The Museum focuses on the cultural heritage of our huge, diverse and powerful state, and on the unique history and accomplishments of Laguna Beach, a community of the American West located on the shore of southern California, about fifty miles below the city of Los Angeles. As cultural theorists often enjoy pointing out, southern California, with its motion picture, television, and aerospace industries, is the mecca of artificial culture. In this “here-today-gone tomorrow” culture, our history has traditionally been trivialized and discarded, leaving a great deal of the past for us to excavate. Laguna Beach and the Laguna Art Museum have stood at the center of another sort of culture. From the turn of the century through the 1930s, Laguna Beach was home to one of the most significant artists’ colony on the Pacific Coast. The Laguna Art Museum has not only been the focal point of this art colony but, instrumental in uncovering its history as well. Along with its counterpart, the Oakland Museum of California Art in northern California, it has been at the forefront of a trend among California museums to focus on regional art history.

May 2009

This is the foreword for the exhibition manual being printed in conjunction with this summer's exhibition WoW: Emergant Media Phenomenon, June 14 - October 4, 2009.

More than a year ago, my curiosity was aroused when Peter Blake told me, in part at the behest of his friend Cynthia Tusan, that he might have an exciting and compelling exhibition idea for Laguna Art Museum to consider – something that would fit well within the popular culture exhibition programming that the Museum has been championing since the early 1990s. A few months later, Peter proposed an exhibition based on Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft. He gave me two books: The Art of World of Warcraft and Pixar At the Museum of Modern Art, published in conjunction with their 2005 exhibition. Not long after Peter’s proposal, the Museum hired Grace Kook-Anderson as its new Exhibition Curator. 

Grace quickly embraced the idea of curating an exhibition based on World of Warcraft. In the ensuing months she has put together a compelling exhibition, showcasing works by World of Warcraft artists, contemporary artists that use World of Warcraft, works relating to the history and development of the game, fan art, and contemporary artists that develop artwork using gaming.

Essay’s by exhibition curator Grace Kook-Anderson, artist Eddo Stern, and Blizzard Entertainment’s curator of creative development Tim Campbell, explore the effects that gaming is having in our culture, and in particular, through the lens of the most played online game, World of Warcraft.

The exhibition would not have been possible without the assistance of Blizzard Entertainment staff Dana Bishop, Tim Campbell, Jeff Chamberlain, Jeff Donais, Joy Fields, Cory Jones, Chris Metzen, Mike Morhaime, Rob Pardo, Frank Pearce, Chris Robinson, Matthew Samia, Paul Sams, Hugh Todd, and Sean Wang.  In particular, Matthew Samia, was extremely helpful during every phase of developing the exhibition.

Bolton Colburn, Director

LAGUNA ART MUSEUM MISSION STATEMENT

Laguna Art Museum is a museum of American art with a special focus on the art of California. Its purpose is to provide the public with exposure to art and to promote understanding of the role of art and artists in American culture through collection, conservation, exhibition, research, scholarship and education. Working within the tradition of the oldest cultural institution in Orange County, Laguna Art Museum documents regional art and places it in a national context. The Museum maintains its historic ties to the community and is responsive, accessible, and relevant to the area’s diverse population.

HISTORY

Founded in 1918 by a small group of painters who settled in Laguna Beach, the Laguna Beach Art Association developed an exhibition space in which to introduce the best current works being produced by artists in the area. This early emphasis on supporting artists in the region has been an integral part of Laguna Art Museum throughout its history.

In 1920, the Laguna Beach Art Association was incorporated with artist Edgar Payne as president. The Association soon outgrew the old Town Hall, where its first exhibition was held, and after the completion of a successful fundraising drive, a gallery on the present site opened in 1929. In 1948, a gift from the estate of artist Frank Cuprien served as the catalyst for a fundraising campaign to enlarge the gallery space. The new addition opened in 1951 with an exhibition organized by Mrs. William Swift Daniell, a long-time leader in the arts. This selection of paintings by early Laguna Beach artists later became the Museum’s Permanent Memorial Collection. The Museum’s collection has since grown to include many exemplary works by California artists dating from the late nineteenth century to the present. By 1971, when the association had attained nonprofit museum status, it had a collection that reflected its artistic roots. The Museum has occupied the same site in Laguna Beach since 1929. An expansion in the mid-1980s increased exhibition and support space. In keeping with the Museum’s goal of collecting and exhibiting American art with a particular focus on California art, the name was formally changed to Laguna Art Museum in 1986.   

In 1996, LAM merged with Newport Harbor Art Museum creating the Orange County Museum of Art. In April 1997 a new non-profit reestablished Laguna Art Museum as a separate entity from the Orange County Museum of Art. Today the majority of the Laguna Art Museum’s pre-merger collection has been returned to the Museum. The re-establishment of Laguna Art Museum has been very beneficial in unifying the support of the local community in unprecedented ways.

The Museum's exhibitions, catalogues, and educational activities illustrate an ongoing examination of California art, which includes looking at unconventional, but regionally important influences, such as car and surf culture. Through collections, publications, and research on the art of California, Laguna Art Museum promotes understanding of the role of California art and artists in the development of the visual arts nationally and internationally.