I had a feeling the Daily Pilot would be running my letter, but not the lead letter. Enjoy.
Mailbag: Celebrating the arts then and now
(Kevin Chang / Staff Photographer)
OCT. 7, 2022 2:23 PM PT
I had the distinct honor and privilege of serving as the Newport Harbor Art Museum’s public relations and marketing consultant nearly 40 years ago, and then volunteering to help raise more than $1 million as the original Orange County Performing Arts Center was being built in the mid-1980s. Those were heady days when many of O.C.’s business elite, like Donald Bren, George Argyros, Gen. William Lyon, Henry Segerstrom and Kathryn Thompson, personally knew then-President Ronald Reagan. Not surprisingly, these same corporate titans also were generous supporters of the Newport Harbor Art Museum and OCPAC. Today, many of their heirs have stepped up and become generous donors to the new Orange County Museum of Art. What I find most interesting is what people said decades ago still is being repeated today. There is more to life than making money. There is the creative process we call art. No matter your station in life, it is something we all can celebrate today and decades to come. I wish OCMA a very bright and artful future.
Denny Freidenrich
Laguna Beach