A Road Trip Into the Past

The Automotive Road of Dreams Museum, opening Saturday at the Orange County Market Place in Costa Mesa, will show how Orange County and the automobile grew up together.

The 14,000-square-foot building will house antique, classic, celebrity and novelty automobiles, including an open-wheel dragster on loan from baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson and a 1967 Rover Mark III four-door sedan once owned by actor Telly Salavas of the “Kojak” television series and star of the movie “The Dirty Dozen.” The inaugural car exhibit includes a 1926 Stutz, once owned by railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt.

The cars will be placed in Hollywood-like settings, including a farmhouse, citrus-packing facility, drive-in theater (complete with a loop of classic movies on a wide screen and concession stand), an evening at Lover’s Lane, a service station, a speedway, a used-car sales lot, and a spot for the cars of the rich and famous.

The exhibit, with photo and historical displays, highlights the ways the automobile touched people’s lives in Orange County from the turn of the 20th century to the 1980s.

The museum is founded by Bob Teller, who is the owner of the Market Place, and a car enthusiast.

Also debuting at the museum are relics such as a 1904 Cadillac Touring Car; a 1937 Cadillac V12 Roadster Convertible Custom Boattail; a limited-edition, 421-cubic-inch, 1961 Pontiac Bonneville engine; a 1976 “Bicentennial” El Dorado Cadillac Convertible; and a 1962 Chevrolet Nova, once voted a Top 10 Hot Rodin the nation by Hot Rod Magazine.

The Automotive Road of Dreams will be open to the public 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Information: (949) 723-6663.

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Bolsa Grande High School senior Vi Dieu Nguyen took first place in the “Artistic Discovery 2001” congressional high school art competition.

Nguyen, 17, took the top prize in the 46th congressional district, which primarily includes Garden Grove, Anaheim and Santa Ana, and is represented by Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove).

Nguyen will receive a scholarship of up to $2,000 and an expenses-paid trip in June to Washington, where he will meet Sanchez and tour the White House.

His watercolor, “Transcendentalist,” is a mythic illustration of a man rising and breaking free from chains, showing triumph over adversity.

Five other Garden Grove Unified School District students claimed honorable mentions in the competition: Michael Longeuay, Frank Lee, and Sarah Arroyo of Garden Grove High School; Amy Couch of Bolsa Grande High School; and Christopher Guiterrez of Santiago High School. These students also are to receive scholarships.

The winners will be recognized at an awards ceremony and reception from 5 to 7 p.m. May 31 at the Art Institute of Los Angeles-Orange County in Santa Ana.

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Karol Wight of the J. Paul Getty Museum will speak on “Glass Production Through the Ages” at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday. Wight, who is associate curator of antiquities, will discuss how glass has been made since the Bronze Age. The lecture is offered in conjunction with the Bowers’ exhibition, “Trilogy of Glasswork: Ancient Rome--Chiluly--Yang.”

Seating is limited and on a first-come, first-served basis. The lecture is free with admission and to members. The lecture only is $5. Information: (714) 567-3600 or https://www.bowers.org.

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Orange County’s creative movers and shakers were honored Thursday at the second annual Orange County Arts Awards dinner at the Four Seasons hotel in Newport Beach, organized by Arts Orange County.

More than 400 attended the evening of short performances and a ceremony in which annual achievement and lifetime achievement awards were presented.

Receiving Outstanding Arts Organizations honors were: STOP-GAP, a drama-therapy theater group based in Santa Ana; Ballet Pacifica; the Pacific Symphony; the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art; the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art; and the Newport Beach Film Festival.

Recipients of the Outstanding Individual Artist awards were sculptor Richard Turner of Orange and photographer Jerry Burchfield of Irvine. Carl St.Clair was honored for his work as music director of the Pacific Symphony.

Receiving the Outstanding Arts Patrons awards were Don and Joan Beall of Corona del Mar and Pacific Life Foundation of Newport Beach.

Outstanding Volunteers were Martin Hubbard of Corona del Mar, for his work with Opera Pacific, and Anne Shih of Huntington Harbor, who made more than a dozen visits to China to arrange the exhibit “The Secret World of the Forbidden City” at the Bowers Museum.

The Outstanding Volunteer Support Group awards went to Orange County High School of the Arts Foundation. Mission Viejo High School, the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District and Children’s Museum of La Habra shared top honors for the Outstanding Arts Education category.

The Helena Modjeska Cultural Legacy Awards for lifetime achievement went to Don Laffoon and Victoria Bryan, founders of the STOP-GAP theater company, as Artistic Visionaries; Chuck Jones, the internationally known animator as Individual Artist; and the Harry and Grace Steele Foundation and Mary M. Muth as Community Visionaries.