With the Oct. 8 opening of the Orange County Museum of Art a little more than a month away, CEO and Director Heidi Zuckerman is starting to put the finishing touches on the naming rights for large portions of the 53,000-square-foot museum on the grounds of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
Several prominent OC business execs and their families, as well as some well-known arts benefactors from across the country, have provided “pivotal gifts” for the new OCMA facility, whose construction is estimated around $93 million.
Notable names are now attached to the museum’s two exhibition pavilions: the Anton and Jennifer Segerstrom Permanent Collection Pavilion, and the Muzzy Family Special Exhibitions Pavilion.
Each pavilion contains four flexible galleries and can accommodate artworks of a variety of scales and mediums, according to OCMA.
Galleries within the Segerstrom-named pavilion include the Fry Family Gallery, the Ken and Stephanie Grody Gallery, the Lucy Sun and Warren Felson Gallery, and the RD Olson Family Gallery.
Galleries within the Muzzy pavilion, named after Pimco co-founder Jim Muzzy, include the Hal Struck Gallery, the Henry Davis and Christina Fazzone Gallery, the Jeri and Danny McKenna Gallery, and the Linda and Tod White Gallery.
Other OCMA galleries that now have donor backing include the Avenue of the Arts Gallery, in memory of Yvonne de C Segerstrom, and the James B. and Rosalyn L. Pick Gallery.
Other named locations at the museum include the Barbara Bluhm-Kaul and Don Kaul Terrace Landing; the Sweet James Bergener Bar; the Croul Family Education Seating; the David L. Horowitz Family Patio; the Bill Witte and Keiko Sakamoto Shop; and the Barbara and Alex Bowie Façade.
In addition, the terrace level event space which encompasses the Verdant Café will be named Chalmers Pavilion, OCMA says.
Additional leadership gifts were made by Lugano Diamonds, the Ahmanson Foundation, the Samueli Foundation’s Henry and Susan Samueli, Jean and Tim Weiss, and Kelly and David Emmes.
“We are honored to recognize their extraordinary generosity to support the completion of our spectacular new building, and we can’t wait for the public to see what they have helped create,” Zuckerman said.
Related California Chairman and CEO Bill Witte and his wife, Keiko Sakamoto, are also making naming news in Newport Beach.
The couple have committed $4 million to help the city build a new library lecture hall next to Newport Beach’s central library, city filings from late August indicate. The new facility, with a total cost estimated at $13 million, will be used for library, cultural, information, entertainment, civic and community focused events. It’s expected to be called Witte Hall.
Real estate developer Related California, with local offices in Irvine, previously attempted to build a residential tower, dubbed Museum House, on the opposite side of Newport Center as the library; it currently has other big plans in the works not too far from the new OCMA site in Costa Mesa.
For more on the area’s vibrant philanthropic scene, see the stand-alone OC Philanthropy publication that runs alongside this week’s print edition.
