Artists honor own

Laguna Beach’s most sparkling artists and benefactors were honored Wednesday night at [seven-degrees] during the second annual Art Star Awards, sponsored by the Laguna Beach Alliance for the Arts.

Tony Award-winning dancer and choreographer Donald McKayle was presented with the Legacy Award, and served as the night’s keynote speaker.

Other winners included CaDance, Fidelity Investments, the Hagan Place “Community” mural by Mike Tauber and Mark Porterfield, Greg MacGillivray of MacGillivray Freeman Films, Diane Challis Davy of the Pageant of the Masters, and Arts Commission Chairwoman Nancy Beverage.

The nominees were selected for their contributions to the art and culture of the community and the county.

Nominees for the five categories were submitted by alliance members from more than 20 Laguna Beach arts organizations, Alliance Chairman Dennis Power said.

Laguna resident McKayle was in the first performance of “West Side Story” and was named one of “America’s Irreplaceable Dance Treasures” by the Library of Congress and the Dance Heritage Coalition.

“I’ve been doing this since the ’40s, and I feel very lucky to be doing something that I love,” he said.

He currently is a professor of dance at UCI with CaDance founder Jodie Gates, and is still busy choreographing; he debuted three new pieces around the world in February.

“As long as your dreams are stronger than your memories, you’ll never grow old,” he said.

Gates called McKayle her mentor during a special video presentation of a production by the Etude Ensemble, which McKayle founded in 1995. Gates is currently in Germany.

“Art is a cycle,” McKayle said. “What you give is what you get.”

City Cultural Arts Manager Sian Poeschl received the first Achievement Award last year as a surprise. She continued the tradition by bestowing the unannounced honor on Beverage, whom she thanked for helping develop Laguna into the town with the highest amount of money spent on arts-related activities in the country.

Robert Lynch of Americans for the Arts, the national organization that made the finding, sent a special message of congratulations to Beverage.

Lynch was the first Legacy Award winner last year.

“Now I have a Louis Longi!” Beverage quipped; Longi, a prolific sculptor, designed the custom bronze Art Stars trophies.

Beverage said the report was a good reminder to the city of the importance of the arts.

“I hope it’s a lesson we can keep reminding them, because sometimes we need all the help we can get,” she said.

CaDance won the Best New Arts Program award, edging out the Laguna College of Art & Design Master of Fine Arts Program and the Laguna Beach Arts Commission’s Juried Fine Art Exhibition.

The award was presented to Stuart Byer by Lucinda Prewitt, who won it last year.

Arts Patron of the Year Fidelity Investments was selected from a set of nominees that included Hotel Laguna owner Claes Andersen and Realtor Bobbi Cox.

The firm sponsors the Festival of Arts and Pageant of the Masters, and brings in Orange County’s best art teachers for dinner and a night at the Pageant. Scott Moore presented the award.

Tauber and Porterfield won Outstanding Arts Collaboration for a mural of sardines along the wall of the Hagan Place residence; they were joined in the category with the Festival of Arts, Sawdust Art Festival and [seven-degrees] for their Project Skimboard collaboration and the Laguna Beach Live!/Laguna College of Art & Design First Sundays program.

“I really am speechless,” the loquacious Tauber said after receiving the award from Charlie Ferrazzi, adding that Hagan Place captured the spirit of Laguna Beach by celebrating their tenth anniversary with an art commission.

“This is something that everybody in Laguna Beach can enjoy,” he said.

The award for Innovation and Arts Leadership, presented by Mark Orgill, included nominations for Mark Chamberlain of BC Space and the Festival of Arts 75th Anniversary; winner MacGillivray is the president and cofounder of MacGillivray Freeman Films.

MacGillivray has shot more 70 mm film than anyone in history, event host Mary Ferguson said.

“Usually I lose these types of awards,” MacGillivray said.

To the contrary.

He joined a list of honorees including Jacques Cousteau, Carl Sagan, Jane Goodall and Walter Cronkite when he received the Bradford Washburn Award, the highest honor of the Museum of Science in Boston, for his contribution to science education. MacGillivray started making films at Laguna Beach High School.

Longi and Bree Burgess Rosen, founder of No Square Theatre and Lagunatics, joined Davy in being nominated for Artist of the Year.

Davy, whose award was announced by John Barber, has directed the Pageant for the past 13 years, and will put on its 75th anniversary show this year.

“It is a great honor to be even considered an artist in the city of Laguna Beach,” she said.

She thanked her father, Richard Challis, for opening a gallery in Laguna in 1947.

The Alliance works to advocate, provide opportunities for and serve as a voice for the city’s artists and arts-related organizations.

Members include the Art-A-Fair Festival, CaDance, Chamber of Commerce, city Arts Commission, Community Art Project, Festival of Arts, First Thursdays Art Walk, Gallimaufry Performing Arts, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach Craft Guild, Laguna Beach Film Society, Laguna Beach Live!, Laguna Beach Visitors and Conference Bureau, Laguna College of Art & Design, Laguna Community Concert Band, Laguna Outreach Community Arts, Laguna Playhouse, Laguna Plein Air Painters Association, Lagunatunes, No Square Theater, Pageant of the Masters, Sawdust Art Festival, and [seven-degrees].