BRIEFLY IN ART AND ENTERTAINMENT

Skimboard auction raises $38,000

Project Skimboard 3, the first-ever collaborative event between the Festival of Arts and Sawdust Art Festival, culminated in a successful auction Sunday.

The auction raised nearly $38,000 for the organizations’ art education funds, said Sharbie Higuchi, Festival of Arts marketing and public relations director.

Forty skimboards transformed into unique artworks by Sawdust Art Festival and Festival of Arts artists were auctioned at the event. The works were exhibited at the two art festivals over the summer and at [seven-degrees] during September.

More than 200 people attended the auction event, including Laguna Beach City Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman, noted arts philanthropist Mark Porterfield and Tex Haines, owner of Victoria Skimboards, which donated the blanks.

Kinsman walked away with one of the evening’s highlights, “The Line-Up,” by Michael Obermeyer.

Volunteer board members from both organizations were in attendance.

Mike Tauber, city arts commissioner, served as auctioneer.

Summer jazz series concludes Oct. 3

The Charlie Shoemake Quintet will play from 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 3 in the Jazz @ the Beach summer series, presented by Laguna Beach Live! in the outdoor Rose Garden of the Hotel Laguna, 425 S. Coast Hwy.

Joining Shoemake on vibraphones will be his wife, Sandi, on vocals; Bruce Forman on guitar; Luther Hughes on bass; and Bill Wysasky on drums. Doors open at 5 p.m.; there is a $10 cover charge, and a special menu of drinks, wines and food is available for purchase.

For more information, visit www.lagunabeachlive.org or call (949) 715-9713.

Artists seek soil sought from various countries

Gary Simpson has several countries remaining in order to complete his Common Ground 191 installation, in which he is collecting soil samples from the United Nations member countries from Sept. 11, 2001.

Nearly 200 large wall panels will be created to resemble tectonic plates, using soil or sand from each nation.

The countries from which soil samples are needed include Andorra, Bhutan, Comoros, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, Djbouti, Equatorial Guinea, Grenada, Guinea Bissau, Haiti, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Libya, Liechtenstein, Madagascar, Micronesia, Monaco, Nauru, Nepal, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, San Marino, Soloman Islands, Somalia, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, the United States, Vanuatu and Venezuela.

For information, visit www.commonground191.com.

World music to grace Artists’ Theatre

Darol Anger’s Republic of Strings world music quartet performs at 8 p.m. Oct. 13 at the Artists’ Theatre, 625 Park Ave.

The show is presented by Laguna Beach Live!, and will feature music from various locales including Scandinavia, New Orleans, Brazil and Celtic Europe.

Reserved seats are on sale now through the box office of the Laguna Playhouse at (949) 497-2787 or online at www.lagunabeachlive.org.

Adults admission is $25 and $20, and students 21 and under are $10.

To hear a clip of the Republic of Strings, search for lagunabeachlivemusic at www.myspace.com.

Hernandez to debut sculpture

Laguna Beach artist Nicholas Hernandez will unveil his new sculpture, “Mata” (Mother Earth), at Endangered Planet Gallery, 384 Forest Ave., No. 13, in conjunction with First Thursdays Art Walk at 7 p.m. Oct. 4.

Hernandez’s “Emergence” sculpture was the winner of the Lorenzo il Magnifico de Medici medal at the prestigious Florence Biennale in 2005.

For this year’s international competition at the Biennale, he plans to enter his new “Mata” sculpture, which will have its worldwide unveiling at the Endangered Planet Gallery.

Entertainment will be provided by classical guitarist Eric Henderson and Common Sense’s Nick Hernandez.

The performance begins at 7:15 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

The show runs from Oct. 4 to Nov. 29.

For more information, call (949) 494-5690 or visit www.endangeredplanet.org.