Laguna Hotel Tax Would Back Arts

Check in and support the arts. Hotels in Laguna Beach have proposed a 2% self-imposed tax increase to their guests’ bills, effective July 1. The plan, which could generate approximately $700,000 each year, is to establish a Business Improvement District that would help promote tourism and the local arts, city officials said. Twenty-six of the city’s hotels and motels will contribute to the bed tax.

Organized through the Visitors Bureau, half of the proceeds from the voluntary assessment will be distributed to the city’s Arts Commission and other organizations, such as the Laguna Playhouse, the Art Institute of Southern California and the Laguna Art Museum, that meet specified funding criteria. To qualify, groups must be accredited, established at least five years in the city and have year-round programming. The other half of the proceeds will go to the Visitors Bureau.

Patricia House Named Muckenthaler Director

An executive director has been appointed to head the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton. Patricia House of Newport Beach joins the administrative staff, bringing with her a long list of experience in planning, fund-raising, development of donor programs, special events and educational outreach.

Past posts include serving as president of Pasadena’s Pacific Asia Museum; as director at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe, N.M.; and as director of development and then vice president of the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana.

A graduate of Pepperdine University, House received her master’s degree in psychology in 1969 and her bachelor’s degree in communications and history in 1963.

12 O.C. Students Picked as State Arts Scholars

Twelve students from Orange County schools will be honored Friday in recognition of the state-legislated California Arts Scholars Day.

The countywide nonprofit arts council, Arts Orange County, will host an awards ceremony at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Ana. Each recipient will be presented with a bronze medallion embossed with the state seal.

Half the recipients are from the Orange County High School of the Arts in Santa Ana: Jennifer Albrecht of Mission Viejo (dance), Heather Bridges of Fountain Valley (creative writing), Tamara Fleming of Mission Viejo (visual arts), Ursula Mallock of Santa Ana (music), Rihana Terrell of Tustin (theater), and Elizabeth Watkins of Los Alamitos (visual arts).

Two winners from Dana Hills High School are Deborah Goldsman of Mission Viejo (visual arts) and Tiffanie Pierini of San Juan Capistrano (visual arts).

Bolsa Grande High’s Vi Dieu Nguyen of Westminster (animation), Valencia High’s Taylor Buck of Placentia (dance), El Modena High’s Angelica Ochoa of Orange (visual arts), and University High’s Varlina Villaverde of Irvine (dance) were also honored.

The students will participate in the California State Summer School for the Arts, an intensive summer arts and entertainment program from July 14 to Aug. 11, at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia.

Donation Means Another Free Day at Bowers

Twice a month, visitors to Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana will soon be able to get in for free. The gratis days are the second and third Tuesdays.

A donation by volunteer Phil Goerl of Orange in memory of his wife, Dorothy, will allow the museum to keep its doors open without charge every third Tuesday, starting June 19.

. The additional day accompanies the museum’s current free admission policy held the second Tuesday each month through a gift of supporters Bic and Mary Ann Lockhart.

The free admission rules apply only to the permanent collection exhibits. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. For information, call (714) 567-3600.