The Irvine Fine Art Center is one...

The Irvine Fine Art Center is one of three institutions commended by the American Assn. of Museums “for tackling difficult, controversial, but important subjects.” Singled out was the center’s 1990 exhibit on homelessness. The center entered but did not win the third annual AAM Curators’ Committee Exhibit Competition.

Artist Connie Hatch of Los Angeles, whose installation work “Sightlines” is included in the “Mapping Histories: Third Newport Biennial” exhibit at the Newport Harbor Art Museum (through Jan. 5), has been awarded a $20,000 visual artists fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts. Hatch was one of 105 artists selected from 5,158 applicants in the NEA’s most competitive grant category. Other grant winners whose work has appeared at the museum in recent years include video artist Dara Birnbaum of New York and Buzz Spector of Los Angeles, whose works, based on books, were shown in the New California Artists series last year. No artists from Orange County were among the winners.