Local News in Brief : Costa Mesa : Segerstrom Receives da Vinci Arts Award
Developer and philanthropist Henry T. Segerstrom on Friday received the 1988 Leonardo da Vinci Award from the California Confederation of the Arts at the Westin South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa.
The award, created in 1982, is the only statewide honor given to an individual “for exemplary contributions to the arts.”
Segerstrom donated the land and $6 million for the construction of the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, the largest private donation ever made to a performing arts center in the nation. As chairman of the Center board of trustees, he also directed a private effort that raised $73.5 million for the Center’s construction and more than $65 million for its ongoing endowment. In 1976, he also donated the land and $25,000 toward construction of South Coast Repertory’s theater in Costa Mesa.
He has commissioned works of art by such artists as Isamu Noguchi, Charles Perry, Jim Huntington, Jean Dubuffet and others.
Former recipients of the da Vinci Award have included former state Sen. Alan Sieroty; Neil E. Harlan, chairman of the McKesson Corp.; William F. Kieschnick, former president and chief executive officer of Arco; and arts patrons Lois M. De Domenico, Agnes Albert, Louise M. Davies and Anna Logan Upton, among others.
Segerstrom also received citations and awards from the state Legislature, the Orange County Board of Supervisors and the Costa Mesa City Council.
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