OUR MISSION
Culture OC’s mission is to engage with a diverse range of Orange County’s artistic and cultural communities at every level by publishing news and critical analysis to encourage interest, participation, fellowship and dialogue.
OUR VISION
Culture OC believes that arts and culture journalism is one of the cornerstones of a healthy arts community. Our vision is to provide the best possible arts and cultural journalism to Orange County, raise awareness of the area’s cultural richness and diversity, and strengthen the future of our field. In an era where mainstream news is abandoning this coverage, we seek to keep it alive.
OUR HONORS
Awards given to Culture OC writers in this year were for stories written when the Culture OC team was publishing on the Voice of OC website.
Awards given to Culture OC writers in this year were for stories written when the Culture OC team was publishing on the Voice of OC website.
Awards given to Culture OC writers in this year were for stories written when the Culture OC team was publishing on the Voice of OC website.
Awards given to Culture OC writers in this year were for stories written when the Culture OC team was publishing on the Voice of OC website.
Contributing writers Timothy Mangan and Laura Bleiberg are invited by the Library of Congress to include their articles in its Coronavirus Web Archive Collection. These stories were written for the our Decade Ahead series which also coincided with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, giving their insights a unique perspective on issues confronting arts companies in the next decade.
Awards given to Culture OC writers in this year were for stories written when the Culture OC team was publishing on the Voice of OC website.
OUR HISTORY
August 2025
Culture OC forges a community media partnership with the OC Theatre Guild. Via this partnership, Culture OC publishes stories written and edited by contributors selected and paid for by the Guild.
Fall 2024
Culture OC hosts its first Culture Club Presents experience. Through Culture Club Presents, donors are invited to join Culture OC writers at cultural events throughout the county. The first event was a private tour of the Hilbert Museum, hosted by founder Mark Hilbert and visual arts writer and Senior Editor Richard Chang.
Sept. 8, 2023
First stories written under the Culture OC masthead are published on cultureoc.org.
April 2023
The Arts & Culture team announces the transition to publishing stories on their own independent nonprofit news platform, Culture OC, under the fiscal sponsorship of OneOC. Former Register/Voice of OC dance writer Kaitlin Wright joins the leadership team as a associate managing editor.
Spring 2020
Contributing writers Timothy Mangan and Laura Bleiberg are invited by the Library of Congress to include their articles in its Coronavirus Web Archive Collection. These stories were written for the our Decade Ahead series which also coincided with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, giving their insights a unique perspective on issues confronting arts companies in the next decade.
January 2020
Former Register visual arts writer Richard Chang joins the leadership team as a senior editor. Chang was a contributing writer for Arts & Culture at Voice of OC when he was tapped to take on this editing role.
Anne Marie Panoringan joins the team as a columnist, writing bi-weekly about the burgeoning food scene in Orange County.
Sept. 10, 2019
The first Arts & Culture story at Voice of OC is posted. It wins a 2019 National Arts Journalism Award.
Hodgins and Janssen begin assembling a team of top working arts journalists in Orange County. Many of them formerly worked for The Orange County Register, Los Angeles Times and OC Weekly. Their expertise also helps us train the next generation of arts writers as they work with interns, some of whom have joined their ranks as contributing writers.
Summer 2018
With arts coverage diminishing in Orange County, Paul Hodgins and Heide Janssen, both former arts journalists at The Orange County Register, join forces to develop a news platform to showcase arts journalism in Orange County. In the process of seeking out advice from a variety of sources on the best way forward, they’re invited by the publisher of Voice of OC to join their nonprofit newsroom and post stories under their masthead.
Early 2018
Arts journalism has been on the decline, both locally and around the country. As of early 2018, the two major newspapers that cover Orange County (Los Angeles Times, The Orange County Register) have no full-time arts/culture staff. A third major paper that covered the arts closes in 2019 (OC Weekly).
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