nd District; Lisa A. Bartlett, Member, Orange County Board of Supervisors, 5th District; John Stephens, Mayor, Costa Mesa; Craig Wells, Board President, OCMA; Anton Segerstrom, Trustee, OCMA and Partner, South Coast Plaza; and architect Brandon Welling, Partner-in- Charge, Morphosis. Following the ceremonial ribbon cutting, guests were invited to explore OCMA, which will offer free admission for the next decade.
“I am so excited to welcome everyone to the new OCMA at Segerstrom Center for the Arts. And by that, I mean welcome everyone, not just today but every day,” said Zuckerman. “Our mission here is to enrich the lives of people in a diverse and fast-changing community. We carry out this work with the conviction that access to art is a basic human right. And we want to provide that access in such a way that everyone feels welcome and at home.”
Designed by Morphosis under the direction of Pritzker-Prize winning architect Thom Mayne and Partner-in-Charge Brandon Welling, OCMA’s new home opens to the public with five inaugural exhibitions. These include the California Biennial 2022: Pacific Gold, a Fred Eversley survey, a project on landscape architect Peter Walker, a newly commissioned outdoor sculpture by Sanford Biggers, and an exhibition curated from OCMA’s permanent collection to honor the 13 women who founded the museum 60 years ago. Admission is free.
The museum opens with a 24-hour celebration that kicks off Saturday, October 8th at 5:00 p.m. and activates the new museum with music, food, films, yoga, dancing and more.
About the Orange County Museum of Art
The Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) has a proven reputation as an innovative art museum with a history of discovering and actively engaging with living artists at pivotal points in their careers. The museum has organized and presented critically acclaimed exhibitions that have traveled nationally and internationally to more than 35 venues. The museum’s collection of more than 4,500 works of art includes important examples of modern and contemporary art and artists inspired by or working in California, including: John Baldessari, Chris Burden, Vija Celmins, Bruce Conner, Richard Diebenkorn, Robert Irwin, Catherine Opie, Charles Ray and Ed Ruscha. When the museum opens in its new building on October 8, 2022, California Biennial 2022 (CB22) will be one of five inaugural special exhibitions in its new home as a celebratory nod to the museum’s rich history. Begun in 1984 at OCMA’s predecessor institution, the Newport Harbor Art Museum, and now being resumed after a hiatus, CB22 will be guest co-curated by Elizabeth Armstrong, Essence Harden and Gilbert Vicario and continues the museum’s six-decade history of presenting new developments in contemporary art and identifying emerging artists on the verge of national and international recognition. Heidi Zuckerman will also organize 13 Women, drawing from the museum’s collection and honoring the women who originally founded the museum. Additional opening exhibitions include Of many waters…a newly-commissioned outdoor sculpture by Sanford Biggers; Reflecting Back (the World), a survey of work by artist Fred Eversley; and Minimalist Landscape, a site-responsive project on landscape architect Peter Walker. For more information go to Ocma.art
