IN THE ARTS

Neil Patrick Harris to host Pageant gala

The Festival of Arts 10th annual Pageant of the Masters gala benefit Saturday has already sold out, with about 2,600 attending. The event includes private viewing of the Festival’s fine art exhibition, music, dancing, silent auction and a performance of the Pageant of the Masters, “All the World’s a Stage.”

Neil Patrick Harris, a Golden Globe- and Emmy-nominated actor, will host. Harris stars as Barney on the CBS comedy series “How I Met Your Mother.” No stranger to theater and film, he has a long list of credits, including starring in Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons” at the Geffen Playhouse and many Broadway productions.

Harris is well known for his teenage role as the title character in “Doogie Howser, M.D.”

Additional guest celebrities scheduled to attend and walk the “red carpet” include Adrianne Curry, Christopher Knight, Julie Bowen, football star Jim Everett, Kate Flannery, Joe Mantegna, Joseph Mascolo, comedian Mike McDonald, Charles Shaughnessy, Marcel Vigneron and many others.

The evening proceeds will benefit the Festival of Arts Building Fund, and is expected to net more than $200,000. In addition, a 2008 SLK 280 Mercedes-Benz, valued at more than $45,000, will be given away during an opportunity drawing at the event. Tickets for the car are $5 each or 5 for $20 and may be purchased at the Festival of Arts Gift Shop

‘Retinal’ curator to lead Museum tour

Curator Meg Linton will provide an in-depth tour of the current exhibition “In the Land of Retinal Delights: The Juxtapoz Factor,” at Laguna Art Museum at 11 a.m. Satuday. The museum has obtained Linton as guest curator of the exhibition of nearly 150 artists featured in Juxtapoz Magazine.

Linton is currently the director of Ben Maltz Gallery and public programs at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles.

Over the last 15 years, she has organized hundreds of solo and group exhibitions and published dozens of catalogs. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from UC Irvine and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Exhibition Design and a Certificate in Museum Studies from Cal State Fullerton.

This tour is free with Museum admission. For more information, call (949) 494.8971, ext. 207.

Stein to lead Arts Orange County

Richard Stein, formerly with the Laguna Playhouse, has joined Arts Orange County as its new executive director.

Stein succeeds founding executive director Bonnie Brittain Hall, who announced her resignation in May after leading the organization since its inception 15 years ago.

Arts Orange County is an independent nonprofit organization that serves as Orange County’s officially designated local arts agency.

Stein is the former executive director of the Laguna Playhouse, which he headed for 17 years.

“We are thrilled to have secured a leader of Rick’s caliber to build upon the successful tenure of our beloved founder, Bonnie Hall,” said Darrel Anderson, president of the board of Arts Orange County.

Stein has been chairman of the John Wayne Airport Arts Commission, president of the Orange County Chapter of the Assn. of Fund-Raising Professionals, president of the Alliance for the Arts of Laguna Beach, and served twice as co-chairman of Orange County’s National Philanthropy Day Celebration.

Stein has served on the executive committee of the League of Resident Theatres and as a speaker, grants panelist and consultant for arts organizations and funding agencies in the U.S. and abroad.

Entries sought for juried art show

The city of Laguna Beach is sponsoring a juried fine art exhibition at City Hall from Oct. 13 to Nov. 26, with a $1,000 first prize, $500 second place prize and $250 third-place prize.

The deadline to submit artwork is Sept. 12. All work must be two-dimensional and no more than 36”x36” framed.

Juror Perin Mahler is the new chairman of the Master of Fine Arts program at Laguna College of Art & Design. He has taught drawing and painting at Grand Valley State University, Kendall College of Art & Design, Art Academy of Cincinnati, and the University of Cincinnati. Mahler’s artwork has been in many exhibitions, invitational exhibitions and juried exhibitions. His work appears in the collections of the Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts, Cincinnati Art Museum, Grand Valley State University, Trinity College, and San Francisco Art Institute and several private collections.

The show is open to all Orange County artists 18 or older. The work must be original and executed within the past two years, and must not have been previously exhibited at city hall. Artists must pay a nonrefundable entry fee of $20 for a maximum of three entries.

An entry form may be obtained by calling the Cultural Arts Department at (949) 497-0722.