SparkOC Honored by OC Supervisor John Moorlach

Orange County 2nd District Supervisor John Moorlach, center, with Shelley Hoss, President of the Orange County Community Foundation and "moi"

Dozens of artists, arts educators and arts leaders gathered for a reception in the lobby of South Coast Repertory's Folino Theater Center for a chance to rub elbows with Orange County's 2nd District Supervisor John Moorlach, as he presented a proclamation to Arts Orange County & the Orange County Community Foundation for their successful launch of SparkOC.com. The gregarious Moorlach, exhibited a theatrical flair well-suited to the venue, and was introduced by SCR's co-founder, Producing Artistic Director David Emmes, whom he's known for many years. Supervisor Moorlach confessed that he leaves his district to visit Laguna Beach art galleries on First Thursday's Art Walks since he's a huge fan of plein air painting and his wife is an artist who paints.

This was the fifth and final launch event in each OC Supervisorial district, that began with 5th District Supervisor Pat Bates at Mission San Juan Capistrano; 3rd District Supervisor Bill Campbell at the Irvine Barclay Theatre; 4th District Supervisor Chris Norby at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton; and 1st District Supervisor Janet Nguyen at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana.

A huge thank you to all the "supes" for helping celebrate the importance of our arts community, to ArtsOC Board member Roger Faubel for inviting them to join us, to the host arts venue leaders Mechelle Lawrence-Adams, Doug Rankin, Zoot Velasco, Peter Keller and Paula Tomei, to Dave Cross who gently serenaded us with his expert guitar work, and to Barbara Caruso who was our publicist.