OC Arts Awards Recognize 26 Years of Creativity and Community — Honorees and hosts of the 26th Orange County Arts Awards, which was held on September 29, 2026. From left, Casey Reitz, Eli Simon, Patrick Brien, Alicia Rojas, Janet Ray, Marleena Barber, Ann Phong, Anne Hogan, Walkie Ray and Boroka Nagy. Photo courtesy of ArtsOC/Kien Phong

September 30, 2026

The 26^th OC Arts Awards, celebrating outstanding local achievements in the arts, were held Tuesday night at Samueli Theater in Costa Mesa, in the heart of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

Arts Orange County, the county’s nonprofit arts council, produced and hosted the event, which was attended by current and former ArtsOC board members, sponsors, artists and supporters of the county arts scene.

The masters of ceremonies for the evening were Patrick Brien, president and CEO of Arts Orange County, and Anne Hogan, dean of the College of Performing Arts and Musco Center for the Arts at Chapman University.

“I was really pleased with how smoothly the event flowed,” Brien said afterwards. “We were able to keep a consistent energy throughout the presentations and performances. What made the night particularly special, I think, is the range of people and institutions we were able to honor.”

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The 2026 Helena Modjeska Cultural Legacy Awards went to Ann Phong for Visionary Artist, Eli Simon for Visionary Arts Leader and Janet and Walkie Ray for Visionary Arts Patrons. A special Modjeska Cultural Legacy Award went to Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

Phong, a Vietnamese American painter, has participated in over 200 solo and group exhibitions, spanning from local galleries and museums to venues throughout the United States, Seoul and Tokyo. In 2025, she received the Los Angeles Lakers’ “In the Paint” grant, which provides a $10,000 grant from the Lakers’ Youth Foundation to local artists of color, plus an exhibition in downtown L.A.’s Arts District. Phong includes found objects in her acrylic paintings, often commenting about the environment, immigration and the detritus of our existence.

“Thank you ArtsOC, thank you Professor (and ArtsOC board member) Thúy Võ Ðặng, and VAALA, the Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association,” Phong said while receiving her award. “I learned from them how to share and how to love, how to love everybody, not just your community, but all the communities – how to shake hands through art.”

Simon is a Chancellor’s Professor of Drama at UC Irvine. He is the founding artistic director and managing producer of the New Swan Shakespeare Festival, a professional summer theater that performs on the campus of UCI with support from the Claire Trevor School of the Arts and the Department of Drama. He is also the author of three books, and has directed more than 100 productions at Shakespeare festivals across the United States and abroad.

“I wish to thank the Orange County Arts Awards for this honor, and for helping diverse communities of artists and our celebration of their work here in Orange County. It’s so important,” Simon said. “Artists need a few people who believe in them, no questions asked.”

Janet and Walkie Ray have been a significant force behind a number of Orange County philanthropic initiatives. They were instrumental in the strategic planning, fundraising and construction of the Discovery Science Center, aka Discovery Cube Orange County, and recently chaired the capital campaign for the $17 million expansion of Sherman Library and Gardens. Individually, the Rays played integral roles in the development of Irvine’s Great Park. They have also been involved with Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Orange County School of the Arts and Arts Orange County.

“There’s so much talent here,” Janet Ray said. “I’ve always been very, very grateful for my journey working with Arts Orange County. I’m not particularly an artist, although I did run an arts school. I just feel really strongly about what they’re doing for the community, and connecting the community.”

Segerstrom Center, originally named the Orange County Performing Arts Center, celebrated two big anniversaries this year: the 40^th year of the 3,000-seat Segerstrom Hall, and the 20^th year for the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. Over the years, the campus has grown to include Samueli Theater, Argyros Plaza and the UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art.

Casey Reitz, president of Segerstrom Center, received the award on behalf of the center. He remarked that he learns something new all the time, including the fact that the OC Arts Awards took place on the exact same day as the opening night of Segerstrom Hall – Sept. 29, 1986.

“We had no idea that it was today,” Reitz said. “So congratulations to all of us.”

Three annual achievement awards were also given out Tuesday night:

Alicia Rojas, a Colombian interdisciplinary artist based in Santa Ana, won the Outstanding Artist Award. She is co-founder and director of the Santa Ana Community Artist(a) Coalition, and her project, “Las Poderosas,” will be archived by the Library of congress as part of the American Heroes of the Pandemic Collection.
Orange County Arts and Disability, which provides arts education and cultural opportunities by, with and for people with disabilities, won the Outstanding Arts Organization Award. Formerly known as Very Special Arts Orange County, the organization is celebrating its 50^th year producing the annual countywide arts and disability festival held at MainPlace Mall, in partnership with the O.C. Department of Education.
Boróka Nagy, an award-winning choreographer, dancer and multimedia artist, won the Emerging Arts Leader Award. She directs the Academy of Dance in Orange County and founded Reborn Arts, a nonprofit advancing community engagement and peace through dance and shared movement experiences.

Tuesday night’s program also featured performances by percussionists the Hernandez/Hudson Duo, dancer Grace Gontarek with an original composition by Dominic Keider, and high school singer Ava Madison Gray. The evening’s music director was Daniel Nathan Spector.

The event was preceded by a VIP reception with music by Eric Brenton, and followed by an after-party on the Samueli Theater patio, featuring John Noreyko’s Tupbop band.