A short music-and-dance piece, inspired by a work of art in Laguna Art Museum’s collection, will be created over the next year in partnership with the Laguna Dance Festival and Laguna Beach Live! The museum, festival and Laguna Beach Live!, which aims to increase music performances in the city, have partnered to commission the original work.
“There’s a long history going back to the Renaissance festivals when artists would collaborate with musicians and dancers,” says Malcolm Warner, the museum’s executive director.
He likens the concept to “tableaux vivants,” or living pictures, such as Laguna’s own Pageant of the Masters, a theatrical event based on works of art. In consultation with the three organizations, the composer and choreographer will choose a museum art piece for inspiration. The first full performance of the collaborative work will be held at the Laguna Dance Festival in September 2014.
Malcom continues, “I hope people will get a sense of how normal it can be and how mutually enhancing it can be for the different art forms to be combined.” (lagunadancefestival.org, lagunaartmuseum.org, lagunabeachlive.org) —S.S.
Give While You Drink
There’s a new way to enjoy coffee: sip while simultaneously donating to your favorite cause as well as to the coffee bean farmers who brewed your cup. Laguna Beach resident Ed Orem recently founded Blended Giving, a new online coffee fundraising company that gives back to the coffee farmers who struggle to make ends meet in disadvantaged communities as well as to other nonprofit organizations that support similar causes. Ed was inspired to start the company after a 2008 trip to Mexico, where he visited indigenous coffee growers in dire need of assistance. He says of the initiative, “In 2010, I had a vision to create a more sustainable fundraising model that would benefit more than just the nonprofit organization that I was working on, but … many worthy causes simultaneously.” After gaining experience working with a local nonprofit, Ed refined his charitable vision; the resulting program, Blended Giving, donates $1 of the proceeds from each bag of coffee purchased to the farm at which it was grown and $2 to the buyer’s favorite cause. (blendedgiving.com) —J.C.
Mayor Kelly Boyd Presents Medals at U.S. Open of Lawn Bowling
On Sept. 28, the Laguna Beach Lawn Bowling Club played host to the 2013 U.S. Open of Lawn Bowling championship, and Mayor Kelly Boyd had the honor of delivering the winners’ awards. Competing for the U.S. Open championship, governed by Bowls USA, were players from seven U.S. regional lawn bowling divisions as well as 10 countries spanning three continents, including the No. 1 player in the world, Alex Marshall of Scotland. The finalists at the championship were victorious in the week’s previous competitions in the men and women’s singles, pairs and fours events. City council member Toni Iseman and Bowls USA President Heather Stewart also participated in the medal ceremonies following the final game. —A.T.
